Contemporary Connections: My Year of Meats and Lack of Diversity in Television

In My Year of Meats, Jane and her colleagues are producing the show My American Wife. This show is supposed to promote the products of BEEF-EX and showcase All-American families with All-American values. The Tokyo Office sends a fax saying:

DESIRABLE THINGS:
1. Attractiveness, wholesomeness, warm personality
2. Delicious meat recipe (NOTE: Pork and other meats is second calss meats, so please remember this easy motto: "Pork is Possible, but Beef is Best!")
3. Attractive, docile husband
4. Attractive, obedient children
5. Attractive, wholesome lifestyle
6. Attractive, clean house
7. Attractive, friends and neighbors
8. Exciting hobbies

UNDESIRABLE THINGS:
1. Physical Imperfections
2. Obesity
3. Squalor
4. Second class peoples (12).

This is not a true representation of America. The majority of the families My America Wife uses are Caucasian families who look appealing to the eyes. While this is the majority of families they showcase, there are a small number of families that do have imperfection. They chose to use the Bukowsky family because the daughter was not born with her disabilities, but they were caused by an accident involving her and an automobile. They also decided to showcase a married lesbian couple, Lara and Dyann, but Jane did not believe that would go over well with her bosses. She says, "I mean, lamb was one thing, and lesbians were another, but vegetarian lesbians were something else entirely" (174). And of course, she almost gets fired.

This novel takes place in the early 90's where it was rare to see people of color or LGBTQ characters on a television show. In recent years, there has been an increase in diversity of characters, but it is still nowhere near the actual representation in America.


This chart is from a study done in 2013. I focused on the top seven articles when doing my research. America is a melting pot of different cultures, races, sexualities, and ethnicities. Most shows try to create a realistic representation of America, but they do not include diverse people. Granted, not every place in the United States is as culturally diverse as others, but people like to see themselves and their cultures represented in the media, and most are not.

Since 2013, there have been an even bigger increase in television shows that have diverse casting. How to Get Away With Murder and Orange is The New Black are just two of the most recent TV shows that have a variety in racial and sexuality identities.

Diversity in television is becoming more common and embraced as we continue to move on. While it still is not up to what is actually realistic, there have been great strides since the time when My American Wife would have aired in Japan.

How to Get Away With Murder

Orange is The New Black

http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/race-and-gender-diversity-on-television-vs-in-the-united-sta#.riddDneE8