# data[].attributes.headline
Does this challenge or re-inforce the stereotype?

# data[].attributes.subject
Does this challenge or re-inforce the stereotype?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lily Allen | Hard Out Here (Official Video - Explicit Version)

# data[].attributes.headline
Watch Rachel MacLeans interview about her powerful film 'Make Me Up'. What  does MacLean use visual imagery to challenge social and cultural boundaries?

# data[].attributes.subject
Watch Rachel MacLeans interview about her powerful film 'Make Me Up'. What  does MacLean use visual imagery to challenge social and cultural boundaries?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rachel Maclean: Cutting up the Canon of Art History | HENI Talks

# data[].attributes.headline
Watch this advert used by FCKH8 that highlighted gender inequality

# data[].attributes.subject
Watch this advert used by FCKH8 that highlighted gender inequality

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHYzYn3WZw

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism by FCKH8.com

# data[].attributes.headline
Read the stories of LGBT comedians and how they challenged perceptions of humour. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Read the stories of LGBT comedians and how they challenged perceptions of humour. 

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/oct/13/queer-comedians-standups-paul-sinha-suzi-ruffell

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
he comedian Stephen Bailey was hosting an Instagram Live earlier this year when he got a message that shocked him. One of his followers, an open-mic standup, described "experiences of blatant homophobia when it comes to booking," Bailey says. "One venue wouldn't book him because, according to them, their audience 'wouldn't like the gay stuff'."

In the past, Bailey has had homophobic heckles shrugged off by venues and been turned down for jobs because there was already one "camp comedian" booked. "Imagine all the people we've lost over the years, these beautiful queer artists and performers, because of attitudes like that. They're saying: we don't think our audience will like you - not because of your talent, because of who you are."

While the industry has undoubtedly taken steps towards diversity, there is a persistent assumption that the default comedy performer and audience member is straight, white, cis and male. The Lol Word - a collective of queer women and non-binary comedians - set out to create a night especially for people excluded by that default because "at a lot of gigs, as an audience member, you never know whether you're going to make it through the night without hearing something really awful," says co-founder Jodie Mitchell. "The other part was just queer joy, being able to take up space."

Fellow co-founder Chloe Petts says: "I think 'white man' is allowed not to be a genre, but 'gay' is a genre. No, gay is just a thing that we are. We're all doing very different comedy." Comic Lee Peart agrees: "No one bats an eyelid when it's four straight, white comedians, but if you have four gay acts, people are like: is this a special night?" Peart has found people expect a certain style of explicit comedy based purely on his sexuality: "The assumption is: being gay is having sex with men." Bailey describes the same thing. Despite having worked on daytime TV, he's been told he's "too rude" for certain jobs.

Ruby Clyde, one half of sketch double-act Shelf, says: "It's weird that people consider gay people talking about their lives to be people talking about 'gay stuff'. But a [straight] guy can get up and do a full hour about Tinder and no one thinks of that as the straight agenda."

It's very rare that I'll be on a bill with another trans person

Queer comedians can find themselves in a catch-22. You're expected to explain your identity as soon as you get on stage (Peart says: "If we don't, we'll never have the audience on our side, they'll always be on edge") but that's often accompanied by accusations that they're incapable of talking about anything else.

Paul Sinha describes a "cognitive dissonance" among audiences: "People like your comedy or they don't. Based on that, you're either being 'brave and inspiring' or 'tediously banging on' about your sexuality." There's a balance to be struck: "Have self-belief in what you want to talk about, and make sure you talk to the audience about what you and they have in common as well. But, most importantly of all, don't let others impose their agenda on you."

Suzi Ruffell says that, at some clubs: "I would be heckled before I even got to the mic about how I look, my sexuality, or just someone shouting 'dyke', so I had to make a joke about myself before someone else could."

It's still rare to have more than one queer performer on a bill. "It's very rare that I'll be on with another trans person, or even another LGBT person," says Jen Ives. When Ruffell started out, she was told she couldn't gig with Zoe Lyons or Jen Brister as "you might talk about the same thing". Even now, she says, "I never gig with gay girls". Peart says this can mean missing out on community: "That affects relationships, friendships, and it means we're always seen as the outsider."

This booking practice can make comedians feel they're being viewed as a "representative" of their sexuality or gender. Ives says: "I've always felt people underestimate me. Promoters will say: 'We booked a trans act before and we didn't really like it.'"

While more LGBTQ+ comedians are appearing on live lineups and TV shows, it can often feel tokenistic - anyone will do, because they'll be telling the same jokes. In TV there's often a reluctance to book two gay acts on the same series, never mind the same episode. "But they'll do that for two straight white men - many even host shows together," Bailey adds.

Clyde says she and Shelf's other half, Rachel Watkeys Dowie, have experienced this conundrum with TV commissioning. "You get it all the time where you're pitching a script: 'There's actually already a gay show out at the moment.' Or all queer ideas are up for one slot, despite being wildly different from each other."

Sinha says it works both ways. While "it would be ludicrous to think that I haven't been treated differently because of my sexuality", that's only one facet of his identity and there are other factors affecting the decisions of bookers and commissioners. "However you try to label yourself, doors will both open and shut," he says.

