# In Search of Visibility: Racial and Gender Inequalities on Stage

*En quête de visibilité: inégalités de race et de genre sur les planches*

*En busca de visibilidad: desigualdades de raza y género en las tablas*

*Auf der Suche nach Sichtbarkeit: Ungleichheiten aufgrund von Rasse und Geschlecht auf der Bühne*

Laurie Hanquinet et Carla Mascia

Traducteur : Lucy Garnier

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OpenEdition
Journals

**Édition électronique**

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/bssg/7709

DOI : 10.4000/14by1

ISSN : 2490-9424

**Cet article est une traduction de :**

En quête de visibilité : inégalités de race et de genre sur les planches - URL : https://journals.openedition.org/bssg/7582 [fr]

**Éditeur**

Presses universitaires de Paris Nanterre

**Référence électronique**

Laurie Hanquinet et Carla Mascia, « In Search of Visibility: Racial and Gender Inequalities on Stage », *Biens Symboliques / Symbolic Goods* [En ligne], 16 | 2025, mis en ligne le 11 juillet 2025, consulté le 01 août 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/bssg/7709 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/14by1

Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 1 août 2025.

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# In Search of Visibility: Racial and Gender Inequalities on Stage

*En quête de visibilité: inégalités de race et de genre sur les planches*

*En busca de visibilidad: desigualdades de raza y género en las tablas*

*Auf der Suche nach Sichtbarkeit: Ungleichheiten aufgrund von Rasse und Geschlecht auf der Bühne*

Laurie Hanquinet et Carla Mascia

Traduction : Lucy Garnier

## NOTE DE L'ÉDITEUR

This translation is published under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. licence.

## NOTE DE L'AUTEUR

This article was written in collaboration with Romain Sarrat and Erwan Meurisse, students in sociology and interns at the GERME (Université libre de Bruxelles) during Autumn 2021.
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1</figcaption></figure>

Maquette de Théâtre 15 (1930).

Credit: Alexandra Exter (Artvee).

1 In the performing arts, in the era of Black Lives Matter and MeToo, the question of who is selected most often for which roles and positions is increasingly being addressed. In Belgium, various reports (Brahy & Delhalle 2020; Molle, Parfondry & Philippe 2021) support the demand for greater gender equality in different positions in cultural organizations, including management, but also in programming (see also Scivias 2023). These demands draw on in-depth research into the gender effect in the arts, especially in France (Buscatto 2008; Cacouault-Bitaud & Ravet 2008; Sorignet 2004). Discussion has also begun about the influence of race in cultural production with, in the Anglo-American context, studies on Hollywood (Neff, Smith & Pieper 2023), publishing (Saha & Van Lente 2020), theatre (Stein 2019), and the creative industries in general (Brook, O'Brien & Taylor 2020), and, in the French context, research on rap and processes of “Othering” (Hammou & Sonnette-Manouguian 2022), as well as on contemporary dance (Debonneville 2021). However, in the absence of statistics on ethnicity such as those available in the United Kingdom, social relations of race in the arts remain understudied, and even more so in their intersections with other social inequalities.

2 Delaporte et al. (2022) called for an intersectional approach in the sociology of art and culture, and in line with this, our article aims to examine the extent to which women and racialized artists are under-represented and discredited, and to answer the following question: who enjoys greatest visibility in the theatre? In this study, we analyse the programmes of six theatres in Brussels, drawing also on qualitative and quantitative data collected with artists involved in the performing arts in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (WBF) as part of a project funded by the Fonds de la recherche scientifique (FNRS) (InequalArts study¹). In doing so, we propose an innovative
conceptual and methodological framework with which to examine the issue of visibility
in the theatre and, more specifically, how gender and race influence this, while also
recognizing that other social divisions may be at play.

Box 1. Investigation

To conduct this study, we selected six French-language theatres in Brussels
according to seating capacityª and neighbourhood. This sample is not
representative of all theatres in Brusselsᵇ but, since they are located in different
neighbourhoods, they do reflect to some extent the heterogeneity of French-
language theatre in the city.ᶜ They also offer relatively different, varied
programmes (comprising, sometimes within the same establishment, classical
repertoires and more contemporary or even alternative productions). At the time
of our study, the position of director in these theatres was held by four men and
two women, none of whom were racialized according to our assessment (as white
women). In studying the programmes, we determined three periods of interest:
2015 (the pre-MeToo era), 2018 (the pre-Covid era), and 2021 (the post-Covid era).
We chose to focus on the month of October since it corresponds to the beginning
of the theatre season (which generally runs from September to June).

In total, we identified 230 people in the plays put on in the selected theatres and
periods, in the following professions: actor, director, and scenographer. We added
"dancer" as a category in the course of our analysis, given its prevalence in the
catalogue examined and how much it overlapped with the acting profession. The
data we collated are public and were found on various websites, particularly
*Les Archives du spectacle* for the number of performances, their dates, and all the
people who worked on them. We then created a database collating information
about the gender and race of the people identified (see below).

In order to go beyond our initial observations, we combined these with semi-
structured interviews carried out as part of the InequalArts study with artists and
technicians in the performing arts in WBF. These interviews, conducted in 2021,
2022, and 2024, focused on the respondents' professional careers and the obstacles
they had encountered. The interviewees were selected either at random through
professional repertoires, or after they had answered an online questionnaire
(n = 539) and agreed to provide their contact details. This questionnaire was
distributed on the WBF Official Portal, as well as via the different professional
federations and through contacts identified in exploratory interviews, with a view
to reaching artists on the margins of traditional networks. For the purposes of the
present analysis, within the 58 interviews carried out, we focused on those
conducted with actors or multidisciplinary artists working in the theatre (18) of
whom at least 8 had experience or training in directing. Some were also involved
in the more technical aspects of the performing arts (make-up, scenography,
costume design). Given how common it is to work in different activities in the arts,
it is difficult to separate out the professions clearly (Vlegels & Ysebaert 2018). The
interviewees in question here comprised eleven women and seven men, ten
identified as white and eight as non-white (half of whom were women).
a. Two small theatres (<142 seats), two medium-sized theatres (between 142 and 531 seats), and two large theatres (>531 seats). The bounds were defined after drawing up a table with the theatres identified in Brussels and the information obtained about them, including the number of seats. The division into three specific groups was then based on the statistical distribution of the number of seats in theatres in Brussels.

