Women and Hollywood

Right now Hollywood is going through a massive shift in recognizing its lack of diversity both in front of and behind the camera, and efforts are being made to make stories where people of frequently underrepresented demographics such as women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community are represented as strong, human characters and not merely personifications of stereotypes.

Walt Hickey, Ella Koeze, Rachael Dottle and Gus Wezerek at FiveThirtyEight discussed 50 films on their inclusion of women and how women are represented in film using tests that evaluate films on if/how women are utilized behind the camera, look beyond white women, include female protagonists, and tests that evaluate female roles in the supporting cast. The article also brings up other questions such as: was the supporting cast fifty percent women?, did a woman write or direct the film?, Is there a black woman in the film?, and (I kid you not) did a female lead end up dead? The fact it’s 2018 and those questions, especially the last two listed, even have to be asked is rather telling about the state of the industry. These tests show that although a lot of progress has been made, there a tremendous amount of work to be done.     

Read the full article here: The Next Bechdel Test