how the representation of women has changed
How has the representation of women changed?
Despite recent critical successes of films featuring female leads (The Hunger Games, Brave, Beasts of the Southern Wild) and the fact that women ages 12 and over are 51 percent of moviegoers, the study found that women on the big screen remain under-utilized. In film, female characters are on the rise–one-third of all characters in the top 100 grossing films of 2012 were women. However, the percentage of female protagonists in film has fallen from 16 percent in 2002 to only 11 percent in 2012.
The lack of women on screen is a decades-old problem, as male characters have outnumbered female characters 2 to 1 since 1950. And behind the camera, the “Celluloid Ceiling” is still a problem. Less than 10 percent of the directors of the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2012 were women, and women make up only 18 percent of the behind-the-scenes film workforce.
In television, the report found that the percentage of female TV characters has fallen, and the characters that make it on-screen are far less likely to be leaders than their male counterparts. According to the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film’s “Boxed In” report, CW is the only TV network where women can be seen in accurate proportion to their representation in the U.S. population. The authors of “Boxed In” conclude that “female characters are still sidelined, stereotyped, and sexualized in popular entertainment content.”
Things are somewhat looking up for female television news directors; the percentage of women in that arena rose to 30 percent for the first time. But in terms of “ultimate power,” men are still pulling the strings on TV, with women owning less than 7 percent of full-power commercial television stations.
Some of the most watched, and perhaps influential genres of television viewing are advertisements and soap operas, and it is these two forms of television that I will be largely focusing on throughout this essay.
In a world
Despite recent critical successes of films featuring female leads (The Hunger Games, Brave, Beasts of the Southern Wild) and the fact that women ages 12 and over are 51 percent of moviegoers, the study found that women on the big screen remain under-utilized. In film, female characters are on the rise–one-third of all characters in the top 100 grossing films of 2012 were women. However, the percentage of female protagonists in film has fallen from 16 percent in 2002 to only 11 percent in 2012.
The lack of women on screen is a decades-old problem, as male characters have outnumbered female characters 2 to 1 since 1950. And behind the camera, the “Celluloid Ceiling” is still a problem. Less than 10 percent of the directors of the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2012 were women, and women make up only 18 percent of the behind-the-scenes film workforce.
In television, the report found that the percentage of female TV characters has fallen, and the characters that make it on-screen are far less likely to be leaders than their male counterparts. According to the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film’s “Boxed In” report, CW is the only TV network where women can be seen in accurate proportion to their representation in the U.S. population. The authors of “Boxed In” conclude that “female characters are still sidelined, stereotyped, and sexualized in popular entertainment content.”
Things are somewhat looking up for female television news directors; the percentage of women in that arena rose to 30 percent for the first time. But in terms of “ultimate power,” men are still pulling the strings on TV, with women owning less than 7 percent of full-power commercial television stations.
Some of the most watched, and perhaps influential genres of television viewing are advertisements and soap operas, and it is these two forms of television that I will be largely focusing on throughout this essay.
In a world