b. Following Vincent et al. (2022), we recognize that programmes depend on theatres' management policies. In this sense, our sample cannot be extrapolated to French-language theatre in Brussels as a whole, even though we did try to create a varied sample.

c. We have anonymized these theatres since our aim is to study processes rather than to point the finger at specific institutions. Moreover, we excluded the following forms of theatre: street theatre, amateur theatre, *théâtre action* (see the Fédération Théâtre Action website for a definition in French), outdoor theatre, improv theatre, performances in multi-purpose venues, and youth theatre. We also eliminated Dutch-language theatre in order to aim for the same sampling framework.

d. We chose these professional categories because our focus is on the individuals who influence representations, and/or are physically present, on stage. These are also the people who are clearly mentioned, and foregrounded, in the *Archives du spectacle* and, in that respect, who are most visible.

e. All first names have been changed.

# 1. What (In)Visibility Means

3 The notion of invisibility has been foregrounded in analyses of marginalization and dehumanization processes (Beaud, Confavreux & Lindgaard 2008) because social contempt is the direct result of a denial of recognition. Recognition is therefore the driving force that allows visibility to emerge and persist (Le Blanc 2009).² In the following section, we explore the delineation of visibility and invisibility for performing arts practitioners. First, and perhaps somewhat prosaically, one of the initial issues is actually being able to work in the industry, being offered a role or a job in a production. By showing how women's "invisible work" in the home is devalued, Daniels (1987) highlights the social validation that comes with work that is paid and therefore visible in the public sphere. Any activity that can be recognized as "work" in society is given moral force and dignity (ibid.: 404), although it is important to add that not all work is placed on equal footing in this regard. This observation noted, we shall now explore what it means to be visible, focusing on the obstacles to artistic recognition that lead, instead, to being rendered invisible.

## 1.1. Invisibility as a “Lack of Perception”

4 For professionals, access to the theatre sector—where physical presence is confirmed in particular by one's name being associated with a performance—represents a first form of recognition. Being visible as an actor implies being present on stage. However, this physical visibility initially depends on being considered a conceivable choice. Le Blanc (2009) explains that invisibility can be the result of a “lack of perception,” among other
things. Viewed from this perspective, the statistical under-representation of racialized and minoritized artists is not, for example, so much the result of them being less present in the sector (with women offering the most flagrant counter-example), but rather of them being less often considered as potential candidates for certain jobs, according to the norms in place in the theatre. As Honneth (2001) underlines, perception is not neutral, at least not in this particular case. It goes hand-in-hand with a process of evaluation and attribution of value such that the following suggestion can be made: the reduced visibility of racialized and minoritized artists—as reflected in them being less present before audiences—may, at least in part, be the result of the fact that the qualities that are most valued in the industry and/or most aligned with the jobs on offer are rarely ascribed to them.

Certain “conventions of representation”—that is to say “habitual ways of making a role visible or audible on stage, and in front of an audience, in order to facilitate cooperation between the different people involved in the performance” (Bense Ferreira Alves 2020: 374)—considerably limit possibilities of visibility for artists. Many of them do not “look the part”—so to speak—as imagined by the people in charge of recruitment (Dean 2005). These conventions, which provide a framework for selection processes, are subject to negotiations within theatrical productions and the sector more generally, and are themselves influenced by employment stratification in the theatre (Bense Ferreira Alves 2020). Friedman and O’Brien (2017), citing Puwar (2004), point to the existence of a “somatic norm” in the British theatre industry that favours young, white men from the upper/middle classes for leading roles (Friedman & Laurison 2020; McRobbie 2016), not to mention the fact that artists’ training programmes are also embedded in relations of class, gender, and race (Brahy & Orianne 2011; Bull 2020; Buscatto, Cordier & Laillier 2020; Thibault 2020).

More broadly, a considerable body of literature has called into question the principle of meritocracy in the cultural industries (O’Brien, Laurison, Miles & Friedman 2016; Brook et al. 2020). Building a career entails intense competition, pluriactivity within the creative sector and multiactivity beyond cultural field, a high degree of flexibility to be able to respond to casting calls, and often short-term contracts leading to professional instability (Friedman & Laurison 2020; Perrenoud & Bataille 2019; Gouyon, Patureau & Volat 2016). These conditions tend to limit career longevity for women of child-bearing age (Brook et al. 2020; Dent 2020; Hanquinet & Mascia 2024; Vachet 2024). Moreover, casting, budget, and marketing choices are all explicitly shaped by race in Hollywood films, for example (Erigha 2019) and by gender for the creative industries more generally (Eikhof 2017). Similarly, Malik & Nwonka (2017) have shown in the case of British television that possibilities in production and broadcasting are limited according to race. When racialized artists emerge, they tend to be relegated to the margins (Clette-Gabuka 2018; Saha 2017). This dynamic is no doubt also fuelled by the fact that the “pools” of artists (but also of texts and works) on which organizations draw are structured by racial (Bense Ferreira Alves 2020) and gendered (Picaud 2020) divisions. Furthermore, emerging artists from immigrant backgrounds who place that facet of their identity at the heart of their creative work may be ignored by institutions that fear an alleged lack of openness to others (Rinschbergh 2018). These new practitioners struggle to earn symbolic and material recognition, which widens the gap between new forms of art, on the one hand, and institutional structures and support funds, on the other (Genard et al. 2018).
## 1. 2. Invisibility as a "Lack of Representation"

7 Invisibility can also be the result not of a “lack of perception” but rather of a process of reification in which the individual is treated as a simple object to be appropriated or made use of (Le Blanc 2009: 13). While this may seem to be an extreme case and one unlikely to affect the cultural industries, the process does in fact echo a tendency, which can be seen in this sector, to only make racialized and/or minoritized artists visible by having them embody reductive stereotypes. This form of visibility is therefore tied to the issue of representation (hooks 1992) whereas the form of visibility discussed above relates more to statistical representativeness and relative presence compared to others. Avoiding the pitfalls of stereotypical representation means recognizing artists for all their capacities, not limiting them to certain roles according to their gender or appearance, and thereby opening up the full horizon of possibilities to them. Here too, “conventions of representation” play a role because they regulate and potentially restrict the processes of recognition that lead to greater visibility. Hall (2013) sheds particular light on the importance of representation of difference, especially racial difference, in cultural productions such as films. According to him, many cultural products fall under “a racialized regime of representation” that contributes to reproducing stereotypes and exclusionary symbolic frontiers, limiting the field of action for those who are considered as “others” in a given socio-historical context. Figures such as Riz Ahmed (2016), Mourade Zeguendi (2017), and Aïssa Maïga (2018), have all referred to the limited freedom given to racialized actors because of their physical appearance, which confines them to stereotypical roles.³ This limitation contributes to the symbolic legitimation of discrimination on and off stage (Macé 2010: 398).

