Essay Gender Inequality in the Filming Industry

Women evidently create films, too. Still, the institution of film-making is undeniably dominated by men. Even if men are not always creating the film, they are nevertheless controlling who does; the male gaze “is not always male, but it is always male-dominated (654). This control is not meant to refer to “anatomy” per se, but the idea that film contributes to the supremacy of men over women regardless of its author (654). This type of control is significant because it implements a preference for films which depict women who are aligned with patriarchal assumptions; men as subjects and women as objects (654).

Moreover, few women have leading roles in films especially in ones that are comic based, because the majority of the audience consists of heterosexual males that want to see women in passive roles. Portraying attractive women that abide by cultural norms satisfy most men’s desire for dominance and masculinity. Solomon and Maasik imply in “Heroes and Villains: Encoding Our Conflicts” that economically movie industries consider female lead movies as losses because the safest way to make money is by appealing to adults and children who have already approved of successful cartoon series and books (444). Movie industries are more concerned about making money, so their agenda is to go with what already works and maintain the safest profile. However

Stereotypes in our society are not uncommon. We come across them every day without realizing it. It is in our human nature to create expectations of the people around us, which could be based upon their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or other factors. Stereotypes help us categorize a vast group of people that we may not know anything about, to think that they are smaller and less intimidating. I believe that the blame for these cookie-cutter patterns can lead directly back to the media in every sense of the word. Media is all around us, and affects our opinions and ability to think for ourselves. Whether it’s the latest box office hit or the headlining news, we are getting assumptions from every point of view, which makes it

The film industry has created the conventional gender roles of society into their movies; A majority of films have supported some of the male and female stereotypes. In the history of the film industry, the role of men is primarilythat of the stereotypical working class man or hero, while the roles of women are primarily portrayed as being somewhat inferior to men. In the 1930s through the 1970s, men held the leading roles in films while women played smaller roles. Men were typically employed, successful gentlemen, while the woman’s only job was a housewife. The film industry was mostly dominated by men. In terms of jobs, women were given mostly family roles and rarely were shown outside of their homes, while men had

Hollywood not only shows little to none diverse to race but also gender on screen and behind the scenes. When watching a movie to the end credits most the names that are shown are males. The diverse for gender in Hollywood is low. Females are not given the same opportunity as the males. Article from NPR STAFF (2015) informed that women make up half of the U.S. population but only 6% of the females directed theatrical films in 2013(Hollywood’s Homogeneity section, para.1). Even though the study is old the data has not change. Population in females in Hollywood in front and behind the scenes cannot be compared to the nation. Hollywood is own by males which are keeping positions for women to a minimum. The heads of Hollywood are not willing to be diverse so they can stay in control. Among the ranks of top Hollywood film executives, the

Real life examples of gender inequality do sort of hamper the hopes of those wishing for better in the near future, as it will take a while for the pay gap between men and women to be closed and gender norms will be even harder to break; nonetheless, the three main films being discussed in this paper do give people a bit of hope that women may transcend their limits in due time. Indeed, some already are doing this. In Flame, the titular character takes the initiative on things, such as joining the army. While she is on the same level as men and is even acknowledged towards the end of the film, she does go into war mainly for the purpose of finding a man. Still, her mannerisms and actions do show that she is a more independent female. Flame’s

Many of these filmmakers, through the feminist movement, have taken Hollywood by storm. There are many individuals that believe the feminist movement is a woman’s movement — to further the female agenda — and while, it is true

Women are deemed as a “minority” yet make up 51% of the world population and in 2014 made up only 12% of protagonists in films. And that is just on-screen, the percentage decreases as you go farther and farther into behind-the-scenes positions such as directors, cinematographers, and writers. Add race and ethnicity and those characters' percentages decline even more (Lauzen, 2015.) Women in film and television are often portrayed with emphasis based on their body type and in advertisement are largely objectified. The large objectification and misrepresentation of women in the media has led to an offset psychological view of women from growing up to adulthood.

Two of the six movies addressed in my presentation have female writers: Mean Girls (Tina Fey) and Clueless (Amy Heckerling). All six of these movies are directed by men. This is troubling, because while there are women who could have input on how the story should be told, the plots and characters of young females are ultimately developed by grown men who have never lived though the teen years of a girl victimized by the cruelty of high school.

Horror movies throughout history have been known to have their cheesy storylines or continuous bad acting. Especially horror movies. People nowadays could easily spot the flaws in a film and judge them drastically in reviews. Yet, little do people notice the ongoing discrimination between genders. Horror films tend to portray males and females substantially differently because of stereotypical views. There seems to be a pattern in which each gender takes a certain role in a movie continuously. Females are shown to be “objects” such as sex and emotional symbols, while males are shown as strong or powerful and moreover as the main bad guy. Although some of the newer edition films of the horror genre are displaying each gender more and more equal throughout the ongoing years, the gender discrimination dilemma still exists and can be seen by the statistics in the movie industry in general.

Researchers “Lyle Friedman, data scientist Matt Daniels, and Ilia Binderman,” have researched over 4,000 films using the Bechel test. Using the Bechdel test, these researchers have done a complete breakdown on films concerning women writers. The astonishing results are as follows: 28% of women are

In 1985 the Bechdel test was created by Alison Bechdel to test if a fictional piece had a significant amount of female involvement (Bechdel). The test is as followed: two women, who are given names, must converse with each other about anything excluding a man. Surprisingly many movies throughout the history of film fail the Bechdel test. Currently in Hollywood the test highlights a problematic situation, the lack of equality regarding male and female roles in film and females constantly being portrayed as secondary characters. Many scholars have taken this into account, analyzing this issue and discussing potential reasoning for this

By looking at the data we can clearly see that the stereotypical “women” jobs are filled by actresses and the “men” jobs are filled by actors. Directors don’t have to cast the actors and actresses this way but by not doing it this way they would be going against the norms of society. What’s shocking is that the movies are

Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.

The simplest way to increase gender equality is by creating more roles for women. According to 2007-2012 film statistics reviewed by the New York Film Academy, the “average ratio of male actors to female actors is 2.25:1.” With less females onscreen than males, men continue to be the majority in movies. It is important to portray realistic representations of everyday life in where “women comprise 50 percent of the population” (Green, Women In Film Los Angeles). It is also important for women and young girls to have a variety of role models to look up to. With more women in movies, young girls will begin to understand that being a woman does not limit what they can do. Organizations such as Women in Film were created to help by “promoting equal opportunities for women, encouraging creative projects by women, and expanding and enhancing portrayals of women in all forms of global