Miss Representation focused heavily on the role of women in media, and their under representation and misrepresentation of their true identities. In the past few years, Hollywood has been “trying” to become more inclusive of women in front of the camera, but still has a serious problem with their accurate portrayal in media, if even included. In a study conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusive Initiative, they concluded that when it comes to women’s roles in television, little has changed in the last decade. In fact, they stated that women had fewer speaking roles in movies than they did ten years ago.
In terms of raw statistics, the study found that the top movies of the past year included male protagonists that were triple the amount of female protagonists. They concluded that female speaking characters accounted for only 31 percent of all roles, compared to the same study in 2008 and 2009 in which women accounted for 33 percent of all roles. When it comes to female inclusion in movies and television, progress has been stagnant, unable to overcome this hurdle and call for action.
In addition, out of the 1223 directors who worked in the past 11 years, only 4.3 percent were female. This number is significantly less for women of color. I read an article that discussed how the gender of a person who is reviewing or criticizing a movie matters significantly more than we think. According to the article I read, male movie reviewers outnumber female critics by more than double. This is affecting how movies directed by and starring women are perceived. The men involved in the reviewing of cinema watched a much more lower percentage of levies directed by women than female critics. They were less likely to mention a female director's name when reviewing or writing about a film, or making positive and explicit statements about her work.
Furthermore, men were much less likely to review movies featuring female protagonists. Of all the movies men reviewed, only 37 percent of the movies they reviewed featured women as the leading roles. These gender imbalances revolved around the cinema industry demonstrate the imbalance of men and women’s portrayal in the media, and how the lack of women reviewers in the industry is hurting movies made by or made for women.
However, female protagonists have been featured in some major movies this past year, including Crazy Rich Asians, A Star is Born, and Mary Poppins Returns. However, in my opinion, the Hollywood industry hasn’t made much progress towards making women more prominent in the film industry. Without Crazy Rich Asians, the amount of Asian actresses in the film industry in the past year would be only 8 percent. Continuing to portray the stereotypical characters of a specific gender and race will continue to deepen the issue revolving around underrepresented groups portrayal in the media industry. We must make active steps to reverse the issue before it becomes too late.
The movies you mentioned from this past year may all have female protagonists, but one is more about taking care of others, and the other two are male-centric (the woman is dealing with her relationships as a sub-plot for the movie). Movies that include actors of color are always beneficial in their contribution to the representation of all people in the film industry, but facts and figures aren't the only things that matter. A Star is Born was just a remake of a remake of a movie, with an updated storyline.
ReplyDeleteMovies shouldn't be made just for men or for women. Too often, the stories told in films are male-centric, and treat women as caricatures of femininity. How do you think this affects how both men and women see themselves when portrayed as exaggerated characters in a movie?
Even in the movies where females are the protagonist, the movie is often focused on the female's love life. She is often searching for a man instead of focusing on herself. To really see a change in the amount of female protagonists in movies, we need to create stories that focus on women when women are the main characters or at least have more of a diversity in the plot when women are the main characters. I think to increase the number of women who are directors we need to give them more recognition. When women see other women being represented in higher positions, it will influence them to pursue jobs like those.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog, it continues to push my idea that we need more representation from every type of person. If only a certain group of people are continuously reviewing Hollywood's movies, then of course the rest will all be similar. To fix this, we need women of all ethnicity spread out among the media work force, however one thing I always think about is that it seems like our country is the only place doing this. Why aren't other countries with whites as minorities trying to get more representation for the entire population?
ReplyDeleteSomething you mentioned that I didn’t take into consideration before but kind of knew was that it’s not just normal people shafting movies led by females but reviewers too. The fact that reviewers tend to view male-led movies more than female-led ones in turn strengthens the patriarchal mindset of America. This also leads to less female-led movies created not just because of sexism, but sales as well.
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