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Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Women Only Spoke 27% of Dialogue in 2016's Top Films
The Mary Sue: You would think that with female-led films like Rogue One making bank and Ghostbusters: Answer the Call generating backlash that we must be making huge amounts of progress when it comes to gender parity in film. You’d be wrong.
7 comments:
Marisa Rinchiuso
said...
This article was definitely a healthy dose of reality. I know for myself, I often think so liberally that I assume others do so too. However, reminders, such as this article, continue to pop up and remind me that there is still so much disparity between the work of men and women, particularly in Hollywood. It is almost ironic because I associate Hollywood with being one of the most liberal, and fore-thinking lines of work in the world. On the contrary however, it always seems to be the most shockingly responsible for gender bias. For a while it was due to the fact that most of the roles for women were small roles or side characters, but there is no excuse now when you have the leading lady of the film, being outspoken and overshadowed by their male counterparts. I think this gives the wrong message to young girls watching these movies. I hope that writers can create and publishers produce more work that create strong role models for young women.
I've never really sat down and thought about the gender disparity in the amount of dialogue by gender, but this article has shed a lot of light on it. Even the movies that I assume would be relatively progressive have most of the dialogue spoken by men. It's not good enough to just cast a female protagonist if they're going to be surrounded by men. Like Marissa said, this really doesn't send a good message to girls watching these movies. I don't think it's a coincidence that the two movie with the highest percentages of female dialogue were both about animated animals. It almost seems like people are afraid to cast multiple women in leading roles in live-action movies. I know a lot of people hold the belief that a female lead will drive away or alienate audiences, which may be why studios tend to fill female-lead films with male characters. With the growing popularity of movies like Hidden Figures, which has mostly women in lead roles, we might see in change in this in the future. For now it's just important to remember that a movie shouldn't be given a pass for having one female in a significant role.
Ghostbusters and Rogue One placed female characters in lead roles previously held by men, be it in a previous movie or in a fictional world. I think that superhero movies are part of the problem. That kind of movie is going to be dominated by a single character, and most superhero characters are still men. Adding to a series with the same general format and same character is going add to male word count. In that sense, those two movies were a step forward. I agree with the author that in pushing for lead female characters, it is easy to forget to demand that females also stay in minor character roles. Like the article about the problem of the strong female character says, women should be able to appear in action movies without being 2-dimensional or outnumbered by men (because she is strong, and defies her stereotypical gender norms). This article also made me realize that I can think of movies where a major female character has female friends, or male, or both, but that major male characters seem to just have other male friends.
Even though I already knew women are severely underrepresented in movies, this article is still disappointing. As this article says, I think I let a handful of movies with female leads trick me into thinking that there was better representation of women in film than there really is. Looking at the info-graphic makes the problem being described even clearer, especially when it comes to movies like Rogue One. I would be curious to see an info-graphic like this for Hidden Figures, which I think was a very important step forward in terms of telling the stories of women in film, though I do realize it didn’t fit the criteria for this particular project. I agree with the point this article makes about screenwriters failing to actual portray the world accurately as long as they ignore women’s contribution to the world, and I really think writing a significant number of female characters who actually have something to say is the least they can do. That being said, I do think it is relevant that these were the highest grossing films. In the end, we all decide what movies we are going to see, and we vote with our money. If we as a society decide to go see (and therefore support) movies that tell the stories of women, we can pressure the industry to tell more of those stories.
Aw jeez. This article was upsetting to read, but it was also very eye-opening. I, like everyone else it seems, fell prey to the Rogue One trick. If you asked me which top 2016 movie I thought had the most female dialogue, I would not say Finding Dory. Of course, in that movie, the female is a fish, so I'm not sure how much I'm gonna count that as a groundbreaking feminist movie. The way I feel right now is how I felt after discovering the Bechdel test. Something that seems so basic, but so many movies did not pass the test. Why are female characters not in movies? And when they are in movies, why do they have no dialogue? Why are we stuck in the dark ages? It really is interesting how we were all so blind to the Rogue One thing. I think if you asked anyone about Rogue One in regards to feminism, they would have only positive things to say. There was a female lead, and a whole lot of men, but it still seems like a feminist movie. Imagine if the situation were switched around, and there was a male lead with an almost entirely female supporting cast, and it wasn't a rom com. That would be CRAZY. We have so many steps to make, guys. We just gotta keep on going.
articles like these are always so eye opening to me. It is never until I open up these articles and read that only '27% of dialogue was spoken by women in films this year' that I would ever considered there be this large of a difference. My obliviousness in and of itself is saying something because why should I ever suspect this? and yet it still is true. I like how they author described this sensation at the end of her article. She explains that women are all around. They are your mothers, daughters, friends, and coworkers. So why then, are they not in our movies? Although we have a long way to go when it comes to this sensation, I think we as women have come a long way in this industry. There is still a very long way to go, but we women are not going to stop now.
This is one of those issues that, thankfully, have come to greater societal realization in the decade. It's one of those things you never really pay attention to: the dialogue of women. Ok, sure. She's just another character saying something in the movie to further along the plot but I never really noticed just how little there is and how little significance it usually holds. This can have an awfully negative effect since it's a subliminal message pointed directly at our society. On the brighter side, even though it's nowhere close to ideal, 27% is a higher number than I've seen in earlier years so things are definitely getting better and moving forward. After all, we've seen major film production companies putting out movies with major female protagonists. Anyways, I'm loving that directors and producers are putting a lot more thought into this and personally, even if the chick is bad ass and chops people's heads off in the movie, which ever road they take to a greater future for actresses, I'm alright as long as it shares a common goal. Keep it coming 2017!
