polygraph.cool: Lately, Hollywood has been taking so much shit for rampant sexism and racism. The prevailing theme: white men dominate movie roles.
But it’s all rhetoric and no data, which gets us nowhere in terms of having an informed discussion. How many movies are actually about men? What changes by genre, era, or box-office revenue? What circumstances generate more diversity?
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I’m all about the data analysis. For so long people have been noticing these trends of women speaking so much less than men, but there has never been any concrete data to support the claims. There was too much hearsay, but the authors of this article have put together an impressive amount of data in various charts that layout the information in impactful ways. I especially like the 2,005 screenplays: dialogue broken-down by gender chart because it gave each movie one dot, and the left side had a waterfall of movies dominated by male dialogue. There are so many movies on that side that it covers the text below, making it annoying to read- only increasing the impact of the chart. The final chart of percent of lines by actor’s age was depressing to see because it shows how male actors can have much longer careers while after
turning 31, female actors are going to find it harder to get work.
I know I’ve commented on articles related to gender equality in movies in the past saying I wished that there was a statistical analysis. I’ve never disagreed with the claim, but I’ve always wanted something more concrete than a handful of examples. This analysis is not only impressively extensive, but also the way the information is being conveyed is fantastic. The charts are easy to ready quickly, and being able to see what the specific movies are, and even look movies up, really helps viewers understand the data.
Presentation aside, the gender disparity in movies is ridiculous and stupid. Having individual movies be predominantly male isn’t a problem, but as this analysis shows, it isn’t individual movies, it is the entire industry. That is not only limiting the opportunities for great actresses to perform, but it is also limiting the stories that are told, and therefore the stories that are heard. Cutting half the population out of one of the main sectors of our media, and therefore out of an aspect of our culture is just wrong.
Finally, now can people stop complainaing about not having enough “concrete data” or that “statistics can be exageratted” in terms of gender disparity in entertainment? It’s great that these people have put together such a large and visually easy to take in database that clearly illustrates the sexism still present within the industry, but this definitely isn’t the first time this information has been put in front of us. I can only hope that this graphic will change the minds of some people who think that we are living in a world of equality, but I can’t help but think that those likely to look at this graph already agree with what it states. It’s incredibly sad that even in Disney, a company dominated by princess films, male characters dominate female characters. The fact that films with female protagonists (such as Mulan) still have way more lines for male characters shows how embedded into our brains this disparity is; even fake, animated men have more to say than women ever will. It’s so apparant to me, both through media and real life, how much people subconsciously listen more carefully and more attentively to what men have to say than what women do. Even in our freshman class that is majority female, guys speak overwhelmingly more in our participatory classes like drafting and stagecraft, not because the girls have anything less to say or because the boys feel more qualified in what they are saying, but just because that is how we all have been trained and conditioned to act. I think the path to equality is a 2-step process; realization and implementation.
Remember that one adage about how children should be "seen, not heard?" Seeing the cold, hard data on exactly how large a role women play in film brings that to mind. This brings about my weekly comment about the sorry state of gender parity in modern entertainment. That women can be marginalized and exploited, not only by being misrepresented and oversexualized, but also by simply being left out, or included as set dressings rather than fully developed characters, is something that is vitally important to realize in order to achieve greater gender parity in the entertainment-oriented workplace. The spare and jarring graphics in this article only serve to drive home the point that women are simply ignored, that the stories of women are not valuable or interesting enough to sell movie tickets, or that women themselves are not valuable enough to merit attention or representation. This belief, so utterly prevalent and obviously prevalent in the film industry, is one that needs to be addressed immediately, either by a sudden shift in hiring practices, or by a change in what stories we decide to tell the world, and with who we choose to tell them.
The diagrams and graphics in this article were stunning, and their interactivity was a definite plus - two things that helped truly illustrate the underrepresentation of women in Hollywood. I was rather shocked in looking at the data points for Disney movies. I was flabbergasted by how many purportedly female led movies were actually dominated by male dialogue. Another difficult chart was the one that broke down dialogue by age range, within gender. It was hard to see just how women are utilized in film, and to confront the narrow window in which they are at their "peak value".
