Notes And Quotes:
Feminism:
Research:
Quotes:
Die Hard – family conflict bases movie/ released on
Valentine’s Day – girls get to choose the movies.
Trouble finds John Mclane he’s attracted to it.
John Mclane compared to Bruce willis, not brave “ I’m afraid
of mice”
Assault vehicles, helicopters
Quote from female actor Yulia Snigir “it’s better than sex”
– action movie.
John Mclane – seen as a cinematic hero, dominant strong,
main character.
John : You got a
plan? Son : not really… run in guns
blazing – ACTION. Spontaneous &
unplanned.
“fast pace action film”
Everyday sexism:
Academic books:
Genre Book
Books.
Feminism at the movies - Edited By Hilary and Rebecca
Stringer, published 2011
-page 17, The Male Body And The Male Heart, Bruce willis,
walking on crushed glass
Women & Film - written by E. Ann Kaplan, First
Published in 1983.
-Page 14, Fetishism, female "bodies may be
fetishized"
-Page 15, 10 The Image.
-Page 11, 1 - The classical.. "repeated from product to
product.. customers expect.."
-Page 14, 9-The Gaze: The Three "Looks" In the
Cinema
-Page 15, 11-Sociology And Semiology, "film critics
here use the terminology of sex roles"
Internet Sources:
“The numbers underscore why pics like “Gravity” (pictured),
top lined by a Sandra Bullock, remain a rarity at the multiplexes. Female characters
accounted for only 15% of protagonists in the 100 highest-grossing domestic
films of 2013”
“The femme protagonist stats are up 4% from 2011, the last
time the survey was conducted, but down 1% from 2002.”
“extreme gender
inequalities”
“The above graphic represents the lead characters of 67 of
those films. Of the 67 films, 55 of the lead characters were male, and only 12
of the characters were female.”
“This further proves that men still dominate the cinema and
gender is continually misrepresented in cinema and in films.”
“Men are seen as the protectors, the saviours, the
breadwinners, and the know-alls.”
“Women are constantly being misrepresented in these films,
shown for purposes of objectification, support of the male characters, and
mostly as love interests that drive the male characters.”
“In the few movies where we see strong lead female
characters, we also see them having the support of at least one male who is
involved in their situation in some way where the female ends up needing their
help.”
“We very rarely see any breaks in stereotypical gender
roles. Even in action films where the lead is a female, there is always some
sort of emotional baggage tied into the movie that makes her seem more “soft.””
“Women in cinema, even in their action roles, are portrayed
in a way that objectifies them, even if that is not the end goal of their role”
by Jeff Smith (GRIID)
“New York Film Academy decided to take a closer look at
women in film and what, if any, advancements women are making. After reviewing
the data, it is clear that Hollywood remains stuck in its gender bias.”
“women made up roughly half of the directors at this year’s
Sundance Film Festival, yet still struggle when it comes to films receiving a
wide release”
‘Report finds ‘deep-seated discrimination and pervasive
stereotyping of women and girls’, including blanket under-representation and
widespread hypersexualisation’
‘Geena Davis, found that fewer than one third of all
speaking roles went to women, who were also largely absent from positions of
power’
‘Only 22.5% of the overall fictional big screen workforce
was shown to be made up of female employees, and fewer than 15% were portrayed
as being employed as business executives, political figures, or in the fields
of science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics.’
‘the University of Southern California, revealed
“deep-seated discrimination and pervasive stereotyping of women and girls by
the international film industry,’
‘The fact is: women are seriously under-represented across
nearly all sectors of society around the globe, not just on-screen, but for the
most part we’re simply not aware of the extent.’
“There are woefully few women CEOs in the world, but there
can be lots of them in films. How do we encourage a lot more girls to pursue
science, technology and engineering careers? By casting droves of women in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), politics, law and other
professions today in movies.”
‘movies from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany,
India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States, and United Kingdom, also
found women were more likely to be depicted in a hypersexualised manner than
men. Girls and women were twice as likely as boys and men to be shown either in
sexualised attire, in the nude, or thin’
‘the future of the female action hero. Not that this was in
much doubt, even before The Hunger Games: Catching Fire swept all before it. On
the big screen, women have been successfully kicking butt for some time now.’
‘As our current millennium dawned, the testosterone-fuelled
derring-do of Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger and their ilk had lost its edge.’
‘The protagonists of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill brought welcome spin to their genre.’
‘Since then, a new clutch of male heroes has fallen prey to
self-doubt. This has left the likes of dragon-tattooed Lisbeth Salander, teen
assassin Hanna and Kick-Ass's Hit-Girl to steal much of their thunder.’
