Mistreatment Of Women In Blockbuster Films

Encouraging Involvement of Women in the Film Industry

Despite a similar level of interest in filmmaking early in life, women filter out of the film industry in much larger numbers than men. A 2014 study of 2,000 blockbuster films found that about three-quarters of film crews on blockbuster movies are male-- with women present mostly in areas that have traditionally been female, such as costuming and wardrobe. Shockingly, women only made up 5% of the directors in the films surveyed (Ellis-Peterson 1). Some steps to take to even this gender gap include restructuring award panels which favor men, and creating production companies run by women. However, the most important way to bring women back into the film industry is to simply hire more women,

Not showing women in roles of power, as well as portraying them as objects rather than people, can lead to violence against women.When children are brought up watching films that portray women as weak or show them being beaten, these children are more likely to unconsciously be more accepting of these ideas in real life. The unpleasant reality is that many college-aged women are assaulted by men they know from school (DelVecchio 1). While many factors contribute to the continued issue of violence against women, one cause is the mistreatment of female stars in movies. Modern American culture does not censor gore and sexual content, so people become used to seeing it. The problem is not the explicit content itself-- it is the fact that women are more often than not the victims of horrific acts on screen, such as sexual assault. This issue can often be remedied by hiring more women to work on movies, but in a male-controlled Hollywood they are frequently discriminated

Some may compare the low number of women in filmmaking to the low number of women in S.T.E.M. fields, but there is a key difference between the two. Whereas young girls filter out of science-related fields fairly early in life, women in filmmaking spend immense amounts of money and time going through film school and working on professional projects only to be snubbed by big studios or award nominations. There is less of a need to promote the idea of female filmmakers; what the industry needs is for a concrete change to occur in the hiring process. For this to happen, studios have to shift their mindset and consciously move away from the “boys club” ideal of Hollywood where male executives hire men who are similar to