Final Project: Sexism in the Film Industry

My final project is on sexism in the film industry. I examine how women are portrayed in film and how women are treated in the workforce of the film industry. Originally, I had wanted to write a research paper on the details of sexism in the film industry. However, I decided to make a video instead. A research paper seemed too boring for this topic. The video is a general view on how women are shown on film and how they are treated behind the scenes.

I wanted to explain my thoughts on the research that I found on women in film. Before doing research, I knew very little or was oblivious to how women are portrayed in movies. I certainly had no idea of the statistics that existed on the wage of actresses in Hollywood.

I knew exactly what clips I would use to include in the video, such as Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar Win, which I could not leave out. And I wanted to end with Patricia Arquette's Oscar  speech, which is one of the most recent instances of action or speaking out against sexism in film.

From making this video, I learned that this is an issue that is still very much alive, no matter how subtle it might seem. To be honest, before I joined this class and learned about how sexism exists in every form of media, I would have a hard time finding it. Perhaps it was because I was not looking.

With my project, I want to bring to light sexism in the film industry. I want to educate people and provide examples that they see with their own eyes but may never have really noticed. Making this video inspired me to not only expose the issue, but to think about doing something about it in any way I can.

I want to re-upload the video because some of the images are fuzzy and you cannot makeout what they say. One of the images about the post on Tumblr says, "A rigger was telling a bunch of other technicians a story when he saw me and said, 'Oops! I shouldn't sweat when there is a c*** in the room'". Another says, "We need to get her boyfriend here for the weekend, she needs to get f**cked" (a producer speaking to a crew member about her, a Director)

In addition, I wish to collaborate with Karith Foster, creator of Sterotyped 101. Stereotyped 101 is a comedy lecture series where Karith travels to colleges and universities all over the country to speak about diversity and adversity (LGBT, race, religion, gender, etc…) I would like to make more videos and work with Karith to help bring Stereotyped 101 into a brighter light because I believe that it is extremely valuable in what it aims to achieve.

Here is a link to my video. You need a password to access it, which is "womenmedia" :
Sexism in the Film Industry
Or, on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHhrn4-UjVI&feature=youtu.be


References:

"Gender Inequality in Film - An Infographic." New York Film Academy Blog. N.p., 25 Nov. 2013. Web. 5 May 2015.
"Jennifer Aniston Naked." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Sept. 2008. Web. 9 May 2015.
"Kathryn Bigelow Wins Best Directing: 2010 Oscars." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 May 2015.
"Lisa Kudrow in Epic Speech on Sexism in Politics (From "Scandal" TV Show)." YouTube. YouTube, 9 Nov. 2013. Web. 18 May 2015.
"Mean Girls - The Rules of Feminism." YouTube. YouTube, 12 June 2008. Web. 9 May 2015.
"Patricia Arquette Winner of Best Actress In A Supporting Role Oscar 2015 [HQ]." YouTube. YouTube, 22 Feb. 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.
"Shannon Elizabeth Sex Scene in American Pie." YouTube. YouTube, 5 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 May 2015.
"Silver Linings Playbook - I Opened up to You and You Judged Me."YouTube. YouTube, 27 Oct. 2013. Web. 9 May 2015.
Tempesta, Erica. "'Go Back to Working in Porn': Powerful New Blog Sees Female Directors Anonymously Reveal the Shocking Sexist Remarks 
     Made to Them by Men in the Film Industry Read More: Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3062841/Powerful-new-blog-sees-    
     female-directors-anonymously-revealing-shockingly-sexist-remarks-men-film-industry.html#ixzz3aWPwEpKE Follow Us: @MailOnline on 
     Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook." Dailymail.co.uk. N.p., 30 Apr. 2015. Web. 5 May 2015.

Final Project: Hockey Twitter and its Culture

For my project, I wanted to look at internet culture and how it affects women – treatment towards them, their reactions, and the environment as a whole. Obviously, that’s too big a scope to tackle. I narrowed it down to an area I’ve become very familiar with over the last few years – the hockey fandom. Specifically, in regards to hockey Twitter and its hostility toward women. This isn’t to say women aren’t on hockey Twitter – there are, at the very least, thousands of us. It's a huge community, filled with all

different walks of people. But we’re fighting for space, for recognition, for respect in regards to our everything. Women are ignored or “accepted” until one of us dares to have an opinion – and then it gets ugly and a little personal.

