Gender representation in movies is unbalanced, writes Soraya Chemaly, and it’s sending the wrong message.
According to the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism study released today, a survey of the top 100 grossing movies of 2009 reveals that 67.8% of all speaking characters (in excess of 5000) were male. In addition, female characters, usually isolated by virtue of there just being one speaking role, were consistently depicted in sexualized ways. Twenty-three percent of women versus 7.4% of men appeared in revealing clothes or partial nudity. The fact that only 3.6% of the directors and 13.5% of the writers of these films are women is particularly telling when you consider that the ratios are substantively different depending on the gender of the story teller: in movies directed by women, 47% of characters are female versus 32%. These ratios are the same as there were in, get ready, 1946.
We have essentially made no progress in terms of our representations of gender in storytelling in the past 65 years. Really?? Really???? Damn. That’s depressing.
♦◊♦
In the upcoming round of seventeen “Must See” Holiday Movies for families recommended by Common Sense Media only one has a female lead character—Breaking Dawn. The other sixteen feature boys or men in lead roles. A large portion of the sixteen adhere to the Smurfette Principle, first described by Katha Pollitt in The New York Times in 1991, namely that there is one female character in an otherwise all male ensemble cast. According to The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media, the ratio of boys to girls becomes more extreme as they age. In the Institute’s study of the 50 top grossing family movies, females were 32.4% of speaking roles for G rated movies. That number declined to 27.7% for PG-13 movies. Boys outnumber girls in movies three to one. In addition, as in adult movies, girl characters are consistently presented with less clothes and hyper-gendered physical characteristics, like tiny waists. Almost every movie on the list for this holiday season is told from a male perspective and reviews of these movies do nothing to systematically address the messages sent by their collective presentation.
And, given trends in the entertainment industry, this is not likely to change unless it actually gets worse. According to the Motion Picture Association, in 2009, women were responsible for more than 50% of US movie ticket sales. You might think that this would elicit some interest in the minds of the men who make movies (and yes, they are still primarily men as evidenced by the stats above.) But, the fact is, Americans, especially American women, are not the target buyer for American made movies.
♦◊♦
American media corporations make at least half of their profits from the global distribution of their entertainment products. And what the rest of the world apparently wants is testosterone heavy action films. It’s why G and PG rated movies, increasingly popular in the US, have been outstripped by R rated movies, which are often loud, violent, fight-filled extravaganzas that don’t require complex characters or plots and can translate across multiple cultures. Cross-cultural entertainment product development, in order to work and be profitable, seeks the lowest common denominator—which it seems is male aggression, violence, and power.
It’s much tricker, not to mention subversive, to present complex characterizations of men and women that include non-traditional representations of women who are sexually liberated and empowered. Entertainers don’t want to rock the cultural boat, they just want to sell more movie tickets. So, basically, whereas a few members of international audiences might care about the travails of a small-town girl dealing with an unwanted teen pregnancy, all members of international audiences can appreciate being swept away in an asteroid-created tsunami from hell, which is why a movie like 2012 made $166 million at the US box office, but made $604 million overseas.
As a result, the US movie market gets its seasonal barrage of hyper-masculine, violent super-hero and action-hero films that do much to perpetuate out-dated, harmful hyper-gendered stereotypes of both men and women. This sexist, dumbing down of content has real ramifications in our culture as we try to develop a more balanced and genuinely equitable society.
♦◊♦
Children are smart. They are sponges built to absorb culture. The “must see” movies that we all pay for are a major cultural force that send kids exactly the wrong message about how to be in the world. They don’t even have to sense or intuit the gender imbalances constructed in movies and games. They’re obvious. Females are isolated, peripheral, sexual and, vulnerable. Males are central, often hyper-violent and powerful. We will continue to get what we pay for and apparently will continue to get what the rest of the world will pay for. The “is” is not the same as the “aught.”
Is there not one powerful guy in Hollywood who is old enough and rich enough to do the right thing and send a different message to boys and girls? We’re smart people in a smart country. What the hell is wrong with all of us?