In TV, you're more likely to be restricted to making work about sexuality, says Watkeys Dowie: "We'll present a load of ideas, and they only want gay stuff. It's like: 'If you're going to tick our gay box, we need you to fully tick that gay box.'"

Mitchell says that while many queer comedians do want to make work about their sexuality, pressure to explore traumatic experiences can feel uncomfortable: "Do this sketch specifically about your trauma or the platform's not there."

The success of shows such as Mae Martin's Feel Good proves there is demand for queer stories. Yet when the TV show isn't about sexuality, it's rarer to see a queer comedian at the helm. Ruffell says: "When I was growing up there were three lesbians on television: Sandi Toksvig, Sue Perkins and Clare Balding. Now I'm 35, it's still those three women. There's not even one out lesbian that's come through in the last 10 years."

Despite a track record of sellout tours, viral standup clips and a popular podcast, could it be that hiring a queer woman like Ruffell to host a mainstream show is still viewed as risky? Experiences such as a TV producer asking: 'Do you always have to wear a suit?' make her feel like "they don't know what to do with me".

I think 'white man' is allowed not to be a genre, but 'gay' is a genre. No, gay is just a thing that we are

Chloe Petts

Peart and Bailey are constantly compared to Alan Carr and Tom Allen, despite their material being very different. It can feel like there's a ladder where only one person is allowed to occupy each rung.

Some promoters and commissioners may be wrongly pre-judging their audiences. Peart, Bailey and Ruffell all say they have majority straight audiences. "If I'm funny, no one gives a shit who I sleep with," says Ruffell. "I think people are second-guessing the audience." Many comedians have heard their material is "not relatable" - but does that affect what's funny? "I've never understood that criticism," Ives says. "Even when I see a straight white male comic - even then! - I still am interested in their life."

During Sinha's 20 years in comedy, he's seen "vast improvements" and says LGBTQ+ representation is important "within a framework of broadening people's horizons, so that all manner of under-represented voices are heard, in a manner that offers opportunity to the talented and funny, and doesn't feel tokenistic. I'm at the point where I can't honestly believe that LGB representation is the issue. T, however, is the issue that needs most urgent attention - because we haven't really started yet."

Ives agrees that "trans representation is in the toilet" and adds: "I don't feel like trans people feel confident about going into [comedy]." This is understandable she says, when clubs book comedians who use trans people as a punchline. "Another act will say something that's incredibly transphobic and the audience will react in a positive way," she says. "Then you have to go up and remind them that there is a trans person in the room." On TV, you're more likely to find a cis comedian talking about trans people than a trans comedian talking about anything. (Since we spoke, Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special, in which he makes jokes directed toward the LGBTQ+ community and declares " I'm team Terf ", has been released.) Yet Ives encourages other trans people to try comedy. "It's a forum for you to speak for yourself; there aren't many of those," she says. "People don't understand what our lives are like. They think they know, but they don't. The truth is our lives are quite normal really, and we need more people to tell people that."

More trans comedians could also encourage trans people to attend comedy shows, which Ives says is rare, even at LGBTQ+ comedy nights. The Lol Word has grown from a tiny room at the Edinburgh fringe to Soho theatre sellouts in London. Ives also praises smaller nights such as London-based Clandestina for their inclusivity. Their success shows it's possible to build an alternative vision of live comedy but wider change will be driven by the mainstream - larger clubs and TV, especially. "The media generally has a real responsibility for how it affects the world," Ives says. "If people are not seeing you represented as you really are, it's going to affect how they think about you."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'If I'm funny, no one cares who I sleep with': queer comedians on finding a stage

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
he comedian Stephen Bailey was hosting an Instagram Live earlier this year when he got a message that shocked him. One of his followers, an open-mic standup, described "experiences of blatant homophobia when it comes to booking," Bailey says. "One venue wouldn't book him because, according to them, their audience 'wouldn't like the gay stuff'."

# data[].attributes.headline
Watch feminist theorist Judith Butler talk about how gender is performative. Read what Butler says about visual representations of masculinity in the link below.

# data[].attributes.subject
Watch feminist theorist Judith Butler talk about how gender is performative. Read what Butler says about visual representations of masculinity in the link below.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7o2LYATDc

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1010146124652

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Judith Butler: Your Behavior Creates Your Gender | Big Think

# data[].attributes.headline
Read Mulvey's seminal work ' Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. How does she question the typical use of narrative in film?

# data[].attributes.subject
Read Mulvey's seminal work ' Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. How does she question the typical use of narrative in film?

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.composingdigitalmedia.org/f15_mca/mca_reads/mulvey.pdf

# data[].attributes.headline
Read this article about Laura Mulvey and her theory of the 'male gaze' in visual media.

# data[].attributes.subject
Read this article about Laura Mulvey and her theory of the 'male gaze' in visual media.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.filminquiry.com/film-theory-basics-laura-mulvey-male-gaze-theory/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain, best known for her essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Her theories are influenced by the likes of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan (by using their ideologies as "political weapons") whilst also including psychoanalysis and feminism in her works. Mulvey is predominantly known for her theory regarding sexual objectification on women in the media, more commonly known as The Male Gaze" theory.

