Without Intersectionality Ryan Murphy Only Gets Diversity "Half" Right

Post date: Apr 18, 2017 8:52:38 PM

Written by Andrew Gettings at Wednesday, April 5, 2017 8:01:30 PM

Last Edited:Thursday, April 6, 2017 12:15:00 AM

This past Sunday, FX aired the fifth episode of Ryan Murphy’s newest anthology series. Feud: Bette and Joan tells the story of the making of the 1962 classic film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford which fueled the on-screen drama. More importantly, Feud tells the story of how men behind the scenes in Hollywood inhibited the success of women in the industry and manipulated them into seeing each other as the enemy.

Feud has been Ryan Murphy’s third project since he announced his Half foundation last year. Half is more of a policy change than a foundation. Under Half, at least 50% of the productions created by Murphy’s production company will be directed by marginalized individuals. For Murphy this means hiring more women (read white women) and or other “minority candidates” a phrases which here combines people of color and members of the LGBT community. While the founding of Half has had a positive impact on the diversity of Murphy’s productions, the lack of intersectionality at its core holds the foundation back from achieving the full extent of the diversity it seeks to implement.

In American Horror Story: Roanoke, the first production under Half’s diversity guidelines, there was a clear increase in diversity. The 6th season of the anthology series featured a core ensemble cast of two white women (Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe), two black women (Adina Porter and Angela Bassett), and two black men (Cuba Gooding Jr. and Andre Holland). Roanoke portrayed the anxieties of an interracial couple living in a southern (albeit haunted) farmhouse. Although the show has a largely black cast, the only black director brought in under Half was American Horror Story star Angela Bassett, who Ryan convinced to try her hand at directing. The rest of the minority directing slots went to white women (5/10 episodes) and Asian-American men (2/10 episodes). American Horror Story: Roanoke is a good example of how diversity can be presented in misleading ways. Although the show can boast that eight out of ten episodes were directed by minority candidates, only one of those directors was African American. A more tactical policy on diversity in media might look to make connections between whose stories are being told and who is directing those stories. While black masculinity is a big theme in Roanoke, the only black men involved on the production were in front of the camera. Intersectionality recognizes the separate yet intricately connected oppressions marginalized people face. A policy created with intersectionality in mind would help to make sure directors who experience many layers of oppression are also included rather than a majority of white women and Asian-American men. A more intersectional policy would also recognize that just because a directors are marginalized in one way or another does not mean that they can relate to and accurately portray other marginalized groups.

The next project to be produced under Half guidelines was the second season of the Fox horror-comedy Scream Queens. The show’s campy sophomore season was a short ten episodes in length, six of which were directed by white women and four of which were directed by white men. A lack of intersectionality resulted in the positions set aside for minority candidates being filled only by white women, people who only experience one layer of oppression. One possible solution for this problem, outlined by bell hooks, is for white women to accept and acknowlege the need for two (maybe more) categories of marginalized people.

Though only five of eight total episodes have aired, so far the directors of Feud have also been all white. Murphy himself directed the first two episodes and the most recent three have been directed by white women. On top of that, the show itself, albeit set in the Hollywood of 1962, has a completely white cast. The show is about white women struggling to enter the film industry but it doesn’t recognize the struggle that women of color in Hollywood still face. The resulting tone deafness is frustrating for viewers like myself who can see the show failing to highlight connections between the fight for representation for white women in the past and the ongoing fight for representation for people of color.

All of this being said, I am still a huge fan of Ryan Murphy’s work and I believe that he has been on the forefront of bringing diversity to television for his whole career. With shows like Glee and The People vs. OJ, he has continually brought issues of race, gender, and sexuality and the voices of marginalized actors into American homes. The Half foundation has an excellent goal but poor execution because of its lack of intersectionality. Affirmative action and diversity are very complicated concepts, but with more attention paid to intersectionality and more tactful hiring of candidates I think that television can become more diverse both in front of and behind the camera.