While this project could still use some development, it definitely deserves to be pushed further. The simplicity with which the data is displayed makes this incredibly valuable for both its simplicity, as well as its fluidity and intelligent, user friendly execution. It makes the facts hard to miss, and should give many much to think about.
This analysis shows a decades-old, industry-wide issue. This time, naysayers can’t argue that men have more roles in just in certain genres, like action movies. Even Disney Princess movies, a product marketed to girls and starring women, are for the most part dominated by male dialogue. But the graph I’d like to focus on was the one the represents the number of lines broken up by age-range. In almost every single heterosexual, romantic relationship portrayed on screen the man will be older than the woman, unless it’s a plot point that she’s an “older woman.” Furthermore, basically almost every person that fits the “strong, female character” trope that has risen up in entertainment is at very most under 40. Maybe it is less about having strong, female roles models and more about that fact that executives have realized that their audiences prefer their T&A with a little attitude. Because in my life, almost every single one of my personal female role models are over 40, so why isn’t this reality reflected in movies? Just because those women are not considered hot enough? The movie industry has a long way to go and a lot of work to do the rid itself of this intuitional sexism.
Well I'm so glad that there is finally concrete evidence for what many of us have seen for a very long time. I think now when people dispute inequality in the arts we have real facts to back it up. I think what is so interesting about looking through this information is that it not only confirms that women speak less in films it confirms that as women age they become less useful in film. When we wonder why women feel pressure not to age, or feel as though they must look 18 for the rest of their lives to be able to do well. Women need to be a more active part of the arts, but we also need to talk more about how they are seen and by putting women on television what we are telling young people. When young girls see women in movies who are 10 feet tall and 2 pounds and supposed to be 50 when they are actually 35 it teaches us that we are not allowed to just be who we are, and that we have to mold ourselves to that very doctored and unattainable standard. Young girls deserve to have better television role models than I had growing up. When I think about the women I adore it always the real ones, because they remind me of me, and don't make me feel like I'm not enough. There is a market in teaching girls that being normal is okay, and that we don't have to be perfect to be good. I am very glad that these people have presented their facts and that we finally have inequality down on paper, I hope that it can influence some change.
And the numbers confirm what we knew all along; women don’t have equal ground in movies. I’m glad that some hard data was gathered on the subject, but that raises the question; who didn’t believe this until they had numbers? It’s just very strange to think that there were people out there who heard women arguing for equal ground in movies and said ‘hm, I don’t know that your feelings are valid. I need scientific data’. In a certain way, that’s a very closed minded viewpoint. It’s basically saying ‘I value data over the collective opinion expressed by thousands of women’. At a certain point, you just have to trust that when a group says they are being under-represented that they are being under-represented. And while this data is an extremely useful tool, it’s still missing a few points. Like the fact that female characters are often objectified or sexualized in films to the extreme whereas their male counterparts are not. It also doesn’t take in to account whether the female characters are even complete, whole characters. Because it often happens that I’ll watch a movie with a female lead and find myself thinking ‘it’s so obvious a man wrote this’ or ‘why does the lead female get no character development?’. So while I’m happy that there are some solid numbers to attach to the women-aren’t-equal argument, we really shouldn’t need them.
This issue just continually becomes more interesting and complex. It's really not that strange of an idea, since men have flooded the entertainment industry for long before women were considered "able to work", and have kept that tradition going by continually hiring other men, how are women supposed to break through any part of the industry? Until women exist at all levels of the corporate ladder, I don't necessarily think that gender will be a non question. While I'm sure that many of the men who work in the entertainment industry wouldn't consider themselves sexist, It's quite clear that only men are being written for, and only men are being hired as producers and chairs that take on projects that happen to require more male actors than female actors. It's a vicious cycle which all revolves around the fact that men are making all of the decisions in the first place, without any female voices to remind to tell them otherwise. Without those important female voices at all levels, it seems the cycle continues.
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