8 This regime of representation, which also influences collective imaginaries, therefore relates to mechanisms of openness and closure in professional opportunities that, as Hall (2013) himself reminds us, do not only play out around racial differences. For example, certain positions, such as that of conductor, are associated with masculine representations of the role and with bodily dispositions and attitudes that are perceived as non-feminine (Ravet 2016).

9 Furthermore, gender and physical features also influence self-presentation. A phenomenon of “self-racialization” can be observed among some racialized artists, especially in the competitive entrance examinations for prestigious art schools, with a view to reversing potential racial stigma (Thibault 2020). Staging “Otherness” in certain ways can serve as a form of distinction, but only in particular circumstances and provided it remains rare. It can also, however, be a trap in terms of roles, and a diversion for institutions seeking to demonstrate their diversity, which some contend calls into question the skills of a select few. Thibault (2020) also observes a process of “self-sexualization,” through which some women foreground their sexuality, but that has to be done in a “respectable” fashion (a term we borrow from Skeggs 1997 but that is also used by Bull 2020). In both cases, these phenomena, in our view, support the suggestion made by Hall (2013: 251) that the issue of representation is the result of an interplay of power in which everyone is caught up, whatever their characteristics and resources, but not on equal terms.
## 2. Taking the Measure of Visibility

As we have just seen, invisibility can be conceived of in two main ways, in terms of a lack of perception or a lack of representation. Conversely, then, visibility becomes, on the one hand, about the possibility of being seen and perceived as an artist—first by professionals and second by the public—and, on the other hand, about the possibility for artists to be offered diverse professional opportunities. In the first case, visibility can be measured by indicators of representativeness but also by relative presence on stage. In the second, it can be assessed in light of artists’ career opportunities and roles.

### 2.1. Representativeness: Who is Under- or Over-Represented?

The first dimension of visibility—representativeness—invites us to quantify artists’ presence on stage, with a view to assessing the extent to which theatres reflect the diversity of society in general. This method is increasingly used, especially in artistic circles, to demonstrate women’s representativeness. In French-speaking Belgium, women are indeed proportionally less represented than men in the various theatrical professions, and particularly in positions of power and responsibility, whereas they are far more numerous in drama schools (Brahy & Delhalle 2020; Molle et al. 2021).⁴ According to a study on the programmes of eight major cultural operators in WBF (Molle et al. 2021), women made up 33% of directors in 2018-2019 and 44% in 2020-2021. For women working as actors, these figures reach 42 and 46% respectively for the same dates. More generally, women are under-represented among artists in the performing arts sector (41 versus 59% for men).⁵

Here we attributed individuals' gender according to their first names and photographs. This method is imperfect and does not allow the full range of gender identities to be encompassed. It does, however, make sense in terms of our intention to examine how individuals may be perceived by their audiences. In these 273 cases,⁶ women were under-represented in all three periods studied (46.5%). The presence of women varied according to socio-occupational category and, as a corollary, to professional hierarchy: there were more women actors and fewer women scenographers and/or directors (these figures are in line with the findings of other studies such as Vincent, Coles & Vincent 2022). According to the InequalArts study, women make up 53% of people working in the dramatic arts sector (excluding théâtre action and youth theatre). Figure 2 shows a significant variation over time ($\chi^2$ = 7.63; p < 0.05; n = 273). The last period contains a small majority of women (56%). This may be the first sign of some measure of change in which theatres, but also directors, are becoming more concerned with gender equality in their plays. Nonetheless, the percentage in this latter period remains below the percentage of women with qualifications in the field. According to Molle et al. (2021: 5), this percentage has consistently been around 60% over the last forty years in WBF.
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2</figcaption></figure>

Distribution by gender and year (n = 273).

Credits: Laurie Hanquinet and Carla Mascia.

13 We adopted a similar approach for race. In a study on students attending a drama school, Thibault (2020) used the categories of “racialized” students (that is to say, those potentially assigned to a racial category) and “non-racialized” students, but stressed that these categories were subjective realities, albeit with “very real effects on selection” (2020: 261; see also Guillaumin 1972). In order to grasp the effects of race on visibility, we faced a specific difficulty insofar as in Belgium, as in France (Brun & Cosquer 2022), racial categories are neither institutionally established nor stabilized. We therefore constructed our categories based on our observations. To do so, we took as our starting point the proposal by Balibar (1992) that there is a polarization between whites and non-whites, giving rise to a clearly perceptible dividing line in society. More specifically, being assigned to “whiteness” allows people to escape racial categorization (Kebabza 2006). In the case of dance, for example, artists perceived as “Black” or “Asian” are assigned to an essentialized form of difference, unlike those perceived as white (Debonneville 2021). We therefore focused on grasping this dividing line between those who are assigned to a racial identity that is “Other” and those who escape that process, by drawing on the notion of whiteness and defining two dichotomous categories: “perceived as white” and “perceived as non-white.”

14 Given the lack of studies on this topic in French-speaking Belgium, we examined our own conceptions of whiteness to turn these into a methodological tool allowing us to understand, to some extent, how the public might perceive these artists and which group to assign them to. We did not code the race or gender of the people observed but rather the way in which these were perceived (as suggested by Jobard et al. 2012), making the assumption that our own perceptions were close to ordinary categorizations.⁷ In this exercise, we were not looking to essentialize racial categories but rather to give ourselves the means with which to reveal processes of discrimination.