‘Female toughies infiltrated the otherwise masculine domains
of The Matrix, Prometheus, Captain America: The First Avenger and Avengers
Assemble. The Snow White of Snow White and the Huntsman turned out to be an
adept killer.’
‘Today, Pam Grier is remembered mainly as Tarantino's Jackie
Brown, but it was forgotten films such as Coffy, Friday Foster and Sheba, Baby
that made her "the biggest, baddest and most beautiful of all female
heroes in popular culture’
Follows on to the next quote…
‘Nonetheless, for decades progress was slow. Sociologist
Kathryn Gilpatrick looked at 157 female protagonists in action films released
between 1991 and 2005. Only 7% took control of their situation; 58% were
submissive to male characters. Thirty per cent were dead when the credits
rolled.’
‘Film marketer Jeff Gomez says: "Women are making the
decisions now with regard to entertainment choices.’ – audience
‘Action, it was suggested, would enable female stars to
flaunt their painstakingly tended bodies more shamelessly than was permitted by
more sedate forms of drama.’
‘for men, the theory ran, female violence would prove
titillating rather than threatening, just like lesbian lovemaking. Tigerish
women could therefore be unleashed as screen sex goddesses’
‘Washington University survey of undergraduates found that
74% of male respondents watched female action heroes for their sexual
attractiveness.’
‘73% of female respondents watched to see their own gender
in a powerful role.’
‘At the beginning of the last decade, they began to allocate
big budgets to films such as Charlie's Angels and Resident Evil.’
‘In America, the audience at the opening weekend of The
Hunger Games was 39% male, according to exit surveys.’
‘The Washington University study found 56% of women saying
that the female action subgenre was good for gender equality and 75% said they
could apply its themes to their own lives. ’
‘To find out how Hanna had gone down, its star, Saoirse
Ronan, went to an all-female screening. "What they really got out of the
film was a sense of empowerment,’
“The fact is – women are seriously under-represented across
nearly all sectors of society around the globe, not just on-screen, but for the
most part we’re simply not aware of the extent,” said actress Geena Davis
Geena Davis- From the very first studio we went to, the
woman that was in charge of diversity had her head in her hands and said,
'Every script that we do at this studio, my staff and I go through and we say,
"Who here can become Asian, or Hispanic or African American? Never once
have we thought, who here can become female? I have no excuse for why that
happens.'" My theory why that happens is because that's the ratio that
everybody grew up with, it just looks like the norm when it's been that
prevalent."
What they should do, Geena Davis - Whatever you're already
going to make doesn't matter. Whatever it is, just pause before you cast it,
look at it and [ask], 'Who can become female here?' Just by doing that,
changing a few names, you've tremendously boosted the percentage of female
characters."
“The fact is – women are seriously under-represented across
nearly all sectors of society around the globe, not just on-screen, but for the
most part we’re simply not aware of the extent,” said actress Geena Davis
Geena Davis- From the very first studio we went to, the
woman that was in charge of diversity had her head in her hands and said,
'Every script that we do at this studio, my staff and I go through and we say,
"Who here can become Asian, or Hispanic or African American? Never once
have we thought, who here can become female? I have no excuse for why that
happens.'" My theory why that happens is because that's the ratio that
everybody grew up with, it just looks like the norm when it's been that
prevalent."
What they should do, Geena Davis - Whatever you're already
going to make doesn't matter. Whatever it is, just pause before you cast it,
look at it and [ask], 'Who can become female here?' Just by doing that,
changing a few names, you've tremendously boosted the percentage of female
characters."
Lucy Walker: “The
problem is not just behind but in front of the camera too. We’re not getting to
see the perspectives and voices that represent our population. We’re not
getting depicted. In Hollywood films between 2007 and 2008, there were more
than two men on screen for every woman. Fewer than 17% of films depict women in
a similar ratio to real life”.
Women accounted for
just 33% of all characters in the top 100 grossing films of 2011 in the USA. An
increase of 5% from 2002.
Of all characters in
the top 100 grossing films of 2011 in the US, only 2.64% were African
American women, followed by other worldly, animal, or other women (2.64%);
Latina women (1.65%); and Asian women (1.65%). In comparison, 10.05% of all
characters were outer worldly, animal, or other male characters, followed by
African American male (5.36%), Latino male (3.35%), and Asian male characters (2.01%).
Women were younger than their male
counterparts. The majority of women characters were in their 20s (27%) and 30s
(28%). The majority of men characters were in their 30s (29%) and 40s (25%).
Men were much more likely than
females to be portrayed as leaders. Overall men accounted for 86% and women 14%
of leaders.
Only about 13% of 2013′s top 100 pics
featured an equal number of female and male characters.
