Hollywood and the Treatment of Women
Hollywood is undoubtedly the largest and most successful industry in film, Hollywood leads the way and has done since its inception in the early 1900’s. However, the way in which women have been treated and represented within The Hollywood Film Industry needs to change.
Off Screen:
It is to no surprise that during the early days of Hollywood, it was nearly impossible for a woman to be given an important role or to be taken seriously in a male dominated industry in a patriarchal society. “Women are oppressed within the film industry, they are receptionists, secretaries, odd job girls, prop girls etc.” (Feminist Film Theory A Reader ,1999). “Women had only two avenues for becoming Hollywood directors: as film actresses or as secretaries/production assistants who worked their way up through the ranks of the system”. (Feminist Hollywood From Born In Flames To Point Break , 2000). These quotes express the view that in the past a woman’s role in the Hollywood Film Industry would primarily be the less important jobs, and that if a woman wanted a more serious role then she would have to work extremely hard (harder than the male opposition) to work her way up the system for a chance to prove herself worthy of a more significant role. Some may argue that these views are outdated, and that now, much like other areas of society, men and women have become more equal.
On the surface it may look like this, but once you delve deeper
into the Hollywood Film Industry it becomes extremely clear that there is still
a significant imbalance between the men and women working in Hollywood. IMDB’s top 85 Hollywood Films of 2018 list reveals that only 2 of the 85 films were directed by women. 'The Centre For The Study Of Women InTelevision And Film', is an organisation which for the last 20 years has
documented the representation of women within the industry. Each year The Centre
develops a study which tracks the employment levels of women in the year’s top grossing
films. “In 2017, women comprised 18% of all directors, writers, producers,
executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 grossing
films”. Taken from last year’s study, these statistics show that a clear imbalance
still exists in the employment of women in Hollywood. In an interview with
Jodie Foster (Actor, Director, Producer) Filmmaker Jack Howard explores why this
could be.
On Screen:
The inaccurate or negative portrayal of women in film is
largely due to the lack of women who have creative control when making films. In
1973, Laura Mulvey argued “That the textual systems of classical cinema fix a
particular kind of viewing process, specifically a ‘Male Gaze’, that positions
men as active subjects and women as passive objects. Classical Hollywood films
offer no position for female or feminist spectators”. (Feminist Hollywood From Born In Flames To Point Break, 2000). This
theory suggests that the presence of female characters in films is for male
viewing pleasure, in roles which are supporting the male protagonist, often as a
romantic interest. A perfect example of a female character presented in a voyeuristic
way for male viewing purposes is Princess Leia wearing nothing but a gold bikini
in Star Wars Return Of The Jedi (1983).
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| Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, 1983 |
Out of the top 250 grossing films in 2015, only 22% of
protagonists were women, and women possessed only 33% of speaking roles, 76% of
which, the women were White and in their 20s. This supports the idea that the
purpose of women in film is to support their male leads. Many female characters
are based strongly on gender stereotypes, which is not an accurate portrayal of
women, but plays up to the sexualised, over feminine roles created to support
men. In comparison to this, ‘strong’ female characters are often presented to
only be strong as they have masculine traits, which again can be an inaccurate
portrayal. Not all female characters are written badly, but we need to get to a
point where an accurate representation of women is the rule and not the exception.
An example of a film with good representation of women both on and off screen is DC’s 2017 Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins. Wonder Woman demonstrates that a film can be successful and portray a female lead protagonist without having to sexualise the character, or give her the traits of a man.
Other Hollywood female lead films includes the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, directed by Paul Feig.
Other Hollywood female lead films includes the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, directed by Paul Feig.
The film however received a generally poor reception and is classed
as a box office bomb. Female filmmaker Hazel Hayes discusses in this video what
was wrong with the film, and how it could have easily been made much better.
2018 saw the release of Ocean’s 8, directed by Gary Ross. Although this is not an entirely new premise, it is a continuation and spin off from the original trilogy rather than a reboot, which compared to Ghostbusters can be seen as a step in the right direction in leading the way to a more equal film industry.