15 According to Figure 3, there is no significant difference in the proportion of individuals perceived as non-white depending on professional category (actor, scenographer, director). However, it should be noted that, in general, they are not well represented. For each of the three categories, non-white individuals⁸ make up between 12.5% and
18% of practitioners. Non-whites make up 16.5% of the sample overall. Conversely, for each of the categories, white individuals represent more than 80% of the total sample.

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3</figcaption></figure>

Distribution by race within professional categories (n = 263).

Credits: Laurie Hanquinet and Carla Mascia.

Compared with distribution by gender, the proportion of non-white individuals does not seem to have changed significantly over time. This may seem surprising in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. It should be noted that non-white women are the smallest group in our sample (6.5% against 10% for non-white men).

It is, however, difficult to compare these proportions with population-level figures in countries where ethnic statistics are lacking. In the United Kingdom, where there is a system of ethnic-racial self-categorization, it is easier for researchers to point to discrepancies in levels of representation. Brook et al. (2018) for example have shown that the cultural and creative industry workforce only includes 28% women and 4% "BAME"⁹ individuals. In France, as a result of the lack of statistics on ethnicity, some, such as Macé (2010), consider that it is pointless to compare numerical data to the demographic make-up of the national population. Our approach takes the opposite view. While origin, nationality, and ethno-racial categories can be conceptually distinct (Brun & Cosquer 2022), proxies such as national origin can indicate over- or under-representation relative to the general population. In this respect, we can draw on the online survey we conducted as part of our InequalArts study to offer relevant points of comparison. In our sample, which focuses on artists and technicians working in the performing arts in French-speaking Belgium, Belgians of Belgian origin make up 53%¹⁰ of the respondents, which is lower than the national statistics (approximately two thirds of the working-age population). That being said, this proportion in the InequalArts sample comes above all from people of French (21%) and Italian (7%) origin. For information, people of Turkish, Moroccan, and Congolese origin make up less than 2.5% of the sample.¹¹ Moreover, only 3% of our respondents defined themselves by their skin colour¹² (slightly more among those who performed in
Brussels). In comparison, the proportion of artists on the programmes of the theatres studied reflects a certain openness in Brussels. However, this idea needs to be qualified in view of the diversity of nationality and origin in the Brussels region, where only one person in four is Belgian of Belgian origin. Compared to the other regions in Belgium, the Brussels-Capital Region has the highest proportion of people of non-European nationality (i.e. not from one of the 27 E.U. states), that is to say almost one resident in two (Statbel 2022). Given these results, and in the absence of better statistics, it is possible to suggest that the diversity of the Brussels region is not well represented on stage.

## 2. 2. Relative Presence: Who Is Most Visible Compared to Others?

18 The issue of visibility is not limited to representativeness. Besides imperfect points of comparison, representativeness also has analytical limitations: some diversity may be seen on stage, but this does not tell us whether certain artists are (much) more present on programmes than others. It is conceivable that, even if non-white artists are less numerous in professional databases, they may nonetheless appear on stage more frequently on average than others. Indirectly, given that we are investigating different theatres, it would seem possible to suggest that greater visibility compared to others reflects a capacity to emerge from different “pools” of artists (Bense Ferreira Alves 2020) and to work across different repertoires.

19 This is not, however, what our theatrical statistics seem to suggest. We constructed a visibility index for the people in our sample. The idea was simple: the more artists participate in different plays and the more visible these plays are to a wide audience, the higher their visibility index. Some of the people in our sample appear up to three times. As Figure 4¹³ shows, white men (n = 92) appear in more performances on average than people in the other categories. They are also more likely to be in more than one play during the periods studied. Non-white individuals, and above all women (n = 14), appear less often on stage on average (eleven times, on average, for all the plays, against twenty-four for white men). However, since the numbers in question are relatively small, this graph is mainly descriptive in scope.
<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Figure 4</figcaption></figure>

Number of performances per play by gender and race.

Credits: Laurie Hanquinet and Carla Mascia.

20

For each individual, we multiplied the number of performances—for each play—in which they had participated by a prominence index according to theatre capacity (small theatres had an index of 1, medium-sized theatres an index of 2, and large theatres an index of 3) and we then added together the values per play that resulted from these multiplications. This step in the process aimed to take into account the fact that artists are more visible in theatres with greater capacity. Following this multiplication, the index no longer had a normal distribution curve and was transformed into a rank variable (the person with the highest score receiving the highest rank). The average rank for women was 105 (out of 230 individuals) whereas men had an average rank of 124 and were, on average, located further up the scale of visibility (Figure 5). As for the average rank for non-white people, this was below 100 (Figure 6).

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Figure 5</figcaption></figure>

Visibility Index; Average rank by gender.

Credits: Laurie Hanquinet and Carla Mascia.
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Figure 6</figcaption></figure>

Visibility Index; Average rank by race.

Credits: Laurie Hanquinet and Carla Mascia.

21

This visibility index is the dependent variable in a two-factor ANOVA model performed on gender, race, and their interaction effect. The model (A) was significant ($F[3, 212] = 5.214, p = 0.002$) and explains 6% of the variation among individuals in our sample (0.056 for the adjusted R2 and 0.069 for the R2). However, the interaction effect shows no significant effect ($F[1, 212] = 0.330, p = 0.566$): there is no statistical indication in our sample that these negative effects are cumulative or that they might cancel each other out. The final model (B) therefore does not take the interaction effect into account ($F[2, 213] = 7.681, p < 0.001$). The model still explains 6% of the variation. Gender does have a significant negative effect on the visibility of the members of our sample ($F[1, 213] = 8.446, p = 0.004$): being a woman reduces the chances of walking the boards. Similarly, being non-white also has a significant negative impact on presence in the theatre ($F[1, 213] = 8.262, p = 0.004$). Figure 7 shows that men and people perceived as white do tend to be more visible in the theatre sector studied than, respectively, women and people perceived as non-white.
<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>Figure 7</figcaption></figure>

Estimated marginal means of the visibility index by gender and race (model B).

Credits: Laurie Hanquinet and Carla Mascia.