Being one of the most notable film theorists in the world, her ideas and clear proof of misogyny in film opened up the eyes of many, and in 1975, something that people simply accepted was finally questioned. Although Mulvey 's theory has helped identify issues with gender in film, why do we still have the same issues decades later? Why do we still see the same roles for women in film and television regurgitated over and over again?

This article is available as an Audio Article to our patrons!

Don't feel like reading and would prefer to listen, instead? Sign in or become a patron today!

Mulvey states that "the gender power asymmetry is a controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses." This means that the male viewer is the target audience, therefore their needs are met first and that this problem stems from an old fashioned, male-driven society. Her theory on how women are portrayed in film and the media is just as prevalent today as it was in 1975 when her text was first published.

Mulvey believes that women are in fact "the bearer of meaning and not the maker of meaning," which suggests that women are not placed in a role where they can take control of a scene, instead they are simply put there to be observed from an objectified point of view. In addition, she believes that this way of watching film is never alternated so that the men are in fact the ones who are being viewed in this manner. This inequality enforces the ancient and outdated idea of " men do the looking, and women are to be looked at."

The Male Gaze Theory

The Male Gaze theory, in a nutshell, is where women in the media are viewed from the eyes of a heterosexual man, and that these women are represented as passive objects of male desire. Audiences are forced to view women from the point of view of a heterosexual male, even if they are heterosexual women or homosexual men.

From the feminist perspective, this theory can be viewed in three ways: How men look at women, how women look at themselves and finally, how women look at other women. Typical examples of the male gaze include medium close-up shots of women from over a man's shoulder, shots that pan and fixate on a woman's body, and scenes that frequently occur which show a man actively observing a passive woman.

The Male Gaze suggests that the female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male. In 1929 Salvador Dali released a film called Un Chein Andalou, which is an abstract short film that portrays a perfect example of this. One scene in the film, a man is found dissecting the iris of a young woman's eye, which infers this idea of female sight not being central, and that men are not only the audience, but also in control of the action, the camera, the direction, the writing, et cetera, therefore completely running the show, dominating the entirety of the narrative and how it is depicted.

Not only is the Male Gaze theory relevant to cinema, but it also correlates with every-day life. Some theorists have noted that in advertising, objectification and sexualised portrayals of the female body can be found even in situations where sex or representations of sex have nothing to do with the product being advertised.

Although as of recently, movies like (2013) and Suffragette (2015) do Mulvey justice in highlighting women's independence and empowerment, breaking away from the Male Gaze, decades later we still see the same broken record playing, with films like The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) revealing women in extremely sexual and somewhat unnecessary manners.

One reason for this is simply that the movie companies producing these films are male-dominated, as cinema is predominantly a male-run industry, and just like when Mulvey originally wrote this critical analysis of film, producers are still churning out the same work that has proved to be successful in the past with audiences as they invest to make profit. They believe that they are giving the public what they want, when that isn't necessarily true. They are giving audiences what a proportion of males want, and what the rest of society has been brainwashed to accept.

Examples of The Male Gaze in Film: Transformers

One film which stands out when considering this theory is Michael Bay's Transformers franchise. Firstly, these movies have a huge difference in the male/female character ratio, instantly making it an unrepresentative movie as it doesn't depict 50% of its audience. All the women Bay casts in this franchise are sexualised in some way, and it has no relevance to the story line, or as Mulvey would put it: it is just to please the heterosexual male, rendering it a movie with touches of irrelevant objectification and misogyny.

Bay clearly went into this franchise with sexual objectification in mind as he cast some of the most sexually objectified women in Hollywood. For example, in the first movie, Megan Fox plays Sam Witwicky's ( Shia LaBeouf) love interest, and who can forget that memorable scene where Fox is in a tight, low-cut top bent over a car engine? This degrading scene is also followed with a variety of other camera angles and shots which are clearly only included in the movie for sexual gratification targeted towards the heterosexual male.

This unoriginal and predictable character archetype did not stop at the first few films either, as Bay continued to cast limited women in his films, and all the women included in the franchise are deemed stereotypically attractive, as their careers in acting are secondary to their modelling careers.

For example, model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley plays the role of Sam's girlfriend in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) and she has a variety of scenes where she walks around with minimal clothing on. Or what about Nicola Peltz in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), who is also objectified with minimal clothing and worms-eye camera angles, letting audiences see a lot of skin, indefinitely more than a male actor would reveal in this franchise.

Disney Princesses

Whilst the Male Gaze can be applied to many obvious films such as Transformers, there are some films that people might not even consider as sexist and misogynistic, such as the movies that feature everyone's beloved Disney princesses: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella et cetera.

Firstly, the design of the princesses is partially created to satisfy the male eye. Jasmine, the Disney princess in Aladdin for example, features a small, tight crop top revealing her chest and stomach, and her waist is almost the same width as her neck, therefore enforcing unrealistic goals for what little girls want to look and aspire to be like.

