In the article “In Hollywood, It’s a Men’s, Men’s, Men’s World”, Dargis discusses how there is a disparity when it comes to female directors and actors compared to male directors and actors. By the end of 2014, the six major studios only released three films directed by women, a number that is far too low, despite the fact that half of the films submitted to Sundance are directed by women. Ava DuVernay directed Middle of Nowhere and she won The Best Direction award at Sundance. Despite winning an award from one of the most renowned independent film festivals, she received no offers to do any future directorial projects.
Yet, in 2012, Colin Trevorrow had his film Safety Guaranteed shown at Sundance, and he subsequently got an offer to direct Jurassic World, a movie that is part of a multi-million dollar franchise. This could be
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This might be an indication of how Hollywood isn’t quite ready to portray more cultural diversity, no matter what they say. Networks executives are looking for more television shows with female protagonists, yet in films, there is such a despairingly low percentage of female protagonists. Ava DuVernay’s backstory and Selma are both representations on how Hollywood has come far, but is still regressive in some instances.
Hollywood is trying to check off all the boxes, by nominating culturally diverse films for awards, but at the end of the day, those films rarely ever win. To put it into context, 12 Years a Slave won the award for Best Motion Picture of the Year in 2014, but most of the characters in this film are white, and the film is centered on slavery, a topic that practically everyone can sympathize with. Voting and human rights is not a topic that many people can identify with, mainly because many people innately have these rights. They don’t have to fight for them, so they can’t see the
People of all races and religious backgrounds joined forces. Race Relations Selma, would not be a movie about race, if there was scenes about race relations.
Similarly, she discusses how many female directors were afraid to even attempt to direct a Wonder Woman film (149). Altogether, Howell argues many valid points along with examples of the gender bias in popular culture. With her focus on DC Comics and their failed attempts to market and produce a film for a character, such as Wonder Woman, was a solid representation of the gender bias that has and continues to exist in popular culture. Charlotte E. Howell argued many great points in her article, “Tricky” Connotations: Wonder Woman as DC’s Brand Disruptor.” Just as DC Comics had
Films like “12 Years a Slave” (2013) and “Selma” (2014) offer a more accurate representation of the history of slavery and the civil rights movement, and give a voice to the black characters and their experiences. The representation of black women in American cinema has been particularly limited. Black women are often underrepresented or misrepresented in film, and when they are present, they are often portrayed as mammy figures or as sexual objects. This has changed with the emergence of black women filmmakers like Ava DuVernay, Dee Rees and Ryan Coogler.
For this film, Queen Latifah uses physicality as a main way to communicate information about the themes of the film. Queen Latifah is able to capture her character’s empowerment through the two primary elements in an actor’s performance, gestures and voice. Bessie is a powerful, confident, and fearless character. She is neither afraid to stand up to authority nor the white male establishment in a time where woman, especially black woman did not. In the scene where the KKK showed up to her South Carolina show (0:57:04-1:00:55), Latifah perfectly portrays Bessie’s willingness to confront conflict and her star quality on stage, elements of empowerment, which are representative of her character throughout the film.
Hollywood fails to represent the growing diversity in America, equally showcases the growing minorities, and break the growing racial bias cycle.
In the movie “A League of Their Own”, one can see how the more sexist views of the culture in the 1940s and 50s in America was present in the Girls Professional Baseball League. “A League of Their Own” is a movie about what was once the “All-American Girls Professional Baseball League” which was formed when the young men were sent over to serve in World War II. One of the most obvious cultural views that this movie shows is the feminizing of the baseball players to make them “more acceptable and women like”. Unlike men’s uniforms, that include a full shirt and pants, they were to wear skirts that were very short, too short to play baseball in comfortably. This alone shows how this league was just as much about show as it was about the women’s talent.
Over the last few decades, various films and television shows have started to introduce strong female protagonists with a story arc that does not revolve around its male counterparts. To truly test the extent of involvement of female characters in a film, the Bechdel-Wallace Test or as many know it as the Bechdel Test was created. The Bechdel Test was named after Alison Bechdel, the creator of the comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” in a segment called “The Rule”. For a film to pass the test, it must meet the following criteria: 1) “Have at least two named women 2) The women speak to each other 3) Their conversations are about anything but, the man” If the answer is yes to all the criteria, the film passes the Bechdel Test.
The film Corpus: A Home Movie About Selena (1999) by Lourdes Portillo, is a documentary about the famous singer Selena Quintanilla. The documentary features many of Selena’s performances and fashion. Additionally, it shows how Selena was looked up to by many women and how her fashion, ethnicity, and body type changed the way people view female celebrities. Additionally, the documentary shows news reports on Selena’s tragic death and how she was murdered when she was 23 by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar. Many people were shocked and devastated by her tragic death since she was viewed as a role model and a Mexican-American icon that helped show young girls that you do not have to have blonde hair in order to become successful.
It’s a classic comparison. Ancient vs modern. Misogyny vs liberation through love. The Taming of The Shrew vs 10 Things I Hate About You. Are these films love stories about men liberating women, or are they exercises in misogyny?
Through Marling’s conversation with a man within the industry, he attempted to focus on “why it can be hard for any woman to find and voice ‘no’”(Marling). With pressure to meet male approval through any means necessary, women are often afraid to voice their own opinion or act on their intentions with the fear of losing their career. Through this, Marling realizes that these limitations conflict heavily with her political and moral values, and makes the executive decision to switch over to the writing process of film-making. Through this process, Marling highlighted how her experiences provided her with a larger range of
Get Out is a horror film released earlier this year in February. The film centers on Chris Washington, a black man, and his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage. Rose invites Chris to a weekend trip to meet her parents. When meeting Chris, Rose’s parents are overly accommodating towards Chris and constantly speak about how much they love President Obama and other African-American people. Chris attributes this as awkward attempts to deal with their interracial relationship.
She even won an Empire Award. Despite that, she also said in the interview that strong women with great stories are being portrayed in several films and series. When asked about modern films, she said that she doesn't like how woman are being currently portrayed, stating that the characters are always at the verge of rape. She prefers doing historical female characters with a strong story to tell the world, such as her next movie.
In an article, Mary Sollosi who is a part of Film Critics argues that: “Sexism is still alive ridiculously few films being made with female protagonist, that there are even fewer being helped by directors” (Sollosi
Although superhero movies have become some of the most popular and successful movies of the 21st century, most of these movies have been about men and focused on their trials and triumphs while also creating and perpetrating negative stereotypes of women. The female superhero movie falls into one of three gendered stereotypes: the victim, the tomboy and the bombshell. In the first category, the victim constantly finds herself at the centre of trouble and requires the main man in the movie to swoop in and save her as she is a passive and weak character. The bombshell tends to be highly sexualised, wearing tight clothes and given a ‘femme fatale’ characterisation, not physically powerful but manipulative and unscrupulous. The tomboy is a strong
Music. Magazines. Movies. These words all have one thing in common: they are all forms of media. Media is found everywhere we look at all times of day.