—Photo rick/Flickr
IMO, Game of Thrones (the TV series– and it IS film quality!) has GREAT women characters! I think the TV series develops them better than Martin in the books. Although some people complain about the sex and nudity –although the same people seem to have NO problem with the graphic blood-and-guts (LITERALLY guts), women and girls make up a huge part of the cast and are, for the most part, really pro-active and well-developed. Cersei Lannister is an evil bitch, but she is multi-dimensional and although her actions are never forgivable, they ARE understandable. And Arya and Catelyn Stark are… Read more »
Did anyone else read the study’s methodology? Personally, I find it difficult to accept the findings on how sexualization of female characters because the findings were based on “sexy outfits” such as swimwear, whether or not they “exposed skin,” and whether or not another character described them as “attractive.” This completely misses how sexuality works in our culture. When a character is comprised of an attractive mail actor put into a tailored suit and then described as “powerful” or “wealthy,” there is no question in my mind that the character is being sexualized. The most blatant example is probably the… Read more »
wow, my spelling and grammar are terrible when I write quickly.
Mail = Male, and the word “how” should be missing from the second line.
That’s interesting, but I wonder if what you are talking about isn’t so much how men are sexualized so much as stereotyped as powerful, etc. Women’s power is largely understood as a function of their sexuality, men’s of their resources – the effects of these representations are not the same on how we interpret gender roles in the wider world. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the movie Miss Representation if you have seen it.
A totally different way to look at it: When women go to the movies, they see a wide selection of men on screen. When men go to the movies, they have a smaller selection of women to look at. I’m not convinced this is completely bad for women and good for men. If we even out the percentages, then there will be fewer men for women to see on-screen. Some part of this phenomenon is that many women enjoy seeing sexy men on screen as much as men enjoy seeing sexy women on screen. Women are generally not dragged by… Read more »
I agree with you in the cross-gender empathy deficit for boys and men. Women and girls are given the freedom to explore and empathize with men and masculinity and the opposite is not true. It starts when kids are very young and goes on infinitely unless challenged.
I disagree, if women are “superior” to men in that regard then why are they seeing movies that project Male agency in such high numbers. My guess is that on subconscious level, women believe that the strength of a country is in direct proportion to the strength of its men.
Conversely, neither sex seem too egger to support a movie where the Male Protagonist is wallowing in a state of learned helplessness.
I’m wondering how this continuted (since 1946) silencing and oversexualizing of young women, along with the overt focus on power-seeking males as gender role models translates into the modern-day workplace? According to the author of the following article, women will garner success simply through force of personality (or good looks), while men as risk-takers will actualy, you know accomplish things: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-new-macho/comment-page-2/#comment-71109
Firstly, it is hilarious(ly terrifying) that the only must-see holiday movie with a female lead is Breaking Dawn – starring a wet blanket of a teenage girl who passively lets men fight over her, has absolutely zero agency and doesn’t mind that her honeymoon night with her husband left her covered with bruises because she knows it’s just that he can’t contain his passion because he loves her so much. It scares the hell out of me that Bella Swan is one of the most prominent fictional female characters of the past few years and so many teenage girls see… Read more »
Standing up and clapping!
Sorry Marianne it not that simple. The most well know Wonder Woman of this generation’s animated series is an aloof feminist and sometimes misandriest ball buster. She would have to be sold as a dominatrix just to get men in the theater. Wonder Woman’s shaky history with men is so convoluted that there is a ground swell of readers who support the idea of her “coming out of the closet” already. Here’s her history in a nutshel-l http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/2628-All-The-World-Is-Waiting Hercules made her Hate Men, Adolph Hitler made her a crusader and Steve Trevor turned her into an inept submissive little school girl… Read more »
I’m aware of Wonder Woman’s problematic (weird, fetishized, fragmented) history, but I didn’t start getting into comics until the early 2000s, so it doesn’t impact me on that much and certainly isn’t my main point of reference for the character. I think the point still stands that she’s an iconic figure (probably the single most iconic female superhero) and a thoughtful reboot would go along to solidify her as a character. Her reboot in The New 52 has been enjoyable so far, as was her appearance in Justice League #3. I think she has more appeal for both men and… Read more »
There were some sporadic moments where she snapped abruptly at humans objectifying her, but her direct to DVD movie had most of the gender subtext that the animated series avoided. In regards to the main point of this article.. (and as much as it pains me to say this) but Hollywood is structured to cater almost exclusively to the reptilian parts of a consumers brains one gut reaction after the another. For Example – Men are Protectors Man + Power = Hero Woman are sexy Sexy Woman are the rewards of Manly Men Woman + Power = B*tch Female sexuality… Read more »
I just have to laugh at your first sentence! Isn’t that the truth? It’s like people who are tied up in their knickers trying to figure out if Tattooed Barbie is BAD FOR GIRLS!!!!!