22 In light of this last figure, the hypothesis that emerges at this stage is that men and white people have more opportunities and it is therefore easier for them to build a career in the theatre. For people further away from the dominant somatic norm— which is operative in conventions of representation and places most value on young, able-bodied white men from the upper/middle classes (Friedman & O'Brien 2017)— their lesser statistical, but above all relative, presence reflects fewer possibilities for them to be perceived and recognized as professionals in the theatre. That being said, systemic mechanisms of invisibilization should not lead us to adopt an oversimplistic view of the role played by gender and race in careers. If we consider for a moment one of the first stages, namely studying at drama school, our respondents seem to suggest “that there are not many people of colour who come out of [these] schools” (Freddy, non-white actor¹⁴). According to Mazzochetti (2023), they are also in fact rare in the competitive entrance exams for these establishments. Access to drama schools is not the same for everyone. Women seem to suffer the effects of the fact that many sit the entrance exams and attend the schools, compared to men, but that the corpus of texts in use still tends to offer far more male roles (ibid.: 65). This gender selection also operates via the criteria used by selection committees, as Provansal (2016) has shown for fine arts schools. In our case, all the non-white artists we encountered stressed the importance of whiteness in drama schools. In our sample, these schools served as gatekeepers (Dean 2005) of visibility and implicitly favoured the bodies that corresponded to a certain norm, namely that of whiteness (Mazzochetti 2023).

23 Some of our respondents did point out that having a body that is “Other” can be something that is noticed during recruitment to drama schools but only insofar as whiteness remains the norm. Ibrahim, an interdisciplinary artist under 40 who trained at a large performing arts school in WBF, suggested that having had “a non-white body,” to use his words, had a real impact on the selection committee’s perception and that, if he had not danced hip-hop—a discipline that allows “new” bodies to gain legitimacy (Debonneville 2021)—he would probably not have been chosen:
I was often told [at drama school]... Well, when I arrived [at the school], I was chosen because I danced [hip-hop] and because, in the second round of exams, I danced. I was told quite early on that, if I hadn't done that, I'd never have been chosen because no one could understand anything I said, my elocution was really rubbish. But, on the other hand, every time, in the feedback, it was all: "Your body on stage... it's really something, you've got this bodily ease." Then I started to question it more and more: wasn't it also because I was the only racialized person in my year group. So, I've got a non-white body on stage and, so, it's also something else. (Ibrahim)

Ibrahim's awareness of his body as “Other” relates to the phenomenon of “self-racialization” identified by Thibault (2020) because this otherness is foregrounded in a process of distinction.

24

Whiteness, as a norm structuring hiring practices and the construction of “legitimate” bodies on stage (Debonneville 2021), leads to triage effects. However, in working spaces that are quite reticent towards non-white bodies (Puwar 2024), “being the only one” can also be a way of being more visible among all the potential candidates for a role, providing one corresponds to what is being sought. Freddy is a Black actor and show creator of around thirty, who trained at one of the major WBF drama schools. He underlines that, since the end of his studies, he has benefited from a scarcity effect on the labour market:

> I mean, I always tell people, it's negative because roles have to be written for people of colour, but I get the impression that, in the world we live in today, that's happening more and more. And in a way, luck is turning [...]. And so, there aren't very many of us professional Black actors on the market. So, that's good. Well, I think that on comedien.be,¹⁵ at the beginning at any rate, in 2016, there were ten of us. I think I looked again around two years ago, there were maybe twenty of us then, like. Whereas, right, for Whites, as it were, there are hundreds of pages to look at. There's less chance of someone landing on their profile, whereas for us, in one page, we're all there, bam! So, in the end, there you go, there are disadvantages and also positive things. (Freddy)

25

In an industry shaped by systemic closure and in-group mechanisms, a scarcity effect can—to some extent—counterbalance certain processes of invisibilization, especially those produced by a lack of perception. Thibault (2015), for example, underlines that being “foreign in appearance,” including having a distinctive skin colour, can counterbalance having fewer inherited cultural resources. In other words, it can “serve as a substitute capital” providing that a “certain amount of appropriation work” is performed in order to transform bodily characteristics into resources (ibid.: 96–97). Nevertheless, even if one does become perceptible in the industry, the question remains as to how that recognition takes shape on stage, which becomes a question of representation.

## 2. 3. Representation: What Role for Artists?

26

Artists' visibility raises questions of representation, which, as previously discussed, are tied to the body, a site where judgments related to gender and race—among other factors—often come into play. In this section, we focus on representation in the roles given to actors on stage, as discussed by our respondents whatever their main activity (actor, director, etc.)

27

First, our interviews with non-white artists allow us to suggest that whiteness remains a central norm in conventions of representation, which struggle to renew imaginaries
around roles and creations. Miriam, a mixed-race artist in her thirties who stated that she was socialized “as a white woman,” was well aware of this problem. She attended a small drama school in France for a year, but did not enjoy the teaching there (“such a dusty vision of theatre” with its “great texts”). She knew the theatre world well and offered a somewhat critical perspective on it, especially in relation to the dominant influence of “white codes” weighing upon productions and also the related organization of work:

> [referring to a theatre in WFB] They did a play on [a historical Black figure who was a symbol of resistance]. [...] In the way it was constructed, there's always someone in the theatre who's a playwright, or who has a vision about this production, or an artist who's a white contemporary artist, or... At any rate, they'll always whiten it, that speech will be placed under control [...] It's still always a relationship of power... A person who has power who participates in the production. So the whole way the production is organized, and the way the production is... judged, is still so tied to white codes. (Miriam)

28

Most of the non-white artists we questioned mentioned examples of auditions in which they were reduced to their skin colour or supposed ethnic origins. In a neoliberal context, the cultural industries capitalize on stereotypical representations of minorities or exploit their alleged exoticism (Barlet 2010; Saha 2012, 2017).

