(no subject)
You know, I can understand that it's infuriating for fans of female characters to have boyslashers claim they write slash because female characters suck. I think there are plenty of female characters that need defending in such circumstances, or who at the very least could use their good sides pointed out. I also agree that there can be a point to fleshing out poorly developed female characters, although I think that's an excercise no one should be faulted for not finding joyful.
But when the defence goes beyond that to claim that there is no problem with female characters, that the ones who reject them are just misogynically making stuff up so that they can play with the boys in peace... then I'm baffled. So here's a very quick play with statistics I did this morning.
There are fewer women than men in popular media. That's a fact. Of the current box office top ten films in the US (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hairspray, Transformers, Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard, License to Wed, 1408, Evan Almighty, and Knocked Up), none have more women than men among the ten first-named characters on imdb. Only one (Hairspray) has an equal number of women and men among the ten. I'm counting John Travolta as a man, btw, despite his female part. Even if you don't, Hairspray stands out - most of the others had 2 or 3 women among the ten first named chars. ("Ten first named" is a risky method, since some films name the chars in order of importance and others in order of appearance. Without seeing the films, I can't tell which is which. Finally I decided that if eight of the ten first appearing chars are men, that says something too.)
I haven't taken an in-depth look at what the statistics are for fandoms - I don't know how to judge the size of a fandom, and in any case it could be argued that any skew towards male-dominated fandoms like Supernatural and Heroes is in itself caused by misogynist boyslashers. All I did was a very quick breakdown of characters on three shows with iconic women. Veronica Mars was surrounded by men. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an equal number of men and women on the opening credits (though the three characters from the opening credits who end up permanently dead are all women). Battlestar Galactica surprised me - of the seven characters in the s1 opening credits, four are women. Go Galactica!
The biggest stars are men. That's another fact. I went to Forbes.com's list of the ten best paid actors and ten best paid actresses. The full list for men is Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Will Ferrell, Tobey Maguire, Brad Pitt, Ray Romano, Adam Sandler, Will Smith, and Denzel Washington. The full list of women is Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Garner, Patricia Heaton, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, and Naomi Watts. The combined paycheck of the men is $321.5 million dollars. The combined paycheck of the women is $138 million dollars. The best paid woman - Drew Barrymore, $22 million - does not even beat number 10 on the men's list, Brad Pitt at $25 million.
Now, the list is for 2006, so the numbers are probably different now, but they're definitely not different enough.
There's a common complaint among actresses that they go through acting school, learn all the things the men learn, and still end up playing crappy roles. Is this a fact? That's hard to say. "Crappy" is subjective. Emily Watson was highly acclaimed for "Breaking the Waves" in 1996, and it significantly helped her career. It was also the part of a woman who sacrifices herself through a number of crude sexual encounters to help her husband regain his health. By the end of the film, she dies, and he is healed. Good part? Crappy part? That's where opinions come in. The same goes for fandom characters - we can argue until we're blue in the face whether the women are "good" or not. But this I stand by: the "natural" order of things in the media is that there are more men, the men get bigger parts, they get more money, and even stories that supposedly focus on women usually won't have a cast composed of mostly or only women. How to deal with this is the question. Some deal by sticking to the men. Some deal by lifting up the women. Some deal by creating their own women to better suit their needs. Deciding which of these methods is the "best" would require way too much work, and probably end up unbelievably wanky.
And now I really need some breakfast, so I'm cutting off here.
But when the defence goes beyond that to claim that there is no problem with female characters, that the ones who reject them are just misogynically making stuff up so that they can play with the boys in peace... then I'm baffled. So here's a very quick play with statistics I did this morning.
There are fewer women than men in popular media. That's a fact. Of the current box office top ten films in the US (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hairspray, Transformers, Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard, License to Wed, 1408, Evan Almighty, and Knocked Up), none have more women than men among the ten first-named characters on imdb. Only one (Hairspray) has an equal number of women and men among the ten. I'm counting John Travolta as a man, btw, despite his female part. Even if you don't, Hairspray stands out - most of the others had 2 or 3 women among the ten first named chars. ("Ten first named" is a risky method, since some films name the chars in order of importance and others in order of appearance. Without seeing the films, I can't tell which is which. Finally I decided that if eight of the ten first appearing chars are men, that says something too.)
I haven't taken an in-depth look at what the statistics are for fandoms - I don't know how to judge the size of a fandom, and in any case it could be argued that any skew towards male-dominated fandoms like Supernatural and Heroes is in itself caused by misogynist boyslashers. All I did was a very quick breakdown of characters on three shows with iconic women. Veronica Mars was surrounded by men. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an equal number of men and women on the opening credits (though the three characters from the opening credits who end up permanently dead are all women). Battlestar Galactica surprised me - of the seven characters in the s1 opening credits, four are women. Go Galactica!
The biggest stars are men. That's another fact. I went to Forbes.com's list of the ten best paid actors and ten best paid actresses. The full list for men is Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Will Ferrell, Tobey Maguire, Brad Pitt, Ray Romano, Adam Sandler, Will Smith, and Denzel Washington. The full list of women is Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Garner, Patricia Heaton, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, and Naomi Watts. The combined paycheck of the men is $321.5 million dollars. The combined paycheck of the women is $138 million dollars. The best paid woman - Drew Barrymore, $22 million - does not even beat number 10 on the men's list, Brad Pitt at $25 million.
Now, the list is for 2006, so the numbers are probably different now, but they're definitely not different enough.
There's a common complaint among actresses that they go through acting school, learn all the things the men learn, and still end up playing crappy roles. Is this a fact? That's hard to say. "Crappy" is subjective. Emily Watson was highly acclaimed for "Breaking the Waves" in 1996, and it significantly helped her career. It was also the part of a woman who sacrifices herself through a number of crude sexual encounters to help her husband regain his health. By the end of the film, she dies, and he is healed. Good part? Crappy part? That's where opinions come in. The same goes for fandom characters - we can argue until we're blue in the face whether the women are "good" or not. But this I stand by: the "natural" order of things in the media is that there are more men, the men get bigger parts, they get more money, and even stories that supposedly focus on women usually won't have a cast composed of mostly or only women. How to deal with this is the question. Some deal by sticking to the men. Some deal by lifting up the women. Some deal by creating their own women to better suit their needs. Deciding which of these methods is the "best" would require way too much work, and probably end up unbelievably wanky.
And now I really need some breakfast, so I'm cutting off here.