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September 23, 2011
Lacking Leading Ladies
 It’s an unfortunate Hollywood trend: few women in leading roles on the big screen. Of the top 100 grossing films in recent years, less than 33 percent of speaking roles went to females. Rarely do we see women playing characters outside of the “blathering bimbo,” the “sexy sidekick” or the “crazy ex-girlfriend.”
What gives?
"I feel the industry looks at women as a subset of the audience instead of the 50 percent that they make up," Kacy Andrews, CEO of Bigfoot Entertainment, tells PINK. "The state of the industry as a whole is a bit of a mess.”
Andrews says the lack of strong female characters is due to the influx of superhero movies (with little room for women in principal roles) and the corporate mentality in studios today. “The people green-lighting films aren't filmmakers – they're MBA execs and accountants. If they think something will make money, it gets made.”
What can be done? "Getting more women into media corporation boardrooms would be a start,” says Andrews. “As women, we need to show studios that films about women can bring in dollars.” With the recent success of female-driven movies like Bridesmaids and The Help, Andrews hopes this formula can become more prominent.
Oscar-nominated actress Vera Farmiga has been known to burn scripts she receives with watered-down female characters. She directed and starred in Higher Ground, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Women and Hollywood blog founder Melissa Silverstein teamed up with Barnard College’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies to host the first Athena Film Festival, with movies portraying “a celebration of women and leadership.”
Bonus PINK Link: Women are lacking behind the screen as well. Here’s why.
By Keon Jamaal Steele
"Your playing small does not serve the world." Marianne Williamson
*Supporting images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net and Salvatore Vuono
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Comments
misquote?
Ironically I think that quote at the end was first said by nelson Mandela.
Women in Film
Studios are in the business to make money, making money allows them to make more movies. There is nothing wrong with that. I like to be entertained when I go to the movies and one of the movies you listed "Bridesmaids" was absolutely awful, my sister and I walked out, so I wouldn't put that one up as a fine example of what women in movies can do. Of course I also hated male versions. I agree that there are not as many good roles for women in movies, but admit it, how many really good roles are there for men these days. If you really look at it, all those movies with ditzy blondes or screaming teens or helpless women have a male role that is hardly worthy of the acting chops that good actors really have. If you want good movies to be made, put your money where you mouth is and spend money at the box office for good movies, don't wait for it to come out on DVD or Netflix or Pay-per-view. Of course what you and I may disagree on what we consider a good movie.
Women in TV
I have had it with the women on TV.
These new reality shows are terrible. It protrays women as drunken, foul-mouthed, mean women, who sleep around.
The young women growing up today, have poor role models to look up to to emulate.
I had 2 daughters and if they had grown up with this kind of irresponsible behavior and language to watch on TV, I would have turned it off. But, are these mothers turning the TV off???
Look at the current shows with little girls who are dancing and in Beauty Pagents.
I am totally disgusted.
Rubbish
I think this is rubbish. I firmly believe that there are more than enough strong female roles in film. Political correctness has just gone nuts in recent times. We also must remember that film is for entertainment & clearly the decisions made by the studios are for the more popular films, i.e. the ones the people want to see. As a woman in business I really am fed up with hearing how opressed women are. How about take a few decades or 5 back in time & I'll show you opression. Please, please, please, enough with the poor downtrodden women rubbish. Let us just continue to be strong, independant role models & stop worrying about perceived slights. Getting off Soap Box now.
Lacking Leading Ladies - Miss Representation
For those interested in this topic and how women are portrayed in the media overall, check out Miss Representation (www.missrepresentation.org). The best movie - and most meanigful - I've seen all year. PINK should profile the writer/director Jennifer Siebel Newson. Any women who's had a job, been called 'dear' or 'hon', has a daughter or son, or any man who'd like to understand his wife, daughter, colleagues better should see it. Would love to hear what PINK editors/writers have to say about it.