Why does this conglomerate deem it necessary to sexualise their characters? What kind of message does this transmit? What if the young girls watching these films don't feel as thin or as flawless as these characters? They begin to question their self-worth. Every female Disney protagonist seems to follow a specific template, continuously made to be extremely thin and put dresses, and with the majority of these characters being white women, it can also make children question the worth and societal view of their race.

Another way Mulvey 's critical theory can be applied to Disney princesses is through the plot and storyline. The female protagonists are only happy once they have fallen in love with a man, suggesting to the demographic of Disney's audience, children and in particular young girls, that they will only be happy when they have fallen in love. It infers that men hold the answer and are the root to women's happiness. When looking back at the most popular 20th century Disney princesses, not one of their stories ended where they were alone and okay with it, they all fell in love, which does not correlate with society at all.

The men/princes in the movies are depicted as heroic and brave, and the princesses are trapped in ivory towers waiting to be saved. Since film and television is one of the biggest resources of education, what does this teach little girls about their self-worth and what they should strive for? Unfortunately, because Disney know people will pay to see this predictable and outdated narrative, they retell the same story over and over for profit, and with the company being worth a total of 74.9 billion US dollars, why would they stop?

The Effect on Cinema

Overall, it is clear that Mulvey's theory can be applied to a vast amount of films, for example Spring Breakers (2012), the movies (2001-2003), The Avengers (2012) and some less obvious movies, such as Aladdin and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Not only do we see this outdated portrayal of women in movies, but also in advertisements, music videos and in daily life.

Mulvey has shone a light on the old-fashioned and repetitive style of cinema we see every day, and her ideologies have helped create a more modern and truthful version of cinema as we now have more realistic portrayals of women than ever before. For example, the films (2015) and The Hunger Games franchise (2012-present) allow audiences to have a refreshing look at women in strong and powerful positions without a man by their side, thus enforcing the important message that women do not have to be put in a box and objectified, they can play a variety of different, versatile roles and they can be considered through the eyes of society in a way that doesn't patronize and sexualise them via the Male Gaze.

Which films do you think Laura Mulvey's theory can be applied to? Leave your thoughts and comments to the right!

(top image: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - source: Paramount Pictures)

Does content like this matter to you?

Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Film Theory 101 - Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze Theory - Film Inquiry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mulvey shone a light on the old-fashioned style of cinema in 1975, and her ideologies have helped create more realistic portrayals of women.

# data[].attributes.headline
Read about how Dove are trying to promote self esteem in young people. Why might they be doing this?

# data[].attributes.subject
Read about how Dove are trying to promote self esteem in young people. Why might they be doing this?

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.dove.com/uk/dove-self-esteem-project.html

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since 2004, Dove has been building self-esteem in young people - and by 2020, we'll have helped 40 million through our educational programmes.

# data[].attributes.headline
Read about how gender bias manifests in the media in this McKinsey article.

# data[].attributes.subject
Read about how gender bias manifests in the media in this McKinsey article.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/shattering-the-glass-screen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are many reasons to care about gender issues in the media and entertainment industry-not the least of which is the importance of moving beyond traditional stereotypes and having diverse storytellers share their unique perspectives in film, television, and other forms of print and broadcast media. Women are among the largest consumers of film and television, so they represent a key demographic for this industry and the advertisers that support it.

According to our recent research, women are well represented in media and entertainment companies. But even with corporate America's increased focus on ensuring gender parity, women in this industry experience a more hostile workplace than men and face a glass ceiling that prevents them from reaching top leadership roles.

Using data from the 2019 Women in the Workplace study, one of the largest and most comprehensive data sets of women in corporate America, McKinsey created a one-year snapshot of how women are progressing in media and entertainment and how their workplace experiences differ from those of men. We supplemented that information with collected data from 15 companies, as well as workplace-experience-survey responses of 1,700 employees-both male and female-from the media and entertainment industry in 2019.

We observed some positive trends. At early tenures, for instance, women in media and entertainment are at equal representation as men, which provides a stable foundation for the future. What's more, at early tenures, promotion rates for women exceed those for men, and the share of women hired from outside the company is equal to or surpasses the share of men. The women in our research also reported high satisfaction with their career choices, as well as a strong desire to be promoted and otherwise advance in their organizations. HR respondents in this industry tended to say their companies were committed to achieving greater parity: 93 percent of them stated that gender diversity was a priority for their organizations.

But, as with women in all other industries, there are major challenges facing women in media and entertainment. When examining the three main drivers of women's advancement in corporate America-promotion, attrition, and external hiring-we found that women in entry-level positions in this industry are leaving their companies at higher rates than their male counterparts. Yes, promotions at early tenures drive strong representation at the managerial level, but that progress slows to a crawl the closer you get to the top. We observed that external hiring skews male for C-suite positions, which contributes to a corporate environment in which women are well represented at early-tenure positions but remain a minority at more senior levels. Only 27 percent of C-suite positions in media and entertainment are held by women. We found similar patterns when we took a closer look at one segment of media and entertainment in particular: the news media (see sidebar, "Women in news organizations").