The thing about hockey Twitter is that it’s one aspect of fandom. And fandom is supposed to enjoyable. It’s a place where we can get together, especially online, and chat with people across the globe about this thing we all love. It’s meant to be chill and fun and safe. The safe space is important. It’s necessary. No woman should have to be pushed away from the internet, a space where men roam freely. Well, white cis men usually. Racism has found a home too on the internets, including hockey Twitter, as well as transphobia and homophobia. Anything that keeps people from participating as an equal is something that needs to be changed. The backlash towards women who have come forward with their stories of being sexually harassed become pretty vile and that is wholly unacceptable.

Overall, Twitter is a huge force of social media. On any level, even within sub-communities, it’s difficult to try and keep people from being antagonistic when disagreements break out. But treatment towards women easily falls back onto sexism and misogyny, completely with making it about a woman’s place in the world, her physicality, her looks and the like instead of her knowledge on the subject. This is something that women battle every day in their real lives. Women also battle unwelcome sexual advances in public from strangers. Many times, we shrug it off because it’s not always worth the fight. However, when those advances come from an acquaintance on the internet, in a private message, completely unwarranted and out of the blue – we realize there is no safe space at all. And that’s when we can do something about it.

 

So for the actual project, I decided I would interview (via podcast) several women who are vocal and well incorporated on hockey Twitter.  The focus was their own accounts of their experiences, what they’ve witnessed and been a part of/privy to on Twitter as well as experiences with hockey, the league, and rest of fandom as a whole. Some good, some bad, but all across the board it’s noted that this is not the most welcoming of environments. At the same time, each woman was optimistic that there would be a shift in mentality and culture. We’ll have to wait it out for a couple of years but it’s doable. And as we wait, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing now - taking part in conversation, calling out sexism, paving the way for the next generation of fans, and doing everything we can to make it a better space.

What I intended with this project is to continue and add to the education of what it really means for women to be a part of internet culture. The women I interviewed represent a very small percentage of the women on hockey Twitter but each of them brings their own story, experience, and point of view. It brings this reminder that women speak out for feminism but each woman knows her story is not anyone else's. We speak out so everyone can be heard. Because that's really all we can do - continue to educate, opening eyes and ears to all narratives. There isn't one blanket statement for all women; each woman who participated in this tells a unique story. And hopefully, with each interview, people will start to understand where it went wrong and what can be done to change things - to be better. Because really, that's what we, as people, strive toward doing. Or at least we should be :)

And finally, a huge thank you to the women who agreed to be interviewed: Zoë, Heather, Laura, Kat, Ashley, Toni, and Sarah. All of them were great, super helpful and informative, and I cannot express my appreciation to them enough. (everyone should follow them on twitter/read their stuff because they’re awesome)

Famous Feminists

Recently, a lot of celebrities have 'come out' as feminists. I find this fascinating because it tends to subject these celebrities to a higher level of scrutiny and criticism.

Top right should say people, not women.

Being interested in feminism (read: a feminist), I found that I wanted to support the work of people who considered themselves feminists. We all want to put our money into things that support a social framework we agree with, right? The problem that I ran into was this: everyone is problematic. It's super cool for Taylor Swift to call herself a feminist. It's awesome for Beyonce to perform in front of the word "feminist". Good for Joss Whedon that he feels he's written empowering lady characters. But these people aren't perfect feminists at all!

I was outraged. Kind of.

I want to support Taylor Swift's feminist awakening, but her earlier lyrics are so heteronormative and they reinforce strict gender roles. I want to support Beyonce's feminism, but she chooses to hypersexualize herself and I'm not sure what the implications of that are on the coming generation. I want to support Joss Whedon's feminism, but he's not very racially inclusive at all. How is one to navigate this world of complex, imperfect people?

Well, the internet.

I decided to create a small website/blog that explores each individual artist's distinctive feminism. I tried, generally, to address the problems with each artist first, and end positively. I considered their statements in interviews, their work, and their reactions to criticism. 

And here it is!!

I included a sort of disclaimer, because I understand that the internet is a dangerous place for a comments section, and that my opinions and evaluations aren't law. They aren't even the most informed versions of this type of thing. It's important to recognize that. While I didn't openly invite people to send me their corrections/opinions, I tried to qualify my opinions with the admission that they are neither flawless nor complete. 

