While in my feminist blogging class, one of my classmates introduced an article that had my jaw on the floor. On September 29th, a strike was organized by the group Latinas Acting Up. This strike was held in Burbank, California, outside of the Warner Brothers studios. These strong female actors are raising awareness of the inequality they have faced for years in their workplace.
As a college student who sometimes idolizes people I see on social media and TV, I was shocked to find out that Latinas in the entertainment industry make 52 cents to every dollar a white man makes. As heartbreaking as this is, it proved to me that even in the year 2023, minority women are still not seen as equal. As I was learning about the wage gap between a minority woman and a white male, a sense of anxiety and fear set in. Being a minority woman, I worry that, like the Latina actors facing injustice, I will suffer that same fate when I enter my perspective workforce. I sometimes wonder if I should get used to that feeling of fear and anxiety because, for years now, there has been protests and advocacy for minority women, but we are still faced with the same issues time and time again.
Although not all these actors and entertainers are A-list celebrities, they have all worked hard and have impacted the projects they have worked on in incredible ways. As a minority woman in the United States, I have always wanted to see more people who look like me on the big screen. Growing up, the majority of the shows and movies I was exposed to contained predominantly white cast members, with an occasional diverse character.
As a diverse country, we, as the audience, want to see actors on the screen that look like us. In recent years, we have seen that more often, but these actors are the side characters or background characters fighting for equal pay. These actors love their jobs and do not want to be held back from fulfilling their dreams, but they feel they must exorcize their rights. In an interview done by the Los Angeles Times, one of the protesters and actors, Maria, said “None of us wants to strike, we really want to work… Especially for the Latino community right now, we have so many projects coming out and it’s breaking everyone’s heart to not be able to do press. But it was a magnificent gathering.”
This Issue is affecting the livelihood of these artists and their communities. Minority women everywhere look up to these actors, and all we can think about is how this can happen to characters we relate to and see a bit of ourselves in. Our representation should be made a priority in this case. Many questions need to be answered by production companies while also addressing TV and film executives. If something does not change, many minority women will be forced to set their dreams aside. This can cause women who look up to these successful actors to question their worth. We have taken a step backward as a nation and a community. Progress and justice must be made for women who make 52 cents for every dollar.
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