Furthermore, we observed that women's day-to-day workplace experiences in media and entertainment are worse than men's. Almost half of all respondents said they believe women in their fields are judged by different standards than men, which they say makes it difficult to achieve parity in senior management in their workplaces.

In this article, we review the findings from our research and consider steps executives in media and entertainment can take to encourage greater equity.

There are more women overall ...

There are a significant number of women in the media and entertainment industry compared with our overall benchmark for women's representation in corporate America. Women make up 49 percent of the total workforce in media and entertainment, although most of these women are concentrated in entry-level positions (Exhibit 1).

Our research shows that women at entry-level positions are moving up the corporate ladder in media and entertainment faster than men. They are being promoted to the manager level twice as often as men-6 percent for women compared with 3 percent for men (Exhibit 2). This promotion rate contributes to a much higher percentage of women managers in the industry than in corporate America as a whole (49 percent in media and entertainment, versus 38 percent for all industries). It also represents a better promotion rate than in the wider workforce where that first promotion to manager is the most significant barrier to women's advancement, commonly referred to as the "broken rung."

Our research suggests that women in this industry are more satisfied with their career choices than are women in corporate America overall. Women in media and entertainment report career-satisfaction rates that are slightly higher than men's-77 percent of women versus 75 percent of men (Exhibit 3). Additionally, 82 percent of women in our research reported a desire to be promoted to the next level, as compared with 71 percent of women across all industries. Indeed, 35 percent of women in media and entertainment said they had asked for a promotion during the past year, compared with 27 percent of men in the industry. These statistics suggest that the low representation of women in senior roles cannot be attributed to a lack of desire for advancement.

... but there is a dearth of women in senior leadership

Women are "getting a foot in the door" in media and entertainment, and they are enthusiastic about seeking advancement-but that's where positive trends begin to fade. For an entry-level woman looking up, every rung on the career ladder will have fewer women in it. A woman graduating with a degree in mass communications or journalism, for instance, will walk across a stage where six out of every ten students are women. If she's hired into the industry, her entry-level class will consist of five women in every ten hires. Further up the corporate ladder, at the transition from senior manager to vice president, one woman from this group, on average, will drop out of the pipeline. By the time these mass-communication or journalism professionals are poised to reach the C-suite, they will account for fewer than three of every ten executives-a point commonly referred to as the glass ceiling. For both men and women, there have been limited promotions from the senior-vice-president level into the C-suite; the promotion rate is less than 1 percent.

This lack of internal advancement for women is compounded by another observable trend: more men than women are hired from outside the company into the C-suite. Our numbers showed that of external hires in the C-suite, 79 percent were men and 21 percent women. To accelerate women's representation in the C-suite, media and entertainment companies will need to increase women's access to internal and external pathways to the top, potentially challenging existing corporate structures. It can be done: in the past five years, many other companies and industries have added women to the senior-most levels of management, and now close to 45 percent of companies have three or more women in the C-suite compared with fewer than 30 percent of companies in 2015.

Women are clearly aware that the deck is stacked against them. Twenty-seven percent of women surveyed in the media and entertainment industry say that gender has played a role in their missing out on a raise, promotion, or a chance to get ahead, as opposed to only 7 percent of men. What's more, 35 percent of women reported that they expect their gender to make it harder to get a raise or promotion in the future as opposed to 15 percent of men (Exhibit 4).

This inequity grows deeper when we look at the intersection of race and gender. According to our data, women of color are poorly represented across all levels of leadership in media and entertainment. For example, white women represent 33 percent of entry-level roles in media and entertainment, while women of color represent 17 percent. And while women hold 22 percent of C-suite roles in media and entertainment, women of color hold only 4 percent of those positions (Exhibit 5).

Note that men of color also have a difficult path to positions of leadership in media and entertainment. They represent only one out of every six employees at the entry level, and only one out of every 12 employees in the C-suite.

Women are held to a different standard

Almost half of the women in our research said they believe that women in the industry are judged by different standards than men. More important, they consider these gender-biased appraisals to be one of the biggest challenges to getting equal numbers of women and men in management at their organizations.

The numbers suggest that women are more aware of the biases facing other women than men are, with 34 percent of women reporting that they had heard or seen biased behavior toward women in the past year-a number that is 2.7 times higher than their male counterparts (Exhibit 6). This awareness gap can make it difficult for companies to mobilize and address issues with women's workplace experiences. If men, who still make up four of every five C-suite executives, don't perceive that bias toward women is happening, they won't feel compelled to allocate resources toward fixing the problem.

Our research also suggests that women in this industry experience more microaggressions than women in other industries. Microaggressions are brief, often unintended, actions that can slight or marginalize a coworker-for instance, being interrupted while talking or having others explain things to you that you already know. Microaggressions can undermine women's confidence, inhibit their sense of belonging, and limit their opportunities for advancement. As compared with women in an all-industry benchmark, women in media and entertainment were more likely to report experiencing microaggressions in nine out of the ten categories we asked about (Exhibit 7). What's more, women of color reported experiencing microaggressions at higher rates than their white peers.