"Here’s a handy guide to our favorite celebrity feminists.
It’s incomplete, because everything is incomplete. These people are alive and making choices every day, so these evaluations are constantly subject to change.
The most important thing to remember is that eliminating or condemning all problematic work will leave us with nothing. You can like it, and still acknowledge how it falls short in the social justice category (Believe me, I know. I watched all 7 seasons of Gossip Girl). Everyone and everything falls short in one way or another. The question is whether the damage is worth the benefit.
Also, I’m not in charge. Just because I say something, or disagree with someone, or make a judgment, doesn’t mean it’s the only judgment. In fact, I can promise you it’s not."

- - Read Me First Pretty Please from my blog

Here is a Google Doc containing every website I referenced/researched/linked to in the blog.  It should be accessible to everyone, even if you don't have a Google account.

I wish everyone a happy takedown of the patriarchy.

Project 3: So You Say Girls Don't Like Nerdy Things

For my final Project, I have created a hypertext project where I present my research on Females and Geek Culture, an area of culture where women are so underrepresented that the general population within the world of Geeks simply doesn't acknowledge that women like the nerdy kinds of things just as much, if not more than, men. By nerdy things, I refer to Comics, TV shows that originate from comics, Video games, and all of the different things that fall under this scope. My project has looked particularly at a brief, simplified history of women in relation to the inner workings of the comic industry, and their effect on the industry, and the effect of their absence from it. It has also looked at the geek girl struggling to make the world of nerds her own dominion, fighting against others who use stereotypes to understand their motives for trying to be part of the community. Lastly, it has looked at how these things tie into the issue of harassment within the culture, either physically or through hate. To check out my project, you can click here.

Final: Who Can I Look Up To (On-Screen)?

It is said that the media both reflects and shapes our society. For my final I wrote an essay about how there aren't that many female characters a young girl can look up to. Women have been continuously miss represented in all aspects of media. My focus is on the film industry. Quite honestly, Geena Davis couldn't have said it any better:

"The fact is - Women are seriously under-represented across nearly all sectors of the glove. Not just on-screen, but for the most part we're simply not aware of the extent. And media images exert a powerful influence in creating and perpetuating our unconscious biases. However, media images can also have very positive impact on our perceptions. In the time it takes to make a movie, we can change what the future looks like. There are woefully few women CEOs in the world. But there can be lots of them in films. How do we encourage a lot more girls to pursue science, technology, and engineering careers? By casting droves of women in stem, politics, law and other professions in movies today" - Geena Davis

What I've discovered in this essay is that in the early days of filmmaking, women had the right to explore very complex characters and were able to play around with them. Since then, the times have changed and Hollywood is having a hard time catching up to women of today. Below is a video I found about how women are STILL miss represented.



In my essay, I talk about the statistics of gender inequality in films. How certain aspects portrayed on the big screen can have a negative focus for young girls.  I give 4 examples I believe are inspirational to women of all ages: Katniss Everdeen from the Hungar Games, Queen Elizabeth Tudor from Elizabeth, Juno, and Meridia from Brave. Please keep in mind these are just 4 characters and there are more. The point is to continue in this direction. To encourage future filmmakers to explore to complexities of womanhood, our character depth (meaning we are not just here for the male-gaze)  and to show women in power.

Meridia

Elizabeth

Juno

Katniss Everdeen

link to my essay:  http://whocanilookuptoonscreen.blogspot.com/

Bibliography:

Hay Code Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code

The National Womens History Museum, https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/film/14.html

The New York Film Academy: Gender Inequality if Film, https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/

Martha Lauzen, PhD, It's a Man's (Celluloid) World: On-Screen Represenations of Female Characters in the Top 100 Films of 2013,  http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_World_Report.pdfSoraya Chemaly, 20 Facts Everyone Should Know about Gender Bias in Movies, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/20-mustknow-facts-about-g_b_5869564.html

Creating Perceptions of ME

          Its a hot summer day, you are outside, tanning on the grass and some kid with a camera wants to read you a quote by John Berger.  You are immediately touched and you offer your personal stories to the conversation.  You were positively impacted by this young student as a repercussion of him positively being effected by his Women and Media studies professor.  The last thing they expected that day was to have a conversation about the highly stigmatized issues that affect them every day of every month.