29

Reflecting upon the restrictions he faced in his choice of roles, Freddy spoke of auditions which were not about his abilities as an actor but rather his physical characteristics, capable of embodying certain stereotypes in line with “the persistent pattern of reducing non-whites to their origins, constitutive of their foreignness to society” (Macé 2010: 398):

> It's maybe more things that are indirect, like auditions and so on. There, it's really specific, but it was more like: We're looking for “men of colour.” And so it wasn't an actor offering something with a little gift or talent or whatever, it was really: “We're looking for a Black man to play a Black man.” So that's a whole other problem, that's more where it didn't sit right. And I said to myself: “Yes, but my job's not being Black, my job's being an actor.” I mean, if it's a character who's Black but also has substance, then that's fine, obviously. I'm not going to deny that I'm Black. (Freddy)

30

Simone, a non-white artist over fifty, stressed that at the beginning of her career, there was a tendency to select her for the exotic touch that her mixed-race origins supposedly embodied. She recounted how she succeeded in deliberately extricating herself from the foreign “pigeon hole” in which the institutions had placed her, and did not hesitate to raise the issue in various situations (for example, regarding how her performances were advertised):

> Yes, I managed to make it understood that I'm more than my colour and that I can bring—well I think I can, I think, you'd have to ask the people who put me on programmes. [...] So obviously, [...] I don't deny my Africanness, on the contrary. But at the beginning, it was all [...] “stay in your box.” (Simone)

31

According to our respondents, of all origins, the industry is progressively moving away from reductive profiling. They avoided presenting an oversimplified view of the environment in which they worked. While many roles do require specific physical features, these are not necessarily tied to racial characteristics (Brahy & Orianne 2011; Dean 2005). For some, such as Thierry (white actor and director, in his late fifties), this progressive shift to greater openness points to the fact that skin colour is increasingly less a source of discrimination, and could even be an advantage when dealing with
recruiters or institutions claiming to be more attentive to issues of diversity. However, this kind of statement depends strongly upon the racial position of the person making it: for most of our non-white respondents, the question of the industry's openness—or rather closure—has not disappeared. First, they continue to be called upon for stereotypical roles based on the race and gender to which they are assigned. Freddy, for example, was called in for an audition where they were looking for someone to play a “Black thug,” while Andrée, a white director, emphasized the debates around the fact that Black women are still all too often offered roles as “whores or servants.”

32

Second, and this is the other side of the coin, non-white artists are less often considered for roles without any racial specification, beyond the trend for “adding colour, multiculturalism, and [...] so [adding] the [token] Black friend, the Asian friend” (Freddy). There is still resistance to opening up selection processes for certain main roles that are, by default, conceived as being for white people:

> The classic example, no one's bothered by seeing a blonde blue-eyed Jesus. [However] if you have a Black Father Christmas, there's an outcry... And yet there's no reason for that. Othello is played by white men, but Othello, Shakespeare, he's a Moor, unless I'm mistaken? Since when are Moors white? I mean if you had a North-African, that would just about be OK... Well, yes, anyway, a Moor is a North-African, but not a white man. If you want to stick to... You see? Because the argument that gets put forward is: "Yes but in actual history, that's not how it was." In actual history, the Virgin Mary, she doesn't look like... well, she's not white, like, you know. (Simone)

33

Non-white people do not, however, have the monopoly on stereotypical roles; gender is also a key feature in conventions of representation. Roles for women are strongly segmented—and restricted—according to certain physical types, especially in terms of beauty standards: the pretty young lead, the less-pretty best friend, and the mother (Dean 2005). Several women underlined that the roles they were offered were characterized by very specific expectations. For a woman actor, the *right* body is young and beautiful, or, on the contrary, very clearly *outside the norm*. Marion, a white, versatile practitioner (working in acting but also directing) in her thirties, trained in one of WBF's major drama schools. She explained:

> But actually, I'm not pretty enough, I think, to sweep the crowds off their feet, but at the same time, I'm not that woman with a very atypical physique either. I was kind of the average woman, so there you go. And it was terrible, I'd do auditions and they'd say to me: "You're really very good. But yeah..." Yeah, I remember. One casting director said this to me: "Do you get it? We don't know what slot to put you in. You're not beautiful enough, but you're not ugly enough either." He said to me: "You've got to do something, right. Dress sexier, or, on the contrary, for some auditions, try and offer something different." (Marion)

34

In addition to having to meet certain standards of beauty or, on the contrary, clearly to deviate from them, expectations regarding women's bodies are also strongly marked by a requirement not to change. Studies focusing on roles in television series and films have showed that gender inequalities are exacerbated with age. The older women become, the less they are visible on screen (Arbogast 2015) and, moreover, the roles they are offered are often limited to the private sphere (Cerdan Petit 2022). Our interview findings are consistent with this observation. Marion suggested that older women (or women transformed by pregnancy) are offered fewer roles. Sylvie—a white actor in her late fifties who trained at a private drama school—explained that because she was getting older but did not fit the image of the old woman either, she found
herself in an impasse. Because of her age, she was no longer offered the roles that tend to be associated with younger women, but she was not yet “old” enough to play those associated with old age.

I think it's an age when you're no longer the mother of children or teenagers, you're too old. I'm 57, I'm going to be 58. You're not a grandmother yet, because you don't have the right hairstyle for that. You don't look like the stereotypical grandmother. [...] So, there you go, I'm offered roles as a judge, you know, things like that, that's still possible at this age. But they're not the roles that are the most fun, though, those kinds of things. Mothers, I still like, because there's a human side, but it can also be a nasty mother, that's fun, there's really something to act out there. Judges are very square, but hey at least it's something, isn't it. (Sylvie)

35 Access to visibility therefore depends upon several interconnected factors such as, in this case, age and gender. Few of our respondents emphasized this interlacing, or “intersection” to use Crenshaw’s term (1991), focusing instead at different times on their gender, age, or origin. One exception, however, was Nicole, a non-white multidisciplinary artist under forty, who tried to understand why she had not had the career she hoped for. It was impossible for her to identify one single reason. As she put it, it was “multifactorial,” even though, ultimately, it was social and economic capital that seemed to be the strengths of those who were successful. These forms of capital are, however, themselves affected by ethnic/racial origin, class, and gender, she argued (in line with Friedman & O’Brien 2017):

> If I’m asked: “Have you experienced any inequalities in terms of the fact you’re a woman?” Well, not directly. [...] “I didn’t do this¹⁶ because I have this or that belief, or was raised in a way that means blah blah.” It’s the same here. “Yes, do you think in terms of the fact you’re mixed race, blah, blah, blah?” I don’t have the impression that’s the case but... etc. “Ah, and in terms of your social class, do you think...” When you’re in the middle of it, I think it’s hard to know whether it’s your specific personality that means you didn’t succeed ... It’s also multifactorial. (Nicole)