In the wake of such obstacles, 49 percent of women in the media and entertainment industry reported that their companies provided clear and safe ways to voice grievances and concerns, compared with 57 percent in all industries. The good news is that women are demanding even more: almost a third of the women surveyed in media and entertainment reported becoming more outspoken in the past two years about how women are treated at work.

Taking action

As the numbers suggest, there are many obstacles for women in media and entertainment. But the two biggest challenges are the lack of women's representation in senior positions and the culture of biased behavior that negatively affects women's day-to-day experiences in the workplace. There are tangible ways that companies can tackle both and help to level the playing field in the media and entertainment industry.

To help women advance to senior positions

Appoint more women to board positions. Adding more women to the board can help ensure greater gender parity as companies evaluate candidates for senior-leadership positions. Board diversity can help to draw in and motivate more talented employees from a broader set of backgrounds. A good way to get started is for boards to make a visible commitment to diversity and set new principles for decision making-by including women on every candidate slate, for instance. They can also expand their criteria for who gets on the board-by considering candidates with the right expertise, for example, and not just those with prior experience.

Establish senior-sponsorship programs. Sponsorship is crucial to career advancement for both men and women, but research shows they often have networks of different sizes and compositions. For instance, women's networks tend to be mostly female, while men's networks are mostly male. This can become a disadvantage over time because of the lack of senior women available to provide sponsorship to the next generation of women. To bridge this gap, companies can create formal sponsorship programs that connect executives to high-potential women with the goal of building relationships, providing advice, and most important, creating opportunities.

Create and commit to a culture of accountability. Ensuring that people at the top of the organization are accountable for diversity and inclusion can help shed light on the lack of women in leadership positions. As it stands now, 53 percent of human-resources (HR) respondents from media and entertainment companies said that the head of HR was held accountable for progress (or lack thereof) on diversity metrics or targets, versus only 27 percent reporting that the CEO was held accountable. Compare that with the all-industry benchmark, where 62 percent of HR representatives said the head of HR was accountable and 53 percent said the CEO was held accountable. If companies are truly committed to diversity and gender parity, our research shows that the issue needs to be a top priority for senior leadership. The BBC's 50:50 Project provides a good example: Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, set a target of having at least 50 percent women contributing to the creation of BBC content by 2019. In April 2018, only 27 percent of production teams associated with the 50:50 Project reported having at least 50 percent female contributors; by April 2019, that number had increased to 74 percent of production teams.

Ensure fair evaluations. Establishing formal hiring and evaluation criteria for senior leaders, as well as rank-and-file managers, can help break down entrenched systems that have led to unequal representation at senior levels. One way to formalize these processes is to mandate that companies build diverse candidate slates when hiring; that is, the list of candidates should include at least two qualified women or minority candidates for the hiring managers' consideration. Another way to ensure that evaluations are fair is to track the outcomes of hiring and promotions to determine whether certain candidates or certain genders, races, or ethnic groups are being favored. The data will reveal whether hiring managers are following company policies, or if new policies need to be created to ensure fair outcomes.

To help address culture issues

Establish a systematic training program to combat biases. Cognitive biases can creep into performance evaluation and hiring processes, at all levels. To help mitigate these biases, companies should offer unconscious-bias training at important decision-making junctures-for instance, in the case of hiring or promotion decisions. Such training should be available to all, but especially for evaluators. Companies might even consider adding a bias observer to the process to flag any unconscious actions or views that may present themselves during performance evaluations or promotion discussions. When employees feel they have an equal opportunity for advancement and think the system is fair, they are likely to be happier with their career, plan to stay at their company longer, and are more likely to recommend it as a great place to work.

Biased behaviors can be deeply held, so one-off trainings or all-hands meetings may not be enough to change behaviors. True change will require a well-orchestrated campaign of diversity training, frequent communication, leadership modeling and support, and repetition. Such a programmatic approach to culture change should include systematic reminders and nudges about the characteristics of inclusive environments, as well as training and workshops that are aimed at changing behaviors. In an industry in which whom you know can be just as important as what you know, HR should deploy a programmatic approach to ensure that inclusivity is top of mind in the workplace day to day.

Listen to a woman's perspective. A good way to understand how to create more inclusivity in organizations is to learn from the women who have risen to leadership roles despite the obstacles in their way. For instance, when we asked 150 attendees at a women-only leadership program about their day-to-day work experiences, the systematic shortfalls became clear. Companies must expand the definition of leadership to encompass a range of styles and traits. They need to telegraph to employees at all levels that leaders need solid nurturing, collaboration, and listening skills, for example, as much as they need a strong and directive tone. Companies must also encourage dissent, so employees won't be afraid to speak up about inequities and raise awareness about the challenges they face. And they must create space for reflection about gender and leadership issues-for instance, seeking feedback on this topic not just once a year, but on a rolling basis. By making progress in each of these areas, companies can create more inclusive workplaces, improve retention rates among female leaders, and help women fulfill their career goals.