I am getting emotional because I know this is probably the last piece I will write on this blog, however I am not so sure this is the last time I will talk about feminism or its potential to change an unjustifiably altered social ladder and reconstruct the world view of equal rights to one that favors women just as much as it favors men. Before taking this class, I did not understand feminism.  I thought it only existed among activist groups comprised of women whom wanted to overthrow men out of power.  I first "saw" feminism when I was in Sweden, but my friends laughed about it. Since it was an issue that did not concern them, it was no issue.  So every Monday during this semester, after class I would literally be in awe, as I went home, rerunning the conversations we had in class through my head over and over trying to comprehend it as a reality because I just could not believe that the issues we discussed this semester had pained some of the women in my class so immensely. Finally, in this class they were relieved to express them.  But still, this was the only place where I really was exposed to the harshness of such problematic ideals in our socio-economic culture that were otherwise not spoken of or even noticed.

This final project means so much to me because I was allowed the opportunity to discuss with women who have not taken this Women and Media class, initially prepared to enlighten people about the issues I had learned about in class.  I chose to discuss how the advertising medium affected women in their day-to-day lives by its misrepresentation of them, but I thought perhaps it was not so obvious to them as it was to me.  I was wrong.  The women I interviewed actually were really aware of its affect on them growing up, the children that they are close with and even on them now as secure adult women who should not have anything to worry about, but yet it still exists in the back of their minds.

One of the women I spoke to(Shalwah Evans) actually informed me of the icons and role models that negatively influence young girls in their maturity into strong independent women yet the “strong” and “independent” aspects are not present. 

          Exploring the controversial ideas that advertising suggests, these women in my film describe how advertising personally affects them.  An ongoing theme, advertising's origins as an oppressive medium are unknown to the average woman and its future does not imply much hope for the representation of women. It traces back for centuries of women being ornamented and sexualized through literature, stories and concepts.  Women share their self-doubts as they are undermined by advertising's false hopes.  The women I interviewed know that even today, they are still affected, even as they have become fully aware of every intention and misrepresentation that advertising attempts.  They subconsciously know that in the back of their mind advertising to sell a product has become a part of the way they have become objectified.  Even the most prominent role models persists in keeping these ideas afloat while they disassemble the wholeness of a woman.

            John Berger says, "Men act and women appear.  Men look at women.  Women watch themselves being looked at...Thus she turns herself into an object..." The extent to which women are portrayed in the media and in advertising is unconsciously damaging to strong independent women.   "69% of girls in one study said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape," according to womaninads.weebly.com. 

         My initial goal during my group presentation for this class was to interview real, everyday people and to find out just how seriously advertising affected women off the screen.  And so now, I captured the most raw and sentimental footage I could have ever expected that portrays women outside the classroom EXPRESSING what they feel.  The energy in their voices dignifies their appearance on camera, it being one of the first times I opened up a discussion for women to express their thoughts with me, detailing the affect ads protrudes onto them 24/7 in selling a product that objectifies women.     
            I never expected these interviews to be as mind-boggling as they were, I thought that I had finally learned feminism in taking this class, but the affect of interviewing these people who voluntarily shared personal accounts of their identification that was both astounding and real. Rather than continuing to allow advertising businesses to enforce oppressive social roles by which analytical criticism is taboo, it has negatively impacted womanhood, which the women I filmed discuss. Talking about it critically on camera was an experience that everyone I interviewed really enjoyed and I was lucky enough to be included in this conversation. It may have been the first time some of these women were asked to talk about these issues on camera and the flip of this medium's subjective role inspired the discussion. 

Here is a link to my documentary, Creating Perceptions of ME


Bibliography:

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin, 2008. Print. 36-64.

Cortese, Anthony Joseph Paul. Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising.          

          Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Print. 45-76.

 Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Atria, 2004. Print. 115-131.

Kile, Meredith B. "Kim Kardashian on the Perfect Selfie: 'Lighting Is Everything'" Entertainment      

          Tonight. CBS Television Distribution, 5 May 2015. Web. 11 May 2015.

Oshmyansky, Rosalyn. "Did Beyonce Photoshop Her Thigh Gap Again?" Entertainment Tonight. 

          CBS Television Distribution, 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 May 2015.

"Statistics - WOMEN IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND BODY IMAGE." Statistics - WOMEN IN 

          ADVERTISEMENTS AND BODY IMAGE. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2015.

Steinem, Gloria. Sex, Lies, and Advertising. United States: Publisher Not Identified, 1990. Print. 112-120.