My mom loves to watch Hallmark holiday movies. Every year, Hallmark channel plays classic holiday movies along with their own new and old made-for-TV movies. The movies are clean and safe--no violence, cursing, or sex. They are mostly family-centered and cheerful movies with happy endings. Personally, I find them to be too formulaic, but I like the ritual of watching them with my mom every year.
As another holiday season begins, I eagerly watched the promos for this year’s movies, hoping that I would see something that I have been waiting for.
The first thing I looked for was diversity. When I first began to notice how whitewashed the movies are, I told myself I was being too sensitive because that’s what I’ve been conditioned to think. But I am not colorblind. I see race. People of color are usually periphery characters like the sassy friend or the fun co-worker. I’m not sure there has ever been a black male lead character, and if there is a black female character of significance, she usually has very light skin.
In 2015, when diversity is no longer just a suggestion, the lack of minority characters in Hallmark holiday movies is a problem for 3 reasons.
- People of color exist in the Hallmark movie world, but only in the periphery. Never the center and easily replaceable, minority characters are often unimportant. For a channel that calls itself “the heart of TV,” the lack of minorities makes the statement that, at its core, Hallmark has no interest in the modern diversity movement.
- These movies end up being perfect holiday fantasies, which are unavailable to people of color. No matter what happened in the beginning and despite the inevitable misunderstanding in the middle, the movies always end perfectly. Little children get their wishes, businesses are saved, families are together, and unlikely people find love. But it seems that these holiday miracles are only available to white characters, and as Monica Roberts pointed out in her blog*, “Black people fall in love too.”
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| Look in the back! One of the Good Witch movies |
3. Our stories are not worth being told. From October to February, Hallmark will show a new movie every week, and most of them will not have significant minority characters. There is no reason that this is the case. In 2015, this is a choice. Have minorities become an easy casualty of Hallmark’s pledge to be a safe, wholesome channel?
I appreciate that Hallmark movies don’t bombard viewers with illicit relationships, gruesome murders, and dysfunction, and I applaud their commitment to clean entertainment. But clean shouldn’t also mean white. My Christmas wish is for Hallmark to believe in the importance of positive minority representation as much as they believe in Christmas magic.
Well said! It's no wonder this country has the 'race' issues still. I used to like their movies, but have grown tired of their complete lack of diversity in their characters. I wonder if they will ever 'get it'!
ReplyDeleteA week ago, I asked a good friend, who's gay, on Hallmark's lack of both gender and racial diversity. His response "they're being safe". I suppose having non white, GLBTQAI characters are unsafe for general viewing. Freeform (ABC's sister company) has more of everything Hallmark lacks, and it's a shame that in 2016 we have to be reminded on what it's like to be living in the 60s. If you think this is bad, try streaming one of Australia free-to-air channels, they are, as you've said, white-washed.
ReplyDeleteI for one am eagerly awaiting Hallmark movies that feature a nice variety of leading characters that are NOT white! Would love to see possible even some "color blind" casting - that is, folks who fall in love that are different races, religions, same-gender, and even trans-gender. It would be so great to see diverse characters fall in love with cheesy, predictable happy endings during the holidays! C'mon Hallmark!!
ReplyDeleteI would welcome diversity in your wholesome movies. I saw that Tim Reid was in a recent movie and although he was a central character I still felt that white actors payed dominat roles with a majority of the dialogue.
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ReplyDeleteI always thought that anything Hallmark made was for yuppies but it wasn't until the past few years that I really noticed how almost every one of their movies, especially the Christmas movies, predominantly featured white people. They're not just average white people, they're uppity, rich, upper-middle to lower-upper class, jaded, white yuppies.. that includes even the "country" white folks, too. I'm white and I don't necessarily care about race unless it is made a "thing" but Hallmark has certainly made it a "thing" and that disappoints me. Maybe they need Tyler Perry to hook them up with some variety!
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ReplyDeleteI have always gone with the assumption that they don't want to offend their viewer base, most of whom see Hallmark as being all-American and have a specific view of what "all-American" looks like for them. Not to say that these viewers are racist, but they probably live in a world that does not reflect diversity . . .
ReplyDeleteWhy is it always about race? Don't like the channel ? Then change it if ratings go down then hallmark will change. But for now it is working for them ratings keep going up during the holidays.
ReplyDeleteamen busta amen
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