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White Male Lead: Difference between revisions
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No matter how diverse a show's cast or how positive its portrayal of minorities, the lead character will almost always be a conventionally attractive, Christian or Agnostic (if his religion is stated at all), heterosexual, cisgender, Caucasian male. Common wisdom in the Western entertainment industry is that a show or film needs a lead character with whom the largest possible swatch of audiences can identify with so this is usually an [[Enforced Trope]]. The '''White Male Lead''' is often [[The Hero]].
There are, of course, shows and films with female and/or minority leads, but those works are almost always targeted towards those specific demographics. If a producer wants to appeal across all demographics, chances are they'll go with a white male lead (with the occasional [[Will Smith]] and [[Jackie Chan]] exception). This is because whites are the majority in the West, and studios believe they are [[Viewers are Morons|unable to relate to minority characters]]. Advertising for a show or film will often show the white male in the front and centre with all other characters in the background. It is the advertiser's way of saying, "Yes, this show is perfectly accessible to the majority of Americans."
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The WML is closely related to [[Mighty Whitey]]. The difference is that while the Mighty Whitey is a white person who enters a non-white culture and masters every aspect of it, the WML can refer to any white male character who is the focus of the story. Many stories, both real and fictional, are often subjected to [[Race Lift]]s in TV or movie adaptations so that there will be a white guy in the lead role. Another common tactic is for the adaptation to focus on a white male who was a minor character in the original story.
To clarify, a WML does not necessarily have to be in a diverse cast to fit this trope. However, shows with diverse casts will often make his presence more noticeable.
An [[Averted Trope|aversion]] of this trope would be a show with a lead that is not a white male but is appealing across all demographics, including white males. ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' is a famous example.
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== Film ==
* Most films in which the lead can fit the description of [[Mighty Whitey]]. ''[[Dances with Wolves]]'', ''[[The Last Samurai]]'', ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' etc. Similarly, many [[White Man's Burden]] films will fall into this trope.
* Averted in many martial arts films, especially those starring [[Bruce Lee]], [[Jackie Chan]], and [[Jet Li]]. The martial arts genre is perhaps the only genre in which a large number of films with Asian leads found success in the United States.
** ''[[The Forbidden Kingdom]]'' takes place in ancient China, but its lead is a white male from the present day. [[wikipedia:The Forbidden Kingdom#Critical reception|One reviewer]] said "As a Hollywood blockbuster, ''The Forbidden Kingdom'' offers no apologies for its American-centrism. In fact, it wears it with pride like a badge of honor." It was star [[Jackie Chan]]'s own idea that the protagonist be a white kid, precisely to attract interest in the West for what was basically a [[Wire Fu]] movie. This example is unusual in that the White Male Lead is not featured prominently in any of the advertising. The purpose of a White Male Lead in a movie with a minority-heavy cast is usually to attract white audiences, but as mentioned above, [[Jackie Chan]] and [[Jet Li]] movies usually do not have this problem.
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* ''Hachi'' is about [[Hachiko]], a famous Japanese dog and his Japanese professor, starring Richard Gere.
* Averted when [[Neil Gaiman]] was approached by film studios wanting to adapt ''[[Anansi Boys]]''; he refused because they wanted to [[Race Lift|cast white actors]] in place of the all-black leads.
* Averted and parodied in the first ''[[Harold
* Christian Bale will play a funeral director in ''[http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/12/22/christian-bale-nanjing-heroes/ Nanjing Heroes]'' (Now called ''Flowers of War''), a story about the Nanjing Massacre during [[World War II]]. This example is unusual in that the movie is made by a Chinese studio.
* The 2011 film ''[[Tower Heist]]'' was supposed to have a mostly black and Latino cast with [[Eddie Murphy]] in the lead. The lead role instead went to [[Ben Stiller]]. If nothing else, Stiller ''is'' [[You Have to Have Jews|Jewish]].
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** Subverted in season 2, where [[Camp Gay|Kurt]] takes center stage for a good chunk of the season, which danced onto a [[Author Avatar|different trope]].
