Marketing student or not, there’s one thing that’s been hammered into our brains: always listen to what the customer wants.
But when following this “rule" it can be very easy to fail. Execution does not always live up to conception, and I think it’s quite common to see brands listen to their customers, yet fail at delivering their customers' wants.
Let’s think about the entertainment industry as an example. More and more viewers are demanding Western media to represent diversity and cast diverse actors. In response, we have had movies and shows listen to these customer trends. For example, Euphoria features a transgender character, and Crazy Rich Asians portrays a full Asian cast. Despite this, there are some instances where Western media fails at executing diverse representation, sometimes depicting it in a way that only “checks a box” and feels forceful. In doing so, they don’t actually infuse meaning to their representations. This is what happens when you listen to your customer without truly understanding what they want. .
In this article, I’m going to explore this idea through Western media's representation of South-Asians. Specifically, I think there are moments where certain TV shows try too hard to represent a minority group, depicting diversity in a way that feels inauthentic. This article will thus compare and investigate the disparity between South Asian representation in the Netflix shows, Never Have I Ever and Bridgerton.
Never Have I Ever
This coming-of-age, comedy Netflix show was released in the midst of our first lockdown in 2020. It’s about Devi Vishwakumar, an Indian-American Tamil high school girl, who recently lost her father. The show centres on her life as she explores school, family, friendships and relationships. Many praised the show for actually casting South Asian protagonists (which is not done very often in Hollywood). But the show also came with a slew of criticisms like its insensitive and racist trivialisation of indentured servants. Among many other problems, there's also the fact that Devi’s cultural shame remains unresolved even as her character transforms, the fact that her story is narrated by a white man and finally the lack of Tamil dialogue within the story, all of which hint at the show's inauthentic South-Asian representation.
However, my criticism is a little different to the ones you might predominantly see online. And I think people don’t talk about these criticisms enough because of how little there is of South-Asian representation on television. It’s come to the point where casting a South-Asian protagonist is so new and refreshing that people seem to excuse or remain blind to the ways in which minorities are represented.
Anyway, let’s get back to the point….
My problem with this show, besides the infuriating main character and the ridiculous dialogue, is how the writers blatantly throw Devi’s Indian culture in our faces. Along with that, some of their depictions of Indian culture is just plain unrealistic. For example, there’s a scene where Devi swears at her mother. Now as someone who grew up in a South-Asian household, I cannot emphasize enough how much of a crime it is to swear at your parents. But Devi’s mother? She simply refuses to make snacks for Devi and her friends when her friends come over to study. And Devi brushes this off as if it’s a mere inconvenience. I promise you that a more realistic punishment would have caused way more damage and probably a waterfall of tears.
But even if we ignore this setback, it still feels as if the writers are trying to check a box when portraying Indian culture to viewers. In one episode, Devi gets dressed in traditional Indian attire and we see this makeover montage where she’s adorned with traditional Indian jewellery and hairpieces.
Fast-forward a few minutes: Devi is now all accessorised and dressed in her sari. She’s waiting in line at a store and a little girl behind her in the queue asks if she could take a picture with Devi, which Devi politely refuses to do. But then we have an entire, prolonged sequence of all the other customers in the queue pressuring Devi to take a photo in her cultural wear with this little girl. Personally, I feel as if the writers are over-doing the scene, almost exaggerating and dramatising how people would react in real life to such a situation. It feels as if the writers are saying, “Look! We’re portraying the struggles of Indian-Americans to our viewers so they can relate to it!” I don’t mean to be so harsh, and I think the show is trying to share a great message, but portraying this scene in such an exaggerated way makes it appear as if the writers are trying too hard to be progressive about diverse representations.
And this is not the only example - there are several similarly exaggerated moments, particularly when Devi’s mother scolds her for something or other. These moments are probably exaggerated for comic effect (though the comedic lines are a total miss for me), and so instead of being funny and relevant for viewers, these scenes feel like a forced depiction of South-Asians.
This, coupled with the unrealistic representation I described earlier, creates a discord that just emphasises the fact that the writers are not depicting Indian culture accurately or authentically. Overall, it seems to me like they’re trying to tick a box without truly understanding what viewers appreciate when it comes to South-Asian representation.
Bridgerton
Compare all of this with Bridgerton. I’m sure many of you have heard of the show but for those who aren’t clear on what it is, Bridgerton is a historical-fiction romance, set in the Regency era. It fixates on the Bridgerton family, where each Bridgerton sibling have their own romance story that unravels along each season.
In the second season we are introduced to an Indian protagonist, Kate Sharma and her sister - a side character - Edwina Sharma. The core difference between Never Have I Ever and Bridgerton, is that the South-Asian representation is not exaggerated or thrown in our faces. Instead it is seamlessly integrated into the story. It truly doesn’t feel like the writers are trying to show off how diverse they’re being. Here are a couple of moments that explain this in detail...