36 The (rare) respondents who connected gender and race were Black women. We can put forward the hypothesis that these artists are more likely to identify these links because they are furthest away from the dominant somatic norm. Marine, a woman in her thirties working at the intersection of several of the performing arts, explained that she considered that being a woman and being Black had considerably influenced her opportunities at the start of her career:

> As a Black woman, I wasn’t chosen because they didn’t want Black women. Or if women were Black, they had to not be too Black, light skinned, like. So yes, that discrimination exists. [...] And so, there’s also a thing that’s paradoxical, it’s that Black men, as dancers, have more chance of getting work, because that goes down well. But Black women, it’s not the thing that’s most valued or highlighted. Because among the people who decide, it’s grey-haired, white people from the West. (Marine)

37 Thus, even if some individuals manage to find their place in a theatre industry that is increasingly marked by discussions about diversity, professional opportunities are nonetheless still often stratified according to gender and race, in line with the norms and conventions in place in the sector. Women and non-white individuals stress that expectations relating to their bodies often keep them confined to certain types of roles. In these situations, artists face a dilemma: they can refuse a role, at the risk of losing an opportunity to work, or accept it, at the risk of reinforcing stereotypes (Brook et al. 2020).
Conclusion

38

In this article, we have offered an approach for thinking through and measuring the invisibility of certain artists in the theatre sector. We considered visibility as the result of processes of recognition during which several obstacles must be overcome in order for artists to be fully perceived and recognized as such, without conditions. Two main barriers were identified, namely the barrier of perception and the barrier of representation.

39

The barrier of perception concerns the capacity to be considered—perceived—as a possible choice on stage, to be included in the field of artistic possibilities. Theatre programmes were analysed to examine who was present on stage and whether certain groups were under- or over-represented, as well as to assess the effect of race and gender on this form of recognition. Our findings show that women are under-represented, despite their proportion in the general population and the fact that they graduate in higher numbers from arts schools than men. Although some progress toward gender equality has been made since the “MeToo” movement, women still face barriers in accessing strategic positions such as that of director. Moreover, non-white individuals are under-represented compared to the diversity of the Brussels’ population, even though the extent of this under-representation is difficult to assess given the methodological constraints and lack of ethnic statistics. Next, we analysed whether certain artists were more frequently present on programmes than others. This measurement allowed us to get a sense of relative visibility. The results were unequivocal: people perceived as non-white and women were less often present on stage and played fewer roles than, first, people perceived as white and, second, men. What is particularly surprising here is the absence of a statistical correlation between gender and race in this dimension of visibility.

40

Concerning the barrier of representation, this relates to artists' opportunities for roles according to the gender and race to which they are assigned. Some artists testify to an environment that is becoming more concerned with diversity but most women and non-white artists reported having been reduced to racial or gendered stereotypes, with many roles still associated with white characters by default. This reflects deeply entrenched conventions of representation that often favour men and white people, perpetuating inequalities in the theatre. Our interviews allow us to consider the significance of the lack of correlation between gender and race. Given the filtering that takes place at entry to these professions, there are quite simply very few non-white women in the performing arts. And since there are so few people with this profile, there are far fewer voices able to express and denounce processes of discrimination from the inside when necessary. Intersectional processes may be rendered invisible at a statistical level but our discussions with artists—and especially Black women who are particularly far from the dominant somatic norm—suggest that the importance of the intersectional approach should not be dismissed too quickly. These women emphasize individual experiences of exclusion that are different from those facing white women and non-white men, and that are even more exacerbated. Our observations thus reveal a nuanced situation in the theatre testifying to a certain openness, but within which enduring systemic mechanisms maintain the invisibility of artists who are neither men
nor white, reflecting deeply entrenched power relations imbricated in the decisional processes that shape the industry.

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## NOTES

1. "(In)fructueuses trajectoires : une étude des inégalités sociales dans le secteur des arts de la scène en Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles" [(Un-)successful trajectories: a study of social inequalities in the performing arts sector in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation] (coordinated by Laurie Hanquinet).

2. Increasing the visibility of marginalized groups and their struggles against discrimination and domination is a frequent demand made by social movements
pursuing recognition of their rights and identities, such as Black Lives Matter (Bertail 2021) and among feminist activists (Criado Perez 2019).

3. Riz Ahmed, “Typecast as a terrorist,” *The Guardian*, 16 September 2016; “L’acteur belge Mourade Zeguendi refuse de jouer un terroriste pour Brian De Palma,” *Le Soir*, 27 April 2017; Aïssa Maïga (ed.), *Noire n’est pas mon métier*, Paris, Le Seuil, 2018.

4. In another performing arts sector, Picaud (2020) examined artistic music programming in two European capitals, Paris and Berlin, between 2011 and 2017. She shows that women's under-representation of women was more pronounced in Paris than in Berlin, partly due to the relatively homogeneous networks of cultural intermediaries regulating the cultural offering, which she argues fosters self-selection among men.

5. Data about employment from the Fonds social de formation du secteur des arts et du spectacle, accessed on 22 February 2024.

6. Since some individuals were present in several of the plays studied, we chose to consider them as several distinct individuals (the *n* then rises to 275). However, there are two missing cases for this variable.

7. This approach has its limitations and highlights the difficulty of obtaining objective measure of processes of inequality in the absence of statistical data. In the interests of transparency, it should be noted that the researchers involved in this project may be perceived as white and therefore in a dominant normative position. This identification process was supplemented by analysis of the most likely origin of the individuals' surnames, using the Forebears website. We did not use this variable directly, but it provided additional information to consolidate our understanding of the individuals' profiles. In cases where there was ambiguity in assigning a category for gender and race, we worked together to reach a consensus; when this was not possible, we recorded the data as missing.

8. Our statistical analyses always reference being perceived as white or non-white, but henceforth we will not specify this each time. Similarly, when we refer to race and gender in our analyses, we are referring to processes of assignation.

9. Referring to “Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic”. The British government no longer uses the term, however. See government website, accessed on 15 February 2024.

