Hi all.
I'm taking a bit of a chance here that someone might decide to plagiarize my awesome paper, but I seriously need some feedback on it. I think I've managed to get things working well here, but it's one of those cases where I've looked at something so much, it's beginning to lose its coherency to me. As such, I'm posting here and hoping for some feedback. I'm hoping to submit it ASAP, but it's not technically due until next Saturday. Anyhoo....any feedback/constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
By Women, For Women: the Need for More Women in Creative Control in Film
Not every girl is a beautifully perfect princess looking to be saved by the handsome prince. Not every woman is a chic shopaholic trying to drown her loneliness in credit card debt and manhattans until she meets Mr. Right. Yet if you go to the local multiplex and check out the available films to see, an overwhelming percentage feature women and girls portrayed as shoppers, talkers, and girly girls, most in a supporting role rather than as the main protagonist in a movie. As a woman, trying to find a relatable role model in the live action or animated film offerings is like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Where are the riot grrls? Where are the real career women who balance work and family without the bitterness or inevitable frumpiness applied? Where are the women who don’t live their lives by the number on the scale, or spend the majority of their time lamenting the lack of male companionship in their lives? Where are the little girls who don’t follow the boys around, but lead them; the rough-and-tumble girls with Band-Aids on their knees? With the overwhelming number of studio executives, story creators, directors, and producers in the film industry being male, perhaps therein lies the problem. It would make sense that in order to achieve a level of realism in regard to women in film, first there must be more women in positions of creative control in the film industry.
Each year, Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D., takes a statistical look at the film industry with regard to the status of women, or lack thereof, in its ranks. The focus of these studies is the “celluloid ceiling”, a variation on the typical “glass ceiling” most women find themselves coming up against in the workplace. Her research found that in 2007, women comprised only 15% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films (Lauzen, 2008).
Other studies illustrate the lack of strong female roles models and the disparaging portrayals of women and girls in animated and live action films. In her report Women @ the Box Office, Lauzen found that female characters comprised only 10% of clearly identifiable protagonists in the top 100 worldwide grossing films of 2007. In addition, only 31% of films featuring an ensemble cast had at least one prominent female character (Lauzen, 2007). A recent study conducted by the American Psychological Association on the sexualization of young girls found that from 1990-2004, of over 4,000 characters in the top-grossing motion pictures and G-rated movies, 75% overall were male, 83% of characters in crowds were male, and 72% of speaking characters were male. When women were found present in these films, they were more often portrayed in a sexual manner than their male counterparts, dressed in revealing clothing, and objectified rather than being portrayed as whole, unique, and admirable individuals. They also found an unrealistic standard of physical beauty emphasized and shown as an ideal for young girls to try to emulate (APA, 2007). Since the majority of studio executives, directors, creators, and writers are male, this would indicate that without female peer representation in creative positions in the film industry, there is a serious lack of positive female protagonists and role models for young girls and women to be found in current films.
In an article in USA Today, director Jane Campion, who won an Oscar for her film The Piano in 1993, and is one of only three female directors to ever be nominated for an Academy Award, poses the following hypothesis on the lack of female peers in the industry: “I just think this is the way the world is, that men control the money, and they decide who they’re going to give it to” (AP, 2007).
In her report Women @ the Box Office, Lauzen also finds what may be a link between her research and Campion’s thoughts on what might account for the lack of higher-ranking females in the industry. Lauzen found that when female and male filmmakers have similar budgets, the resulting box office grosses are also similar. In other words, the sex of filmmakers does not determine box office grosses, but film budget does (Lauzen, 2008). In that same report, Lauzen was able to debunk the theory that films with a female protagonist do not do as well as those with a male protagonist. She found that when the size of the budget is held constant, films with female protagonists or prominent females in an ensemble cast earn similar box office grosses and DVD sales as films with male protagonists. She found that films with larger budgets generate larger grosses, regardless of the sex of the protagonist (Lauzen, 2008). As such, one could draw the conclusion that women in higher ranking executive creative positions within the film industry, given the same budgetary considerations as their male counterparts, could produce films with more positive portrayals of women and young girls that achieve success at the box office, and thereby provide more balance and accuracy for females on film as a whole.
Within the animation industry, there are even more discrepancies in the portrayals of females. The Disney/Pixar version of the animated female basically falls into the categories of stock characters, mostly of the princess variety (Riley, 2009). Female characters are often portrayed as either stupid, outnumbered, blatantly subservient, or non-existent (Lahey, 1994). In most cases, the villainous females are portrayed as ugly and incapable of acquiring or keeping a man honestly, so they resort to subterfuge or mayhem, as illustrated by the Ursula character in The Little Mermaid. Most heroines are either successful or attractive, but never both; this determination applies not only to animated film, but to live action as well. Modern heroines may aspire to careers, but if they do not snag the handsome prince too, they are seen as unfulfilled or unsuccessful (Riley, 2009).
Taking all of this into consideration, one possible resolution to the problem of under-representation seems to be one that director Catherine Hardwicke chose when she went to make the film Thirteen. Co-written by herself and a young family friend, Hardwicke had trouble finding the financing and support to get the film made. As an alternative to the standard studio system approach, she went the route of self-financed independent film to get the movie finished and out on the film festival circuit (UC Regents, 2009). As a result of all of her hard work, the film won the Director’s Award at the Sundance Film Festival and an Oscar nomination for supporting actress Holly Hunter. It also paved the way for Hardwicke to be given the helm to the film adaptation of the movie Twilight based on the popular young adult novel by Stephenie Meyer. That film went on to be the highest grossing film for a female filmmaker to date.
