Women and Hollywood: There's no denying that women have faced sexism in the entertainment industry since its inception, but actresses in particular have it especially tough as a result of ridiculous standards of beauty.
Earlier this month, a video from a project called "Casting Call" went viral. The clip draws attention to the frustratingly sexist way women’s roles are often advertised in casting calls.
5 comments:
I spent years hating the way I looked, being uncomfortable in my own skin, thinking I wasn't worth anything because I didn't look like I'd been plucked from a magazine. I never showed my skin. I spent hours in the bathroom, often more than once a day, doing my hair and fixing my makeup. I covered my stomach, rarely smiled for fear of showing my braces, and was frequently told by my peers that I "looked alright without the glasses."
After years of fighting against myself for the love I deserve, I can finally wear a bikini without sucking in my stomach, walk out the door not caring whether I'm wearing a face full of makeup or none at all, and let my hair dry in the wind as I walk to class.
But my fight is far from over.
I have begun to miss the invisibility I once loathed, as every day I watch men look me up and down when I cross the street, stand a little closer to me when I wear my leggings, and blame me for being stand-offish as they claim they were "only trying to be nice" by talking to me. And somehow, I am supposed to be flattered. Grateful, even.
What I have come to is the sickening realization that as a woman, the world in which I live makes it impossible for me to ever be fully comfortable in my own skin. Someone is always going to have an opinion that they think matters more than my own. And no man, despite any and all best and pure intentions, will ever be able to fully empathize with me. They will never know what it is like to look at every member of the opposite gender as a potential threat.
So what am I supposed to do - sit around and pity myself? This seems to be what is expected of me, anyway. Otherwise, somehow, I am a moderately attractive feminist who is - what a shock - actually pretty without makeup. Well screw that. I am exactly who I say I am, smart and beautiful and funny and talented, all that and a bag of chips. I will never be perfect and I don't want to be. What I want is to walk down the street in my favorite shorts, feeling comfortable and happy, knowing that I look and feel good, without wondering if the guy behind me is checking me out. Maybe it won't happen in my lifetime, but I know that I am human and I will scream it from the rooftops for the rest of the world to hear if I have to. And the man who can't respect me for anything more than the way I look will have a much harder time learning to respect himself once I take his job.
No woman should ever have to go through what the women in this video do. But now that we know their abuse, we can begin the process of making their circumstances better. It is a never-ending process. But it is one I will endure until a woman's success is the least shocking thing about her.
This video really got at me. Some of the casting call were undeniably funny, but only when you stop thinking about the blatant sexism that drives them. It is just disgusting how these directors and writers (usually male) only think about the stereotypes surrounding women instead of writing and casting interesting, complex women. Many of the casting calls bordered on the ridiculous. I went to the blog form which this project started, and it didn’t get any better. All of the casting calls focused on looks and were only for young women. This really shows how real life needs to be shown on stage and film more. The video shoots done with these casting calls don’t contribute anything to society, they are just a really creepy way to objectify women. I really hope that this video shed some light onto this issue, but I know that our overall society will have to change before things like this stop.
A lot of these sounded like they were casting calls for pornography, and when it comes to those ones, if they weren’t, that is just disturbing. I think some of the most telling casting calls were the ones looking for young women, but with a much large acceptable age range for men. I think it could be interesting to see an analysis of casting calls for women as opposed to those for men comparing things like average age, how much appearance is stressed, and other factors. These casting calls were ridiculous, but after seeing this video I do wonder how these compare to the average casting call. That being said, I think this was a very interesting project as it gives a look into a world that most people don’t see. The one that surprised me the most (as someone who knows very little about what casting calls typically look like) was probably the “performance space is limited one” just because it so blatantly made no sense.
The entertainment industry is sexist? What do you mean? It’s not like the only women you seen in movies are immaculately groomed or viewed as sex objects at all. It’s not as if some movies show young women in relationships with older men. Nonsense. The sexism in entertainment is a stain on our society. It reinforces society’s ridiculous expectations for women. We are expected to look “perfect” like we just stepped off the cover of a magazine. But those women aren’t real. They’re made up and photo-shopped to meet society’s standards. As teenagers we all try to meet these horrible standards. Caking our faces, squeezing and pushing our bodies into forms that shouldn’t be in. Bigger boobs, bigger butt, smaller waist, thinner eyebrows, larger eyes, longer neck, longer legs. It’s terrible. And when you don’t meet these standards, because they are virtually impossible to meet, you end up hating the body you live in. It’s cruel and unusual and casting calls like this do not help.
I watched this video when one of the freshman actors posted it to facebook. Most of the descriptions speak for themselves. These ideas of an “unattractive feminist”, “a non-speaking woman who the man falls in love with”, and all of this emphasis put on sexualizing women’s body parts are so harmful, yet so widespread. I can’t imagine what it’s like for an actress to read these casting calls and, probably, in a lot of cases, audition for them, even if they don’t agree with them morally, because it’s already hard enough to find work as an actress without being “picky” about what roles you go for. The fact that these stereotypes are accepted and even encouraged in the entertainment industry makes me so upset, but it’s no surprise. I shared a similar sentiment in my comment on the article about misogyny in theater, but i really do think these ideas start from the very top and trickle down. All male production teams lead to all male playwrights lead to all male casts with shallow, unsatisfying female roles which leads to casting calls such as the ones read aloud here, along with a lack of female representation in the design and technician fields as well.
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