Enlist men as allies. Our research revealed a significant awareness gap between men and women in media and entertainment with regard to noticing biased behaviors in the workplace. A good first step toward closing this gap would be to provide training for employees at all levels on how to work within diverse teams-how to vary communication styles, for example, or how to recognize and limit microaggressions. Several global organizations, including UN Women, provide corporate-action kits to help with just this goal and to promote workplace equality.

Given the nature of the media and the entertainment industry's ability to influence culture at large through its production of film, video, and news publications, it is important for this industry to pay close attention to inclusion principles. As this report suggests, progress has been made, but there is more work to be done.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are many reasons to care about gender issues in the media and entertainment industry-not the least of which is the importance of moving beyond traditional stereotypes and having diverse storytellers share their unique perspectives in film, television, and other forms of print and broadcast media.

# data[].attributes.headline
What is the Bechdel Test? How relevant is it today? Read this article that explains the concept and what films pass the test. 

# data[].attributes.subject
What is the Bechdel Test? How relevant is it today? Read this article that explains the concept and what films pass the test. 

# data[].attributes.body
https://bechdeltest.com

# data[].attributes.headline
Read this article on how white men dominate film roles. Think about how this effects our perception of diversity in society.

# data[].attributes.subject
Read this article on how white men dominate film roles. Think about how this effects our perception of diversity in society.

# data[].attributes.body
https://pudding.cool/2017/03/bechdel/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hollywood's Gender Divide and its Effect on Films

Examining the Gender of Writers, Producers, and Directors Who Make films that fail the Bechdel Test

There's this thing called the Bechdel Test. It measures just how male-dominated our beloved Netflix nights really are. To pass, films need to satisfy three requirements:

#1 It has at least two women in it

#2 Who talk to each other, about

#3 Something besides a man

It's a low bar, but many good movies don't pass. Birdman fails. Avatar fails. Fucking Toy Story fails. On bechdeltest.com, a site for crowdsourcing Bechdel Test results, about 40% of films don't pass. It's a sad state since women exist in life, like, half the time.

Why? Rather than generalize a sexist system, one theory is simple: filmmakers, unintentionally, make movies about themselves (i.e., write what you know). Since the most powerful producers, writers, and directors are men, male-themes permeate into Hollywood's output. To see if women are more likely to write about women (i.e., pass the Bechdel test), we compiled the genders of the producers, writers, and directors on thousands of films.

First, let's examine the screenwriters' gender for 200 films that we know and love.

The 200 Highest Grossing Films: Bechdel Test Results and Gender Diversity of the Writing Team

#1 Film has at least two women in it #2 Who talk to each other, about #3 Something besides a man. Box Office is inflation-adjusted and includes films 1995 - 2015*. Test results via bechdeltest.com. More on methodology here.

53% Fails Test

47% Passes Test

Films with an All-Male Writing Team

38% Fails Test

62% Passes Test

At Least One Woman Writer

*We looked at films only over the past 20 years to control for progress in gender diversity. That is, in the 50s, we expect men to make a predominate number of films due to low participation of women in the workforce, overall.

Male vs. Female Decision-Makers and the Bechdel Test

When writing teams are entirely male, about 50% of films fail the Bechdel test. Add a woman to the mix and only a third of films fail. The seven films written entirely by women all pass the Bechdel test. Uncanny, right?

That's a small sample: only 200 movies. So let's look at every film (about 4,000 movies) rated on bechdeltest.com.

Percent of Films that Fail the Bechdel Test, 4,000 films via
Based on Gender Composition of Writers, Producers, and Directors
bechdeltest.com, 1995 - 2015

Girls, we do not, in fact, run this mother. Men are pervasive in startups, CEOs, engineering, politics - Hollywood is no exception. But in Hollywood, it's plainly visible in the product. When men make films, what's on-screen reflects the behind-the-scenes brotopia.

There are plenty of flaws with the Bechdel Test, but it's a crude way to measure the inclusiveness of a film (and we have 4,000 films rated on the metric). The fact that a filmmaker's gender correlates with the test, we can stop arguing about the merits of the Bechdel Test and start discussing Hollywood's diversity problem (i.e., 85% of filmmakers are men...more on this later).

Here's each of the films that we examined and the (mostly-male) individuals involved:

Films that Fail the Bechdel Test and the Creators' Gender

4,000 films via bechdeltest.com, 1995 - 2015. Box Office is Inflation-adjusted. More on methodology here.

Why Inclusiveness Matters

When women are not visible on-screen, we reinforce stereotypes off-screen. Hollywood is promoting a culture of female invisibility, where women can't save the planet, win the big game, or fight the bad...wait for it... guy. Instead, they're props who can only gab about men.

Here's a look at the individuals creating such films: the most prolific directors, producers, and writers in Hollywood.

Bechdel Test Results for Notable Producers, Directors, and Writers

Bechdel Test Results via bechdeltest.com for films 1995 - 2015

Top Producers

Top Directors

Top Writers

Good Will Hunting

It's important to call out the studios. They make, buy, and distribute films. For example, while the new Star Wars sequel was boss (with Rey and Finn as leads!), Lucasfilms hasn't had the best track record: 4 out of 7 Star Wars fail the Bechdel Test.

