Entertainment Personality Group Activity
The purpose of this activity is to bring awareness to the underrepresentation of meaningful roles for women, people of color, LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender), and other groups in entertainment media. Furthermore, in the reflection section this activity will prompt participants to consider how this underrepresentation relates to prejudice and social privileges.
Objective
For this activity, students explore the underrepresentation of meaningful roles for women, people of color, and LGBTs in entertainment media.
Estimated Time
20-30 minutes
Group Size
This activity works well with groups of all sizes. For larger groups (20 or more people), have the students break into smaller groups to discuss the reflection questions before the entire group does so.
Instructions
Using the chart provided, students should name people in entertainment media (e.g., movies, television, sports, advertisements) who fall into each of these categories. You might note that countries such as India are considered part of Asia. If students cannot think of the person's name, they can describe the person's role or appearance. Tell the students that if they cannot name a personality for a given category, they should leave that space blank.
After completing the worksheet, participants are to individually answer the discussion questions. When everyone has recorded her/his reflections, the group should meet as a whole to share its responses. Do not share the Sample Completed Worksheet with participants until that point. Once you provide the completed worksheet, ask students to comment on the cells that contain the highest number of readily recognized people. If there is time, use a search engine to find out more about the people with whom the students are unfamiliar. Ask students to comment about the reasons why some people are better known than others.
