AAPI viewers still feel like they’re being stereotyped in movies and TV shows.

AAPI viewers still feel like they’re being stereotyped in movies and TV shows. In a new study from Gold House and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, researchers analyzed AAPI characters in the ten highest-grossing films from 2010 to 2019, and found that they are portrayed  as “one or more of the most common Asian stereotypes,” including the “model minority,” the “forever foreigner,” and the “nerd,” and portrayed East Asian women as “exotic” or “dragon ladies.” For the characters that perpetuated the “model minority” stereotype, 60% were written as “smart” and 47% were written as “hard-working,” but fewer than a third displayed “leadership traits” or described as “cool,” and only seen as “meek, docile, and one-dimensional.” The data also discovered that many of the AAPI characters were depicted in stereotypical jobs like “working in tech” or being a “shop owner.” And when it was meant to be funny, they were “almost twice as likely” to be the character audiences were supposed to laugh at (43%) rather than laugh with (24%). “A vast majority” of respondents think AAPI representation in Hollywood is moving in the right direction, but “nowhere near fast enough.” ​YPulse’s Representation in Action trend report also found that 70% of 13-39-year-olds who identify as Asian/Other say TV movies/movies stereotype people who look like them. (HuffPost)