Studios and the Percent of Films that Fail the Bechdel Test

Companies with Over 25 Films Rated on bechdeltest.com, 1995 - 2015

European studios are far more progressive than the US. France is killing it. Canal+ has about 200 films in our dataset, and a low 34% fail the Bechdel Test. US studios are a relative embarrassment: Warner Bros. (53% fail), Columbia (53% fail), and DreamWorks (55%).

Even more depressing? When we compiled the gender of each producer, director, and writer on these films. Men outnumbered women 5:1. Of the 4,500 directors, only 500 were women. When we sort the data by a film's popularity, it's even worse:

Writers for 4,000 films, sorted by Box Office Revenue

1995 - 2015, Box Office is Inflation-adjusted

Directors for 4,000 films, sorted by Box Office Revenue

1995 - 2015, Box Office is Inflation-adjusted

When there is a woman on the team, it's typically on small-market indie films. On blockbusters, Hollywood has fewer women directors per capita than the military has female generals .

Whether or not there's unconscious bias against women, things aren't changing. Films made in 1995, on average, failed the Bechdel Test 37% of the time. Today? 38%. Films made in 1995 had about 18% women in director, producer, and writing roles. Today? 17%.

One potential solution was recently proposed by Spike Lee: implement something akin to the NFL's Rooney Rule. To slow-down the automatic white-guy hire, NFL teams must interview minority candidates for coaching positions. Hollywood should do the same: mandatory interviews for one person of color and one woman for every showrunner / director / writer / producer position.

Something is keeping these numbers from moving. Until they change, we're left with films lacking the depth of so many new perspectives. Real life passes the Bechdel test; our imagined world can, too.

Thinking about who should helm a film? Try our Bechdel Test Simulator first.

A BECHDEL TEST SIMULATOR: MAKE A MOVIE THAT PASSES

Likelihood of Failing the Bechdel Test

0%

[*] Methodology: first we scraped every film from bechdeltest.com. Then we looked at the release year using IMDB, filtering out anything before 1995. From there, we grabbed the producer, director, and writer via IMDB's cast info. We ignored inconsequential producers (e.g., line producers) or writers (e.g., character writers). Then came the fun part: we used IMDB bios to gender tag producers, writers, and directors based on frequently occurring pronouns. This wasn't perfect, since films like Her create false positives. From there, we assigned gender based on first name (e.g., Michaels = "male"). This left about 8% of the data without any gender tagging, which unfortunately throws off the data slightly. If you see an egregious error, send it to us at matthew.f.daniels@gmail.com.

[1] "69 of the 976 generals and admirals, 7.1%, were women" via CNN in 2013. For films with revenue over $500M+, 1995 - 2015, 10 of the 225 directors, 4.4%, were women.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hollywood's Gender Divide and its Effect on Films

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hollywood's Gender Divide and its Effect on Films Examining the Gender of Writers, Producers, and Directors Who Make films that fail the Bechdel Test There's this thing called the Bechdel Test. It measures just how male-dominated our beloved Netflix nights really are.

# data[].attributes.headline
Watch this comedy mock up of an audition for a leading lady part. What does it say about the role of a leading lady in a film. How is comedy used?

# data[].attributes.subject
Watch this comedy mock up of an audition for a leading lady part. What does it say about the role of a leading lady in a film. How is comedy used?

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpDHNbjGivo

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/23/truth-world-built-for-men-car-crashes

# data[].attributes.headline
Read about the revolutionary story of the Women's Lib Movement and iconic magazine Spare Rib. Browse the British Library collection of the publication. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Read about the revolutionary story of the Women's Lib Movement and iconic magazine Spare Rib. Browse the British Library collection of the publication. 

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bl.uk/spare-rib

# data[].attributes.headline
Watch the interview with Grayson Perry to see what he says about being a cross dressing man in the public eye. Check out Grayson's work on the future of masculinity (google it!)

# data[].attributes.subject
Watch the interview with Grayson Perry to see what he says about being a cross dressing man in the public eye. Check out Grayson's work on the future of masculinity (google it!)

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssHUgE29vy8

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Grayson Perry discusses his gender identity | BORN RISKY

# data[].attributes.headline
Take a look at the videos, radio shows or articles on this padlet. Add  comments, other items or start your own padlet as a research journal for this course (you get three padlets free). 

# data[].attributes.subject
Take a look at the videos, radio shows or articles on this padlet. Add  comments, other items or start your own padlet as a research journal for this course (you get three padlets free). 

# data[].attributes.headline
Learn about the continuing work the #metoo movement are doing. Join the movement and amplify the message #BeyondTheHashtag

# data[].attributes.subject
Learn about the continuing work the #metoo movement are doing. Join the movement and amplify the message #BeyondTheHashtag

# data[].attributes.body
https://metoomvmt.org/bth/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lYttMRnT9yOvgGpreZVd8P9qX0MQnV9rUeyG7ZdbnHI/edit

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We are here to help. Find resources to support your healing, learn about our work, and when you’re ready, join the fight.