The quantification of diversity: Netflix, visibility politics and the grammar of transnationalism

Abstract

This article argues for Netflix’ efforts to create a transnational middlebrow, highlighting especially the strategy of visibility politics as a measure to create a metrics for ‘diversity and inclusion’ in a process I call the quantification of diversity. Hence, the article seeks to draw together themes of Netflix’ efforts in transnationalism, the platform’s efforts in diversity and inclusion and the strategy of visibility politics, common to middlebrow television as visual signifier of marginalisation, rather than narrativisation. This process becomes part of a larger grammar of transnationalism to formulate a kind of transnational text specific to Netflix. Visibility politics seeks to quantify visibly marginalised bodies on screen as a measure of ‘progress’ and is, thus, particularly relevant for a Silicon Valley company that seeks remedy social problems via mathematical solutions. This leads to a politics that produces highly visual measures of social progress, but does not offer narratives to communicate barriers to full participation. The metrics for ‘otherness’ are hardly universal, though and Netflix cannot provide such a metrics for its transnational productions. Instead, it seeks to combat ‘universal’ issues of discrimination by means of visibility politics. The platforms’ earlier American texts tried to remedy issues of marginalisation via the narrativisation of barriers. To document this change, the article analyses the Netflix series One Day At A Time with the popular 2023 series Wednesday.