“The diversity we see in front of the camera should be reflected in the diversity of the creative team behind the camera,” actress Aisha Dee wrote in a long post.
One of the stars of The bold type is calling the show for its lack of behind-the-scenes diversity.
Aisha Dee, who plays Kat Edison in the drama in free form, took to Instagram to share her thoughts. “I am ready to try harder and speak louder for what matters to me: the diversity we see in front of the camera must be reflected in the diversity of the creative team behind the camera,” she wrote in a long post.
Throughout the show’s four seasons, Dee writes, he had conversations on topics like workplace politics, white privilege, women’s health, and gun ownership, and he always tried to raise his concerns constructively, aware of the realities of being the only woman of color in the room. “I never wanted to appear ungrateful, negative or difficult,” she added.
Over the course of the show’s 48 episodes, Dee reveals that only one black woman was hired as a director, for two episodes, and that it took three seasons to find someone in the hair department who knew how to work with textured hair. She also claimed that it took her two seasons to get a BIPOC writer on the show and that they told a story about a queer black woman and a lesbian Muslim woman who falls in love without having a strange black or Muslim writer in the room.
A representative of The bold type He says the show has had queer women of color on staff, and that it took two seasons to have a bisexual woman of color. They add that in the second season, the writers’ room had a lesbian woman of color and, in the third season, a bisexual woman of color. In the fourth season, the writers room consisted of five POC writers and three people who identified themselves as LGBTQ +, with 8 of the 10 female writers.
In the second season, Kat is promoted to be the first black female head of a department in the show’s fictional publication, Scarlet. “We have never had a black department head on the set of The bold type“He noted, adding that he was inspired to learn that Universal TV President Pearlena Igbokwe (who produces the show) and Freeform President Tara Duncan are black women.
“The level of attention, nuance and development that has been devoted to stories that focus on hetero white characters is incompatible with stories that focus on strange characters and POC,” he explained. “I don’t think this is intentional. We cannot bring specificity and honesty to experiences that we have not had.” How marginalized characters are treated when there is a lack of representation is even more important, he says, because then they have the potential to perpetuate harmful stereotypes that have a real and lasting impact on people.
Dee specifically cited the decision to have her character strike up a relationship with a privileged conservative woman, who she said felt “confused and out of place.” But he put aside his personal feelings about it and did his best to tell the story honestly, even though it was “heartbreaking to see Kat’s story become a story of redemption for someone else, someone who is complicit in oppression. of much”.
The actress makes it clear that issues like these are not exclusive to The bold type but they are rampant in Hollywood. “The entertainment industry has operated in this way since its inception,” he writes. Her first time on a television show when she was 14, her stand-in was “dark-faced with a curly hair wig,” she wrote. Makeup artists often would not have the correct foundation shade for their skin tone and would blame her for the discomfort, she adds. Agents and cast managers would encourage her to stay out of the sun so that it doesn’t get too dark and therefore less “marketable.”
Dee ended by saying that she has had conversations with the show’s writers and producers, along with executives from Freeform and Universal TV, about telling more authentic stories by hiring, promoting and listening to various voices. “By talking, I take a risk. It’s scary, but it’s bad,” she wrote. “This is not judgment. It is a call to action.”
Freeform and Universal TV responded to Dee’s comments with this statement: “We applaud Aisha for raising her hand and starting conversations on these important issues. We look forward to continuing that dialogue and bringing about positive change. Our goal in The bold type it is and has always been telling entertaining and authentic stories that are representative of the world in which Kat, Jane and Sutton live; we can only do it if we listen. “
