The Mary Sue: Of the top 1200 grossing films from 2007 to 2018, only 4% were directed by women. That comes to 48 films total, which is a shockingly small amount. The statistic proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that women are shut out from important directing opportunities, and that they are not given the chance to direct bigger budget films. That has to change if we want to see a more inclusive Hollywood behind the scenes, but we need to change more than just the voices behind the cameras.
3 comments:
This is a really interesting argument. I, and I assume many other people, had never considered who is writing about the criticizing our media. I constantly thinking about the people who create it, but it is just as important, if not more important, to have a diverse group of people commenting on it. Those people have incredible power over what is popular and therefore gets produced more. Changing the makeup of that group from all white men to people of all races and genders could be the best and most efficient way to change what we see in our media. The author also brings up age as another factor of diversity that is not often discussed. I had never considered it, but it makes so much sense that I don't understand why it hasn't happened yet. Films have target audiences, why do they never seem to get feedback from their target group but rather from old white men? I will be sure to pay more attention to who is writing the reviews next time I head to Rotten Tomatoes when deciding what movie I'll be watching next
I always find it interesting to dive deeper into the issue of diversity on all sides of the screen, and this article raises valid points that would seem like common sense to most reasonable people. Why wouldn’t films want members from their targeted audience reviewing their film. Of course with the response to the 4% challenge it would appear that people are open to diversifying those that they work with but there’s always the question of the willingness to actually put forth that effort. Going back to the issues of the journalist it is great to be aware of these problems so that they are in our minds when making decisions. I hope that the mentality of the 4% challenge can be extended beyond the 18 month time frame given and that those who take the challenge realize that we aren’t just hitting checkmarks with being more diverse but we are creating better more meaningful art and enhancing the culture we create it in.
This article brought up something that I had never really considered but now makes a lot of sense to me. What often determines the success of a movie is how it gets reviewed in prestigious newspapers and magazines. If a movie gets a series of bad reviews, it will likely be forgotten and not get a lot of attention. This, however, has the potential to bury many potentially successful movies, simply because the demographic of the people reviewing these movies is not diverse in any way and may not comprehend the importance and quality of certain films. It’s really hard to read these articles and realize just how deeply entrenched the film industry is in a certain way of thinking. I hope more and more people will realize how exclusive the film industry is and how important it is for the industry to become more inclusive because, until people start realizing the extent of the issue, there will not be much of an effort to fix it.
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