The Portrayal of Women in Movies

When you go to the cinema to watch a movie, do you notice if women play an active role?  The bechdel test sets criteria to analyse whether a movie falls into this category as follows:

* is there two or more women?
* who speak to one another?
* about something other than men?
* for more than 60 seconds?

This does not make a film feminist, it is just the minimum required to classify a film as featuring active roles for women.  This has been brought about as women tend to be "the window dressing: girlfriends and sidekicks" (Silverstein 2011) or are talking about men.  More information is provided in the video clip below.

One issue is that many movies portray women in a stereotypical manner, in other words, as keen to meet a man, settle down and have babies as depicted in the romantic comedies think Bridget Jones, Sex and the City or any Jennifer Aniston movie.  There is little or no reference to women and their friendships (and where there is they only speak about men thus failing the bechdel test), their work and their families.

  

Carrie and Big, just married in Sex and the City movie

 

Women as consumers is another key concept in films such as Sex and the City and Confessions of a Shopaholic.  Essentially films (and television shows) depict women as only really caring about men, babies and shopping.

Isla Fisher in Confessions of a Shopaholic 

Kristen Davis in Sex and the City Movie

In addition, the concept of 'male gaze' has been discussed as part of feminist film theory.  This is the idea that films tend to be shown from the male perspective, viewing women through a man's eyes as sex objects, rather than from a female perspective or as Helen Mirren phrases it when she says that the film industry is worshipping "at the altar of the 18 to 25 year old male and his penis."  For example, the advertisement below for Les Infideles has caused so much controversy that it has been withdrawn due to portraying women in a demeaning manner. 



Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher

Jessica Simpson in Dukes of Hazzard

A hugely debated topic is that women are viewed as past their prime at 40, in the movie industry, if not sooner whereas men are more in demand once they hit 40.  Think Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Tom Cruise and the list goes on.  However, think of women over 40 and ask yourself what has happened to Meg Ryan and Michelle Pfeiffer?  The only time you hear of Demi Moore now is in relation to her failed marriage to Ashton Kutcher depicting her as a sad and desperate woman and focusing on the fact that she is approaching 50, no mention of her as an actress and any upcoming roles.  However, Meryl Streep won best actress this year at the Oscars for her role in The Iron Lady at the age of 62, however, it could be argued that a young actress was never going to play the role of Margaret Thatcher.

It is not only how women are portrayed in the films, which is a cause for concern but women behind the scenes are few and far between.  Nevertheless, Bridesmaids was written by women and it is viewed from a female perspective, nevertheless, it was produced and directed by men.  Celluloid Ceiling figures for the top 250 US films produced in 2011 stated that women only made up 5% of Hollywood directors, which is a decrease of 2% from 2010.  More importantly, in 1998, the figure was higher at 7%.  So from the director perspective, things are not improving in fact they are getting worse for women!  Moreover, Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win best director at the Oscars and this only happened in 2010! 

Another consideration is that women are paid less than their male counterparts (Silverstein 2011) with Leonardo Di Caprio, who topped the Forbes chart for 2011, having been paid $77m compared to the highest earning actress, Angelina Jolie at $35m (only 45.5% of Leonardo's earnings). 

So next time you watch a movie, apply the Bechdel criteria, analyse if women are portrayed in a stereotypical manner and whether the film is viewed from a male or female perspective.