CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, July 03, 2018

Why calling women 'strong female leads' is degrading

www.usatoday.com/story/life: Good news first: Screenwriters are learning that not all women are downer wives, hot girlfriends or shrews. But in a knee-jerk reaction to the times, Hollywood is trying to make up for lost ground, trumpeting every female character as a "strong female lead," someone who's a pitch-perfect blend of tough resolve, intellect and conviction in a man's world.

It's not only grating, it's ... weak.
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1 comment:

Ariella Grossberg said...

I believe that this article has brought to light a huge issue in theater today. Whenever people refer to more dominant female characters as "strong roles/leads" it is essentially saying that any woman that isn't "dominant" is not strong. I am a huge believer in gender equality and this is a huge difference between the genders. Because you will almost never see a more dominant male role as a "strong male lead" because generally speaking audiences typically believe that most males are strong in some way or another. Although the theater industry has gone a long way from casting all women as house wives or submissive characters, I still believe that there is a long way to go before a woman in theater is viewed the exact same way as her male counterpart. Therefore, I think that this article was a great start to shedding a light on the inequality in casting roles.

1:24 PM

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