The media has a powerful effect on society, the culture and the way we define gender roles. When it comes to anything in life a man is always given more power than a woman. In media men are constructed to be aggressive figures, have financial stability and dominant control. Where as the media constructed women to be nurturing figures, focused on their families and their beauty appearances but not for long. All though we still have a long way to go, a woman’s role has changed enormously over the years and the impact it’s having on our society today is inspiring. For so many years, a woman’s input was restricted and dictated by men. As women across the world, no matter what profession you’re in the common goal is the same. Women want to be treated equally with men, given the same opportunities and respect. For example, let’s discuss women vs men in the entertainment business, specifically television and film.
Growing up being the only child my favorite thing to do was watch a good tv show or movie, mainly movies. I`m currently nineteen years old and maturity of the films I`ve seen the lead characters are men. The supporting role or extra would be given to a woman. And if a woman had a lead role, her story line would be about a man or in every scene she`s discussing a guy along with other female and male characters. I fell in love with acting and wanting to become an actress at a young age and every time I saw a woman playing the lead, I figured one day I can do the same thing. It wasn`t until I got older in my teenage years when I realized how messed up the entertainment business is and how women are not treated fair.
Men have more power, given better opportunities and better roles than women. Majority of directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, and even crew members are men, not to mention men get paid more. It saddens me to know that one day I`ll have to fight, work 10 times harder for a role, pitch my idea of a script to others hoping for their support and to take me serious. And equal pay because of my gender when my talent could speak for itself. But over the last couple years, things are starting to get better for women in the industry, especially black women. I`m grateful for strong black actresses such as Viola Davis lead actress in television show How To Get Away With Murder as Annalise Keating a brillant, charismatic and seductive professor of defense law, that teaches a class on how to get away with murder and also she’s a criminal defense attorney.
Next, Taraji P. Henson main character in the television show called Empire playing the role Cookie Lyon the ex-wife of former drug dealer but now owns multimillion- dollar record label owned by Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), she gets out of prison and demands to claim half of what is hers because after all it was originally funded by the drug money she invested with. Moving on to Gabrielle Union lead role in Being Mary Jane as Mary Jane Paul, a successful cable news anchor who publicly has it all but behind closed doors something isn’t right. Kerry Washington lead role in tv show Scandal as Olivia Pope, a former media consultant to the president and is ready to move on her door but she can’t seem to let the past go. One of the greatest of all time Meryl Streep, many say she`s the best actress of her generation or many critics say she`s the greatest living actress. Meryl Streep has definitely paved the way for all female actresses no matter the race. The list goes on but these women have worked tremendously hard to perfect their craft and took many years in their careers to finally get the respect they deserved and earned.
“Hollywood’s problem with women is well-documented. From female actors who earn less than half than their male colleagues to a lack of equal representation in almost all areas of the movie industry. Now however, high profile actresses are becoming increasingly vocal about sexism they have experienced in Hollywood. ‘It’s constant! It’s how you’re treated, it’s how you’re looked at, it’s how you’re expected to shut up and not have an opinion,’ said actress Ellen Page. Despite years of protests, women are still earning significantly less than men, with Hollywood’s best-compensated actresses making just 40 cents for every dollar that the highest earning men make, according to Slate.
As Salma Hayek pointed out at this year’s Cannes Film festival, the only part of the film industry where women make more than men is in porn. Hollywood’s pay gap came under increased scrutiny last year after leaked emails from Sony Pictures revealed that Jennifer Lawrence received far less than her male colleagues for her role in the Oscar-nominated film American Hustle, despite having equal billing. This year, however, she went on to demand $20 million – double that of her male lead Chris Pratt – for the upcoming film Passengers. But even fewer roles are offered to black and transgender female actors. Viola Davis made history by becoming the first black woman to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series this week and in her acceptance speech, she said: ‘The only thing that separates women of colour from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that simply are not there'(theweek.co.uk).
That speech was so moving, because being a black woman in America is already hard enough. Being a writer, director, and producer the job is to create amazing stories that people can relate too, having the freedom to be able to give opportunity to men and women but more importantly women so why not create roles for women especially of color can keep changing history with their performances. There absolutely should be way more female directors, writers and etc because why not? Women are just as capable, as men are, smarter and have more experience if you ask me. I mean come on women are strong and powerful their ability to carry a child for 9 months and bring a new life into this world is impeccable.
“ Women are also regularly discriminated against based of their age, with the majority of female movie characters in their 20s and 30s, while most male characters were in their 40s and 50s. ‘We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger,’ says actor Helen Mirren, ‘it’s f****** ridiculous” ( theweek.co.uk). The film industry likes new young talent so if they can get a younger aged women but looks older to play an older age even if it’s by a few years that’s what they’d do. So in these films the women would need something from the male character whether it be a young college student, coming on to her professor or the professor seducing her because she has to get that higher grade to pass the class. Or the male character is cheating on his wife with a woman half is age, or the woman’s character isn’t financially stable so she turns to an older guy for the money and etc.
Another example the female character is young and has a dream of becoming a movie star or singer and the male character is older and has been in the business for a while and sells her a false dream. It`s sexics because thats the message is it sending its audience that women are depended on a man for everything and older men in any situation can fix all your problems, they have the higher power. Majority of women in the film industry has experienced sexism, what is sexism?
Sexism is a noun, meaning prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex. At this point in time, we all know sexism exist but the conversation needs to be how can we resolve this issue, how can we change the way women are treated. “ Lexi Alexander, director, Green Street, Lifted spoke out in an article to say “ I would say 99% of women working in the film and television industries have experienced sexism. I can list endless examples, from the driver who refused to take me because he was told to wait for the director (which was me) to the executives who insist they need a male director for a film about boxing and fighting, then hire a guy who never had a fight in his life, while I spent the better part of my youth being an international competitive fighting champion. Once someone said to me: “We really wanted you to direct this movie, but ‘anonymous male action star’ refuses to be directed by a woman” ( theguardian.com).