10. “Belgians of Belgian origin” (Belgians born Belgian both of whose parents are Belgians born Belgian) make up 49.2% of the sample, “Belgians since birth” (born Belgian but whose parents’ nationality we do not know) 3.7% of the sample, and Belgians whose national origin we do not know (we do not know whether they were Belgian from birth or what their parents’ nationality is) 0.9% of the sample. In the case where one parent has a nationality other than Belgian, priority was given to the non-Belgian nationality, as in cases of dual nationality. The variable here was clearly origin, measured in similar ways as the socio-economic monitoring conducted by the Service public fédéral Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale [Federal Public Service, Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue] and Unia (2022) that combines variables such as parents’ nationality (at birth) and respondents’ nationality (at birth). Editor’s note: the Unia, formerly the “Centre pour l’égalité des chances et contre le racisme” [Centre for equal opportunities and against racism] is an independent inter-federal Belgian public institution whose mission is to fight discrimination.
11. This proportion appears particularly low, especially for the population of Moroccan origin since this is the second largest group of people of foreign origin in Belgium (5.4% of the working-age population) according to monitoring indicators (2022).

12. The question was: "In your view, among the following characteristics, which define you the best? You can choose up to three." This proportion is similar to the proportion present in the United Kingdom, even though comparisons should be drawn with caution.

13. We return here to a database in which each person corresponds to one line.

14. The racial categorization of the artists whose interview excerpts are used in the rest of this article is based on how they described themselves (their ethno-racial self-identification, their careers, and their origins). These descriptions coincide, moreover, with our perception of the racial assignation these artists may face. Based on the idea that white identities are rarely expressed and understood as such (Cosquer 2020), artists are perceived as white if they have not described themselves in racial terms.

15. The main Belgian website for professional actors and artists in the audiovisual industry and performing arts.

16. In the sense, "I didn't make it."

## RÉSUMÉS

Cet article examine la visibilité dans les arts du spectacle, en analysant la programmation théâtrale de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles au prisme du genre et de la race. Il explore comment ces facteurs influencent la présence et la représentation des artistes sur scène. Qui est programmé le plus souvent ? Qui bénéficie de la plus grande visibilité ? Les artistes sont-ils caractérisés par les mêmes attributs sociaux ? Cet article développe le concept de visibilité et présente une base de données originale sur la programmation théâtrale à Bruxelles. Il combine des données quantitatives et qualitatives pour évaluer la présence en nombre des artistes et les façons dont ils sont visibles (types de rôles attribués, etc.). L'étude révèle des inégalités de visibilité pour les femmes et les artistes non blancs, soulignant également la persistance de stéréotypes limitant les rôles qui leur sont offerts.

This article examines visibility in the performing arts, focusing on the Wallonia-Brussels Federation's theatre programming from the perspective of gender and race. It explores how these factors influence the presence and representation of artists on stage, asking a series of questions: Who appears most often on programmes? Who enjoys the greatest visibility? Do these artists all share the same social characteristics? The article explores the concept of visibility and presents an original database on Brussels' theatre programming. It draws on both quantitative and qualitative data to assess artists' presence in terms of both numbers and the ways in which they are visible (types of roles given, etc.). The study reveals inequalities in visibility for women and non-white artists, while also underlining the persisting stereotypes that limit the roles they are offered.
Este artículo analiza la visibilidad de las artes del espectáculo, estudiando la programación teatral en la Comunidad Francesa de Bélgica bajo el prisma del género y de la raza. Se explora qué influencia tienen estos factores en la presencia y en la representación de los artistas sobre el escenario. ¿Quién es programado con mayor frecuencia? ¿Quién goza de mayor visibilidad? ¿Se caracterizan los artistas por los mismos atributos sociales? Este artículo desarrolla el concepto de visibilidad y presenta una base de datos original sobre la programación teatral en Bruselas. Combina datos cuantitativos y cualitativos con el fin de evaluar numéricamente la presencia de los artistas y las maneras en que son visibles (tipos de papeles atribuidos, etc.). El estudio revela desigualdades respecto a la visibilidad de las mujeres y los artistas no blancos, subrayando asimismo la persistencia de estereotipos que limitan los papeles que se les ofrecen.

Dieser Artikel untersucht die Sichtbarkeit in den darstellenden Künsten, indem er das Theaterprogramm der Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles im Hinblick auf Geschlecht und Rasse analysiert. Er untersucht, wie diese Faktoren die Präsenz und Repräsentation von Künstlern auf der Bühne beeinflussen. Wer wird am häufigsten programmiert? Wer genießt die größte Sichtbarkeit? Sind die Künstler durch die gleichen sozialen Attribute gekennzeichnet? Dieser Artikel entwickelt das Konzept der Sichtbarmachung und stellt eine originelle Datenbasis über die Theaterprogrammierung in Brüssel vor. Er kombiniert quantitative und qualitative Daten, um die zahlenmäßige Präsenz von Künstlern und die Art und Weise, wie sie sichtbar sind (Art der zugewiesenen Rollen usw.), zu bewerten. Die Studie zeigt Ungleichheiten in der Sichtbarkeit von Frauen und nicht-weißen Künstlern auf und unterstreicht auch das Fortbestehen von Stereotypen, die die ihnen angebotenen Rollen einschränken.

## INDEX

**Palabras claves**: estereotipos, género, raza, teatro, visibilidad

**Mots-clés**: genre, race, stéréotypes, théâtre, visibilité

**Schlüsselwörter**: Gender, Rasse, Sichtbarkeit, Stereotypen, Theater

**Keywords**: gender, race, stereotypes, theatre, visibility

## AUTEURS

### LAURIE HANQUINET

IDREF: https://idref.fr/181060094

VIAF: http://viaf.org/viaf/107669799

ISNI: https://isni.org/isni/0000000442476592

BnF BNF: http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb16922127r

Professor of Sociology, Université libre de Bruxelles, GERME (Group for research on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality). ORCID: 0000-0003-1891-2780. laurie.hanquinet[at]ulb.be.

### CARLA MASCIA

IDREF: https://idref.fr/171524977

VIAF: http://viaf.org/viaf/305299403

Professor of Sociology, Université libre de Bruxelles, GERME (Group for research on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality). ORCID: 0000-0003-0332-3895. carla.mascia[at]ulb.be
## TRADUCTEURS

### LUCY GARNIER

IDREF : https://idref.fr/166473340

VIAF : http://viaf.org/viaf/88494413

ISNI : https://isni.org/isni/0000000060246994

BNF : http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb167268635