7 comments:
This article was definitely a healthy dose of reality. I know for myself, I often think so liberally that I assume others do so too. However, reminders, such as this article, continue to pop up and remind me that there is still so much disparity between the work of men and women, particularly in Hollywood. It is almost ironic because I associate Hollywood with being one of the most liberal, and fore-thinking lines of work in the world. On the contrary however, it always seems to be the most shockingly responsible for gender bias. For a while it was due to the fact that most of the roles for women were small roles or side characters, but there is no excuse now when you have the leading lady of the film, being outspoken and overshadowed by their male counterparts. I think this gives the wrong message to young girls watching these movies. I hope that writers can create and publishers produce more work that create strong role models for young women.
I've never really sat down and thought about the gender disparity in the amount of dialogue by gender, but this article has shed a lot of light on it. Even the movies that I assume would be relatively progressive have most of the dialogue spoken by men. It's not good enough to just cast a female protagonist if they're going to be surrounded by men. Like Marissa said, this really doesn't send a good message to girls watching these movies. I don't think it's a coincidence that the two movie with the highest percentages of female dialogue were both about animated animals. It almost seems like people are afraid to cast multiple women in leading roles in live-action movies. I know a lot of people hold the belief that a female lead will drive away or alienate audiences, which may be why studios tend to fill female-lead films with male characters. With the growing popularity of movies like Hidden Figures, which has mostly women in lead roles, we might see in change in this in the future. For now it's just important to remember that a movie shouldn't be given a pass for having one female in a significant role.
Ghostbusters and Rogue One placed female characters in lead roles previously held by men, be it in a previous movie or in a fictional world. I think that superhero movies are part of the problem. That kind of movie is going to be dominated by a single character, and most superhero characters are still men. Adding to a series with the same general format and same character is going add to male word count. In that sense, those two movies were a step forward. I agree with the author that in pushing for lead female characters, it is easy to forget to demand that females also stay in minor character roles. Like the article about the problem of the strong female character says, women should be able to appear in action movies without being 2-dimensional or outnumbered by men (because she is strong, and defies her stereotypical gender norms). This article also made me realize that I can think of movies where a major female character has female friends, or male, or both, but that major male characters seem to just have other male friends.
Even though I already knew women are severely underrepresented in movies, this article is still disappointing. As this article says, I think I let a handful of movies with female leads trick me into thinking that there was better representation of women in film than there really is. Looking at the info-graphic makes the problem being described even clearer, especially when it comes to movies like Rogue One. I would be curious to see an info-graphic like this for Hidden Figures, which I think was a very important step forward in terms of telling the stories of women in film, though I do realize it didn’t fit the criteria for this particular project. I agree with the point this article makes about screenwriters failing to actual portray the world accurately as long as they ignore women’s contribution to the world, and I really think writing a significant number of female characters who actually have something to say is the least they can do. That being said, I do think it is relevant that these were the highest grossing films. In the end, we all decide what movies we are going to see, and we vote with our money. If we as a society decide to go see (and therefore support) movies that tell the stories of women, we can pressure the industry to tell more of those stories.
Aw jeez. This article was upsetting to read, but it was also very eye-opening. I, like everyone else it seems, fell prey to the Rogue One trick. If you asked me which top 2016 movie I thought had the most female dialogue, I would not say Finding Dory. Of course, in that movie, the female is a fish, so I'm not sure how much I'm gonna count that as a groundbreaking feminist movie. The way I feel right now is how I felt after discovering the Bechdel test. Something that seems so basic, but so many movies did not pass the test. Why are female characters not in movies? And when they are in movies, why do they have no dialogue? Why are we stuck in the dark ages? It really is interesting how we were all so blind to the Rogue One thing. I think if you asked anyone about Rogue One in regards to feminism, they would have only positive things to say. There was a female lead, and a whole lot of men, but it still seems like a feminist movie. Imagine if the situation were switched around, and there was a male lead with an almost entirely female supporting cast, and it wasn't a rom com. That would be CRAZY. We have so many steps to make, guys. We just gotta keep on going.
articles like these are always so eye opening to me. It is never until I open up these articles and read that only '27% of dialogue was spoken by women in films this year' that I would ever considered there be this large of a difference. My obliviousness in and of itself is saying something because why should I ever suspect this? and yet it still is true. I like how they author described this sensation at the end of her article. She explains that women are all around. They are your mothers, daughters, friends, and coworkers. So why then, are they not in our movies? Although we have a long way to go when it comes to this sensation, I think we as women have come a long way in this industry. There is still a very long way to go, but we women are not going to stop now.
This is one of those issues that, thankfully, have come to greater societal realization in the decade. It's one of those things you never really pay attention to: the dialogue of women. Ok, sure. She's just another character saying something in the movie to further along the plot but I never really noticed just how little there is and how little significance it usually holds. This can have an awfully negative effect since it's a subliminal message pointed directly at our society. On the brighter side, even though it's nowhere close to ideal, 27% is a higher number than I've seen in earlier years so things are definitely getting better and moving forward. After all, we've seen major film production companies putting out movies with major female protagonists. Anyways, I'm loving that directors and producers are putting a lot more thought into this and personally, even if the chick is bad ass and chops people's heads off in the movie, which ever road they take to a greater future for actresses, I'm alright as long as it shares a common goal. Keep it coming 2017!
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