Simple solution: women should boycott male-centric movie studios until there are more female roles on screen. Take your money elsewhere. No excuses, power of the almighty dollar working for you and all that, take the matter into your own hands, agency, girl power, all that stuff. Go. Make it happen.
Couldn’t this potentially have the opposite effect? “Women don’t make up much of audience numbers, ergo, women don’t like movies, ergo, no point making movies with female audiences in mind?”
You know, I agree on the sales issue. The problem is that the movies are good and they are entertaining and there are simply not very many options. I’ve tried this route for years. I like these movies and would love to see them even more if there was even the slightest balance overall. I say let’s have a NATIONAL DAY OF BOYCOTT!
It may be even more unbalanced than the article suggests. You could hardly call the lead female character in _Breaking Dawn_ a major leading role for women to emulate. She spends a lot of the story sitting around and gestating….
Great point. This movie sends terrible messages to girls in multiple ways.
Thank you! I wrote an entire two pages on the dismal model that Bella Swann provides and then got so irritated that I was mumbling imprecations and obscenities as I typed. Saved as draft!
In 1996, the fabulous children’s movie “Matilda” came out, based on the book by Roald Dahl. My daughter was 5, and we went straight out to see it. I was THRILLED that there was a movie with a female protagonist who was not a Disney princess. The movie bombed at the box office because boys would not go see it. Only half the possible children who could have seen it saw it. Tri-Star Pictures publicly vowed they would never make a kids’ movie starring a girl again, because it was a guaranteed money-loser. After all, girls will go to movies… Read more »
Same what? Aliens, Tomb Raider, Sucker Punch, Long Kiss Goodnight (A GREAT Geena Davis Movie), Kill Bill. I watched The Help, pretty much all female leads and thought it was a great movie. I’d love to see more female leads, but I’d also like to see more females in the roles of bad guys too. Males have the leads but are also the cannon fodder, most likely to die/shot/violent deaths, arrested, the good comes with the bad. Do women want to see women on screen who are raping men, beating up men, torturing men (and women too), women to be… Read more »
I agree with all of this! I especially agree with more female villains! More specifically, more female villains who do not fit the tired old stereotypes of femme fatale/controlling mother figure/asexual evil hag. I want a female equivalent of Hannibal Lecter!
I agree with you, however I also think that a lot of the female villains out there are essentially men with boobs. You have listed some of my all time favorite movies and pointed out a giant issue with the movie machine that is Hollywood. Namely, we need to be able to have fully dimensional representations of women doing the full range of things that real women do. Instead, what we have are a ton of romantic comedies and the good (and occasionally hilariously bad – remember Barb Wire!) violent woman with a mission movie. It’s really hard to sell… Read more »
If the female characters star in movies boys and men like then they will watch them (just look over previous posts to see titles that have powerful female characters and are popular with men/boys). No, men and boys (as a generalisation) will only pay to see a Rom-Com if their girlfriend twists their arm; it just doesn’t do it for us.
These companies cater to an audience.
You’re not going to find a company that doesn’t want to make money.
Large movie productions are huge investments with uncertain payback, making it a high-risk business. To lower risk, studios like to do what has worked before. Hence, most large productions are formulaic. Unfortunately, the formula seems to extend to staffing, casting, etc., so there’s few attempt to even soften the standard gender roles within the scope of the formula. I wonder if it’s even thought about?
“I wonder if it’s even thought about?” Oh yes – and the money won out! As all to often happens – sorry – Invariably happens , it’s the Gross Domestic Product that is used to measure success, not the Gross Domestic Good, or Even the Gross Domestic Welfare. Measures have been set – they are the ones that get used. In the same way in the silent movie era Physical Comedy won out over Dialogue. You don’t need to be able to read to laugh at a prat fall! It’s why so much comedy in the USA is physical, whilst… Read more »
Interesting observation about the influence of the foreign market. If anything, this should make us more concerned about the message we send as a matter of national pride, but clearly this isn’t happening. “Is there not one powerful guy in Hollywood who is old enough and rich enough to do the right thing and send a different message to boys and girls?” I’m terribly afraid that there isn’t. Powerful old rich guys in Hollywood are rarely rich enough, and got themselves there by being mainstream bigots in the first place. We need to boycott Hollywood films which we know send… Read more »