Jewellery
The Sharma sisters are frequently adorned with traditional Indian jewellery. And, yes, Never Have I Ever does the same thing but I wanted to point out how I thought Bridgerton portrayed Indian jewellery in a way that was quite impactful. In Never Have I Ever, we see Devi's "makeover" montage showered with close-ups of her Indian jewellery. On the other hand, in Bridgerton, Indian jewellery is rarely shown through close-ups, thus it’s not really brought to the forefront. One of the moments where we do see a close-up of Indian jewellery is when the camera zooms in on Kate’s jade-encrusted bangle. However this makes sense because the close up serves part of the storyline and it signifies a moment of conflict in the show and inner turmoil for the character. Since we are rarely directed to focus on the jewellery, we tend to only gradually notice what the character is wearing as the story unfolds. As a result, this portrayal of Indian culture feels more natural, which contributes to Bridgerton's more authentic representation of South-Asia.
Moreover, by decorating the actresses with Indian jewellery without fixating on these pieces, the jewellery become props rather than significant objects. This engenders a sense of normalcy for characters to dress this way and so the jewellery is not viewed as out of the ordinary. This differs from Never Have I Ever because Indian clothing and jewellery is shown to be something Devi doesn't usually wear. So when she's shown wearing jewellery through close-ups, they become objects of significance, especially since most of the plot in this episode revolves around the "Indian-ness" of what Devi is wearing. Thus it feels like this aspect of Indian culture is thrown in our faces, almost flaunted or shown as different, which detracts from an authentic representation. I should clarify that I don't find close-ups or fixation on cultural items reproachable, but rather that it depends on the context and the way in which these camera angles and shots portray such cultural items. Thus it feels like more of an authentic representation of South Asia when characters wear Indian jewellery without bringing it to the forefront and when the jewellery is subtly integrated with the plot, story and/or character development.
Haldi
Another commendable scene in Bridgerton is the “Haldi” scene. Haldi refers to an Indian pre-wedding ritual, which the Sharma family engage in in anticipation of Edwina’s wedding. We see a montage of this ritual where Kate, Edwina and their mother prepare a turmeric-based paste which they smear on the bride-to-be for good luck and glowing skin (among many other reasons). What I appreciated about this scene is how the ritual wasn’t completely brought to the forefront (once again). It was briefly mentioned, but for the majority of the scene, the girls talk about the groom, the wedding itself and their feelings of excitement for the special day. It’s this conversation, as well as the growing tension and conflict stirring within the heroine, Kate, that eclipses the ritual itself. Meanwhile the Haldi tradition simply occurs in the background. It feels as if it’s something that is normal and every day. Again, South Asian representation is shown very subtly and is not forced or pushed to the audience.
The Haldi scene is an unusually small moment compared to the way Indian weddings are usually represented in Western media, when they are shown at all. It is just the three women, carrying out a ritual in a foreign land where the sum total of their cultural rooting is each other.
Even from this quote it’s evident that most Western media portray Indian culture extravagantly, perhaps with exaggeration. But contrary to popular belief, it’s the smaller moments that are so much more impactful and significant to South Asian audiences. And this is what makes Bridgerton appear more authentic and relatable in its representation.
A food blogger on TikTok (@shreyacooksss) captures perfectly how I feel about Bridgerton. She explains that Edwina and Kate Sharma are not tokenised as the Indian characters of the show because they received plots outside of their ‘otherness.’ In other words, Kate and Edwina’s personalities don’t revolve around their "Indian-ness." Instead there is an entire, separate plot that unfolds, keeping their otherness in the background. This is the complete antithesis to Never Have I Ever, where Devi is tokenised as the main Indian girl. The plot centres on Devi’s otherness, how different she is and how she struggles to fit in as she navigates American life and high school. As a result, Devi’s character revolves around her Indian culture. I truly think that stories become more significant when themes of ‘otherness’ run in the background and are interweaved with the storyline to create a fresh but relatable and authentic take on Indian culture.
Overall, the point of concern for me, and many other critics, is the degree of authenticity in which the shows portray South-Asian culture. And this is so important because it’s an example of how we listen to customer wants and needs but don’t always successfully fulfil these needs. In the case of Never Have I Ever, I think they tried too hard to give viewers what they wanted, resulting in an inauthentic portrayal of South-Asian culture and lots of negative criticism about how they approached certain topics. More than that, if we compare Never Have I Ever and Bridgerton, Bridgerton thrives majorly in terms of viewership, acclaim and overall response across social media (as heaps of users across several social media platforms gushed over clips from Bridgerton). This may have also had to do with the storylines, but I definitely believe that the ways in which each show approached South-Asian representation played somewhat of a role as well.
I suppose the moral of the story is yes, listen to your customers and understand them well. Pay close attention to what people really want. And when it comes to South Asian representation...well, less is more.
Written by Chamudi Wijetunga
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