“Overall, we have seen little movement in
the numbers of female protagonists and females as speaking characters over the
last decade,” Lauzen said. “Moreover, female characters are less likely
than males to have identifiable goals or to be portrayed as leaders of any kind
.”
Over 50 percent of female teens on
screen in 2012 were shown in sexy clothing. So were nearly 40 percent of women
between 21 and 39.
The study looked at the top 100 grossing films
and found that only 16.7 percent of those films’ directors, writers and
producers were women.
In addition, male characters outnumbered
their female counterparts in roles as lawyers and judges, professors and
doctors.
The UK was singled out for doing a
better job than some other countries by creating more speaking roles for women.
"Females bring more to society
than just their appearance," said Stacy L. Smith, the main researcher on
the project.
"These results illuminate that
globally, we have more than a film problem when it comes to valuing girls and
women. We have a human problem."
he study found that less than a
quarter of the fictional on-screen workforce is made up of women.
§
One female visible for every 2.4 men
§
Only 23% of speaking roles in action and adventure films are
female
§
7% of directors are female
§
Only 30.9% of all speaking characters are female.
Source: The Geena Davis
Institute on Gender in Media, UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation
http://www.slideshare.net/naamah/how-are-women-represented-in-the-action-movie-genre
Twenty Facts About Gender and Film in 2014
Read
them and weep.
And
then share widely.
1.
Globally, there are 2.24 male characters for every 1 female
character.
2.
Out of a total of 5,799 speaking or named characters 30.9
percent were female, 69.1 percent male.
3.
Films for children had similar ratios, with only 29.2 percent
having female protagonists.
4.
Less than a quarter of films surveyed (23.3 percent) had a
female lead or co-lead.
5.
The U.S./UK hybrids and Indian films were in the bottom third
for gender-balance, with less than a quarter of speaking roles going to female
characters. In the U.S./U.K. hybrids, 23.6 percent and in Indian films, 24.9
percent.
6.
These on-screen ratios mirror behind the camera realities. Out
of 1,452 filmmakers whose gender was identifiable, 20.5 percent were female
compared to 79.5 percent who are male.
7.
Females are 7 percent of directors, 19.7 percent of writers, and
22.7 percent of producers
8.
France has the worse gender ratio, 9.1 men to 1 woman.
9.
Brazil has the best, 1.7 men to 1 woman. The U.S.? 3.4 men to 1
woman.
10.
When women direct films there are 6.8 percent more women in
them. When women are screen writers, there are 7.5 percent more women. As the
report points out, however, this may not be a good thing. "This
explanation reflects the old age, "write what you know." On the other
hand, women maybe given these projects to write and direct that include more
female characters. This second and latter explanation is more problematic, as
it restricts the range of open directing and writing opportunities given to
women."
11.How gender is represented is also
consistently problematic, particularly when you consider the influence media
has on children's imagination and self-conception. Female characters are more
than twice as likely to be wearing sexy and sexualizing clothes (24.8 percent
vs. 9.4 percent),
12.
Female characters are more than twice as likely to be skinny
(38.5 percent vs. 15.7 percent),
13.
Female characters are more than twice as likely to be either
partially or fully naked (24.2 percent vs. 11.5 percent).
14.
In films, comments made by characters that refer to appearance
are directed at women at a rate of FIVE times that of comments directed at men.
15.
For films with fictional characters for younger children, in
which the characters were aged 13-39, females are equally disproportionately
sexualized. Even worse, however, is that in kids films, female characters are
even more likely than in adult films to be thin.
16.
In the U.S., for example, although women make up 46.3 percent of
the workforce, they are only 23.2 percent of characters who work on film. This
is one of the largest representational differences among all the countries
measured. Needless to say, nowhere were women overrepresented as working for
pay.
17.
India had the smallest discrepancy in depictions of work: women
make up 25.3 percent of the off screen workforce and 15.6 percent on the
onscreen one.
18.
When researchers looked at characters who were executives, as a
marker of leadership representation, women made up 13.9 percent. There were not
enough of them to have country breakdowns. While the study notes that
"Across the global sample, occupational power is at odds with female participation,"
that number, 13.9 percent is actually not too far off the mark. In the U.S. 17
percent of executives in the Top 100 companies are women, internationally that
number is 24 percent. Women make up only 3 percent of CEOs globally.
19.
Men are much more likely to be seen as attorneys and judges (13
to 1), academics (16 to 1), doctors and medical practitioners (5 to 1). Just
three female characters were represented as political leaders with power. One
didn't speak. One was an elephant. The last was Margaret Thatcher.
20.
Men were represented in STEM jobs area at a ratio of 7 to one.
In the U.S., where women make up 24 percent of the STEM workforce, men made up
87.5 percent of STEM job workers.
Videos.
Why aren't there more action movies starring women?