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'': The show has a very diverse cast and many of the minority characters have their own storylines. However, its minority and female characters are often [[Killed Off for Real]] or [[Put on a Bus]]. Also, the spotlight is almost always on the Bennet and Petrelli families.
* ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'' Zack, Screech, and Mr. Belding are all white males. Zack is the protagonist during the most popular 1989-1993 run. Screech and Mr. Belding were in all the incarnations.
* ''[[Community]]'' probably qualifies as a subversion of this. When it was first being advertised, it came off to some as yet another show about a white guy and his new quirky minority friends, but the show's [[Troperiffic]] nature quickly put an end to that. While Jeff isn't the main character in all the stories, he often is. He is certainly the one the group expects to come up with solutions to most of their problems, even if they know he's often self-centred and egotistical. While the 'mother figure' in the group alternates between Britta and Shirley, the "father figure" is firmly in Jeff's ballcourt.
* All the Doctors on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' so far have been white males, even though there is no technical rule saying The Doctor has to be. There's been debate among fans—and indeed, [[The BBC]], whose considered black actors for the role—of getting a female or alternate race in, but this quickly degrades into accusations of [[Ruined FOREVER]].
** Although the Doctor's arch-nemesis The Master is now The Mistress, and the franchise hasn't been destroyed by outraged fans - so there's still hope for other changes.
* ''[[Castle]]''
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* As diverse as ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' tried to be in the [[The Sixties|racially charged 60s]], they still had to have a white man as the Captain; the [[Executive Meddling|meddling executives]] wouldn't even stand for a female [[Number Two]].
** Of the four sequel ''[[Star Trek|Treks]]'', two of them had white male [[The Hero|captains]] ''and'' [[The Lancer|first officers]]. ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|DS9]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' did considerably better, with only one white male character apiece,<ref>Miles O'Brien and Tom Paris, respectively. However, the numbers go up if you count non-human characters played by white male actors.</ref> neither of whom was given preferential treatment.
* Inverted on ''[[Benson]]'' the main character is black while the rest of the characters are white.
* When The [[Syfy]] decided to adapt [[Earthsea Trilogy]] into a [[Miniseries]], they decided to make the main character white. This [[Creator Backlash|did not sit well]] with the [[Ursula K. Le Guin|original author]].
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== Video Games ==
* Subverted in the early ''[[Metroid]]'' games. For the first two games, Samus wears armor that completely covers her body and is described as male in the manual. At the end, it is revealed that [[Samus Is a Girl]].
* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'''s party members feature a [[Funny Animal|Frog]], a Robot, a Cave Woman, a Princess, {{spoiler|one [[Camp Straight|terribly flamboyant]] Mage}} a (female) inventor. The spiky-haired, boyish, dude with the [[Heroes Prefer Swords|sword]] is [[The Hero]] and [[Required Party Member]] through out {{spoiler|most of}} the game.
== Web Original ==
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Futurama]]'''s main cast includes a robot, a mutant woman, a Jamaican, a [[Space Jews]] lobster-thing and a Chinese-Martian woman, but the main character, Fry, is still a white male (admittedly, one odd in [[Human Popsicle|being from modern times]]).
* Played straight in ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', where Robin is the leader, main character, and the only white male on the team (unless one counts Beast Boy, who is ethnically Caucasian but physically ''green''). Notably averted in ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'', which also focuses on DC's young superheroes- while the show doesn't have a single central character, the closest is team leader Aqualad, who is black and is the only character to have a speaking role in all the episodes aired so far.
* On ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'', while the main character is black he is voiced by a white man, Mike Henry.
* [[Subverted]] on ''[[Gargoyles]]''—the main character is a gargoyle played by [[Keith David]], and becomes [[Ambiguously Brown]] when transformed into a human in one episode. The main human character is a [[Twofer Token Minority|half-black, half-Native American woman]].
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[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]
[[Category:Race Tropes]]
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