While individually financing on one’s own is an expensive but possible alternative for female filmmakers, new funding initiatives for women in the filmmaking industry are emerging. The Women in Film Foundation was begun in 1973 to give female moviemakers more opportunities to succeed by offering help and funding for their work. The Women in Film Foundation makes it one of their primary goals to draw attention to the lack of women in positions of creative control and power in the film industry. The foundation’s Film Finishing Fund supports films by, for, and about women by providing cash grants and in-kind donations to independent moviemakers (Murphy, 2009).
In the animation industry, the National Film Board of Canada is making strides in employing more women involved in animated films or sequences. As a result of this increase in females in creative control, there are fewer problems with stereotyping of characters, female or otherwise. Marcy Page, an animation producer with the Board, explains, “Independent animation is one area where women have carved a niche for themselves; there’s not a lot of male hierarchy and institutions that get in the way, since animation can often be a solitary pursuit.” (Lahey, 1994, p. 24). As with live action film, independent animation with independent funding sources seems to be the best opportunity for more women to get their messages up on the screen. With independent storytelling and funding, women can work on their own to combat stereotyping about their gender and present reality and fantasy from their own perspective as artists instead of as objects.
To help set the stage for the next generation of female filmmakers, several national initiatives have been created to help young girls interested in filmmaking learn about the industry and the trades involved. With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, local colleges and universities, and various studios and businesses, these programs work to establish a national girl’s film network and expand into a women’s film network. Girls in these programs learn valuable skills and information about the film industry including media literacy, digital photography, film/videomaking, and film editing. Many of the participants in these programs go on to study filmmaking and various aspects of the film industry in college (Sweeney, 2005). Armed with the education from female mentors working in the film industry, these program graduates can enter into the film industry with enough savvy to negotiate the independent film circuits and find alternative funding sources.
Clearly, the film industry is still lagging behind other industries in creating a more diverse gender representation both behind the scenes and on movie screens. Until the time at which the studio system begins to properly fund film projects by women in the same manner in which they fund projects for men, the only avenue open to female filmmakers is that of independent cinema. As such, it is up to the moviegoer to determine whether the films they pay money to see are going to be part of the problem within the studio system, or whether they might choose to patronize more independent cinema offerings with more accurate representations of females. Those consumers who have young children, especially daughters, would do well to pause before taking in the new Disney or Pixar feature at the Cineplex, and think about the role model images such films provide for their daughters. At the very least, while Disney and Pixar are continuing to grow in their representative offerings in regard to female characters, a family dialogue following one of these films could go far to open communication with young girls about self esteem, body image, career aspirations, and the realities of relationships between girls and boys, and men and women.
In her book Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women Are Really Doing on Page and Screen, author Susan Isaacs notes that “A damsel-in-distress, movie-of-the-week mentality has infected our film and fiction.” She also notes that “Despite the most recent revolution in women’s rights, we are still being portrayed as the gender of the quivering lower lip” (p. 4). Until the time comes when female filmmakers and films featuring accurate portrayals of women and girls in protagonist roles are funded with the same budgetary amounts and considerations as those for and about males, the best way to support the needed change in the film industry is to support realistic, women-centric offerings at theaters. By picking movies made by women, using women’s voices and realistic portrayals of female lives, we not only validate those voices, but show the Hollywood system that there is money to be made in supporting and financing movies by women, for women, and about women. Perhaps once the Hollywood studio system sees the influence and box office returns of positive offerings from, by, for, and about real women, they will begin to share some of that power with women, shatter the “celluloid ceiling” once and for all, and allow more women to join their ranks.
References
American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. (2007). Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Retrieved May 12, 2009 from www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html
AP. (2007, May 20). Jane Campion Laments Lack of Female Directors. USA Today. Retrieved May 6, 2009, from http://www/usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-05-20-jane-campion_N.htm
Isaacs, S. (1999). Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women Are Really Doing on Page and Screen. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Lahey, A. (1994, Winter94). Beyond Betty Boop: Animation and Women. Herizons, 7(4), 24. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.
Lauzen, M. (2009). The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 250 Films of 2008. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from San Diego State University Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film web site: http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2008_celluloid_ceiling.pdf
Lauzen, M. (2008). Women @ the Box Office: A Study of the Top 100 Worldwide Grossing Films. Retrieved April 29, 2009 from San Diego State University Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film web site: http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/Women%20@%20Box%20Office.pdf
Murphy, N. (2009). Women in Film Foundation Empowers Female Moviemakers. MovieMaker Magazine. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www.moviemaker.com/producing/article/women_in_film_foundation_finishing_fund_20090323/
Riley, S. (2009). Too Few Animated Women Break the Disney Mold. Media Awareness Network. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/articles/gender_portrayal/break_mold.cfm
Sweeney, K. (2005, November). Grrls Make Movies: The Emergence of Women-Led Filmmaking Initiatives for Teenage Girls. Afterimage, 33(3), 37-42. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.
UC Regents. (2009). Women Filmmakers Break Down Barriers. UCLA Today. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/040224closeup_women.aspx
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