Film study: Men talk and women show skin

[misters]

When it comes to movie roles, women tend to be seen and not heard.

An analysis of the 100 top-grossing movies of 2008 shows that men had 67% of the speaking roles; women had about half that, 33%.

Men also were far more likely to work behind the camera. For every five male directors, writers or producers, there was one female.

At the same time, female

Comments

[adirtylollipop]

In other news, water is wet and the Pope reveals his deep Catholicism.

[misters]

i've been hearing some rumors about bears in the woods lately.

[katie_g_lynn]

So true. The Transformers movies are famous for being nonstop sexual objectification of women, and they have been some of the highest grossing summer flicks. I think part of the problem, though, is a large majority of people don't care. I know a lot of people get really defensive when I say anything along those lines and they just slip into the "DONT TELL ME HOW TO SPEND MY HARD EARNED AMERICAN DOLLARS THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY BLAH BLAH BLAH..." Not saying this to be defeatist...I just think we have a long way to go. It helps to see some people getting more and more vocal about it.

[iteari]

I've met some male "feminists" who, when I talked about the sexism on rom-coms and such, were more than happy to agree on. When I brought up Transformers and Taken and other movies similar to those, they got angry at me and wrote me off as being "too serious."

I've been noticing that even women are more willing to critique on girly films but not as much heat on the more masculine sort of movies.

That shit needs to stop.

[ms_mmelissa]

I agree with this 100%. It's why I refuse to see Hollywood Blockbusters anymore (not missing out on much, they're mostly crap anyway).

The only way I'll go to see a movie now is if it's an interesting looking indie or a foreign film because those movies are more likely to have strong and interesting female leads (and supporting casts).

If you look at the best actor vs best actress nominees at the Oscars you'll notice that most of the men were in high-grossing blockbusters while the women are more likely to star in films that were indies. It's not that Hollywood wants to be generous and bring attention to these smaller films, it's that indie movies are far more likely to have strong female characters.

[implodes]

thanks for posting this.

[littlehayzay]

I was thinking about the film Bridesmaids - I have mixed feelings about it - on one hand, I'm pleased that two women wrote it, all of the leading stars are women, but on the other hand - a man is directing it and men are producing it - it also isn't particularly a movie of substance and I'm guessing (based on some of the adverts) it will likely have a lot of negative stereotypes about women, particularly the bridezilla/shrew.