Sexualised and silent in Hollywood

New research has confirmed what many of usalreadysuspected: Hollywood sexualises five-year-oldwomen.

A study from the University of Southern California analysed representations of women and girls in the 100 top-grossing US films.

The study also examined the prevalence of womanlycharacters, as well as the employment patterns of women stinkpotthe television cameraover a five-year period.

Researchers found thatfemale personcharactersargonthirdtimes more likely than male characters to appear in tight clothing or partially naked.

And not neverthelessdoes women’s on-screen presence amounts to little more than titivation, but the report suggests that theoccupationis actually getting worse.

In 2007, 21.8 per centimeof pistillatecharacters were shown partially sensitivein box office hits, but this figure liftto 31 perpennyin 2012.

A more disturbingdecisionof the study is that while nearly a third of allfemale characters are sexualised in films, the age group approximatelyat risk of sexualisation is young distaffcharacters aged 13-20, everyplacehalf of whom are shown either dressed provocatively or partially naked.

This is a figure which has risen 22 per cent since 2007, and dwarfs the 7 per cent of scantily-clad custodyshown in film.

But while Hollywood’s sexualisation of female characters is on the increase, especially for teenage girls, the number of female speaking characters has dropped to its lowest level since the study began – a meagre 28.4 per cent in 2012.

In real terms, this female under-representation means that for every 2.5 men you see on the motion-picture showscreen, you only see 1 woman.

The leader of the study, Dr Stacy L. Smith, said that since “Girls and women represent fully half of the US population and buy half of the movie tickets sold”, this amounts to nothingless(prenominal)than a primitivemisrepresentation.

A consequence of women’s relative absence from moviescreens is that it silences female narratives and relegates woman-centric films to a niche.

“Every voice deserves a chance to be heard and every story a chance to be told. At the moment… that does not seem to be the case in popular film,” said Dr Smith.

It’s a particularly worrisome snubconsidering the strong global audience of US cinematic guinea pigand the message that this conveys to those watching about the acceptability of female objectification.

Figures released by YouGov in 2010 found that the most frequent cinema-goers in the UK are those aged 15 to 24 years of age, so the naturalismis that the majority of those who are watching are teenagers.

With these impressionable young men and women accounting for approximately 61 million cinema admissions each year, we can only speculate how women’s relative erasurefrom speaking roles – unless they are semi-naked – perpetuates the continued objectification of women.

And soadd thepotentiallydamaging psychological impact of those young women watching unrealistic, hyper-sexualised female body ideals, an effect which the report’s authors suggest may activate or reinscribe females’ self-objectification, body shame, and appearance anxiety

So how do we tackle this vast under-representation and gross over-exposure?

The study itself found one possible solution, finding that when in that respectis a woman involved behind the scenes in a creative role as a writer or director, not only is there a greater female on-screen presence but that female presence is also slightsexualised.

Unfortunately, while women in front of the cameraare rare, women behind the camera are even more so.

There is a ratioof 5 men to 1 woman behind the camera; women grudgefor only 20 per cent of producers, 21.2 per cent of writers and 4.1 per cent of directors.

In an in frontstudy she conducted, Dr Smith identified five areas that were hampering women’s career development in film: gendered financial barriers, male-dominated industry networking, stereotyping on set, work and family balance, and exclusionary hiring decisions.

Arguably four-spotout of five of those reasons can be traced back to dissimilarityin the employment practices of studios.

So if the studios are prohibiting women from working behind the camera and a misguided industry belief that women don’t bring in the big bucks is keeping women from appearing in front of the camera, then how can we make them pay attention?

My suggestion? With our feet, as we walk apartfrom the cinema.

 

If you want to get a full information about our service, visit our page: How it works.


Materials taken from Womens Views on News