Posts tagged feminism

7 Ways Women and Girls Are Stereotyped, Sexualized, and Underrepresented on Screen

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (founded in 2004 by the Oscar-winning actress and United Nations special envoy) has published a new report (PDF) detailing the stereotypes, barriers, and straight-up exploitation that still define how badly women and girls are treated on screen. The study takes a deep dive into prime-time television, as well as children’s programming and family-friendly films. Women are scarcer in prime-time shows and family films, and those films depict “fewer women in prestigious occupational positions,” the study notes. “Females are not only missing from popular media, [but] when they are on screen, they seem to be there merely for decoration.”

(Source: girlsforachange)

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Remember when Iron Man 2 was coming out and the media was going on about Black Widow and Pepper Potts, and they couldn’t stop speculating on if the characters were going to have competition or if the actresses had competition during filming

for no other reason the that they were two women in the same movie

yeah me too

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The most amazing thing happened to me today

So as some of you know I’m in a sorority and have been for about a year. I joined as a way of getting a bit more involved with school/life, so that I’m not spending you know, every waking hour being an isolationist.  And I did enjoy my first year and thought it was a pretty valuable experience to be having but there were a few aspects that I was less than comfortable with.

Nothing actually bad was happening but I wasn’t very thrilled with a lot of the values I saw presented. I’m mostly talking about how sororities were founded on feminist ideals, and for an organization that claims to have a lot of pride in that, i would regularly see a lot of values that contradicted that. Just basically a lot of very backwards ideas were happening, when in reality, sororities are feminist by their very nature, and they should be doing the exact opposite.

Anyways like I said, less than thrilling. My first year I considered dropping because I felt that maybe I was on a different wavelength than a lot of my sisters, and that this wasn’t really enhancing my life. But then I thought, ‘give it another semester, you’ll be living closer to your school and you’ll be able to get more involved’. So rather than whine about the conversations I would overhear I decided that I could change them?

So I ran to become our education chairman after my initiation last year, got it, spent a semester getting used to the position and went into this semester with the idea of waking up the chapter a little and making us into the place of women’s empowerment we could and should be. I had presentations that I started off as basic to ease people in. Nothing new for tumblr or whatever, but maybe very new for some of these girls. I made these presentations relate to our own lives/experiences and followed them up with regular newsletters. Then presentations got more and more diverse, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I’ve always been a pretty amazing public speaker. I know that sounds insanely obnoxious and I’m cringing just saying it but it’s true lol. And I was really tailoring these presentations in way that was meant to be appealing and approachable, but no less educational. And I could see that in each presentation, more and more girls were getting involved and following in a way that was so encouraging to see.

Anyways WHERE IS THIS GOING you ask. Tonight we had an informal meeting, because initiation for our new members is this weekend and the meeting before that is meant to be relaxing, inspiring, with going around and sharing favourite memories etc. And EVERYBODY without fail had something to say with a theme about how they didn’t realize how much they could accomplish and should be aware of as a woman, or about how they were realizing the importance of women’s empowerment and how the sorority was giving them that etc

Guys

Last semester the question was casually put out to the chapter, ‘how many of you identify as feminists?’ I think about 4 or 5 of us automatically raised our hands, with a few who were sort of twiddling their hands halfway up. Tonight the question went out again and almost EVERY single hand shot up.

I’m like

So proud of myself right now you have no idea.

And in other news I went jogging tonight and ran into a coyote it was pretty epic.

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Just having a random moment of appreciation for Quentin Tarantino and how almost all of his films pass the Bechdel Test. And even if there aren’t two female characters who get to talk with each other, their conversations with everyone else generally stay refreshingly away from men/romance. Tarantino women <3

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so-spectacular:

sweetbabybucky:

I’m tired of people saying that Black Widow’s suit in the film is impractical, thus it’s only there to make her look sexy, so let’s take a look at her suit and Clint’s suit side by side.

As you can see, it’s the same general make. Tight-fitting to promote agility, dark colours to aid stealth, and made to accommodate their personal weapons of choice. The material looks rather similar in both, so I’m assuming the suits give them the same amount of protection.

If we’re going by some sort of exposure factor, Clint’s suit is much more revealing. He’s got a lot more skin showing.

The only difference I’m seeing here is that Natasha has breasts and Clint doesn’t.

So basically, when people call Natasha a slut/skank based on the “flimsy” suit that she’s wearing but see no fault in the fact that Clint is wearing what looks to be very similar materials, all I’m hearing is, “She has boobs, so she must be a slut/skank.”

In short, get the fuck out of my fandom.

(Source: rwantsthed)

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As excited as I am for Hitchcock (which is a LOT) I’m still not wild about the fact that almost 30 seconds of the trailer were spent discussing the fact that the leading lady has big boobs. It doesn’t sound like a lot but movie trailers are what, only 2 minutes and 30 seconds each? And you just devoted almost a fifth of your trailer to the size of Janet Leigh/Scarlett Johansson’s breasts, good job guys, good job.

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rougemarionette:

juvjuvychan:

The Women of Miyazaki

When people say movies, shows, books, etc, with female leads can’t sell and/or don’t have a market in mainstream media I simply shake my head and think of Miyazaki.  I think of his movies and how a majority of them, over the course of many years, have all starred female leads and are considered classics.  

Some people seem to think that women want the world when asking for female characters in mainstream media that aren’t; stereotypes, love interests, or sex objects.  These people seem to believe we’re asking some sort of impossible task and yet again I’m left thinking about Miyazaki and his amazing movies starring these amazing women.  

It’s not impossible, and we’re not asking for the world.  We’re asking for women, in our fiction, to be characters, to be presented as people.  Not as the love interest, not as the prize the male hero wins at the end of his struggles and rides off into the sunset with, not as a collection of body parts contorted to be sexy for the male gaze.  We’re asking for women to be good, to be bad, to be gray, to be heroes and villains, and morally in between.  We’re asking for women to be people. To be shown as such.  

When I watch Miyazaki’s films starring these women I see that.  I see women, or young girls, being strong, weak, capable, hurt, upset, smart, powerful, cunning, dreaming, struggling, women who are able to drive their own stories, make their own decisions, and be the heroes of their own tales.  

I see women who are presented as people. 

If you need an outline on how to write women, well, take some notes from these films and learn something. 

I just want to add that when I saw Hayao Miyazaki at SDCC when Ponyo came out, one of the questions he received was from a girl who asked why the main characters in his stories were female.

He smiled and responded with, “Because women are strong and beautiful.”

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youhavethatrumble replied to your post: Women’s Groups Discussion Topics?
“Supported studies” about the physiological superiority of strength in men to women, or the certain mental “divides” in binary gender purported by neuroscience. Not often spoken of, and I think a very important part of any talk about gender equality.

oooh thank you so much, that’s a GREAT one!

Women’s Groups Discussion Topics?

Hey all!:)

So I’m the Education Chairman for my sorority, and this basically means that among other things I’m in charge of weekly presentations that are meant to be just generally educational for the entire chapter. This year I’m really going for a feminist theme (yay!:P), with topics that may be appealing/relevant to women especially. So far my ideas for discussion topics are: 

  • tips for preventive assault
  • gossip culture
  • fitness/nutrition myths/facts
  • portrayals of women in pop-culture
  • “asking for it” debate
  • body-positivity
  • slut-shaming
  • male gaze

But after that I’m drawing a blank! What do you guys think? Are there any topics that you have a particular interest in and think should be represented with the ones above? Or ones listed here that any you have a problem with? I’d LOVE to hear from you guys, whatever the input!

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“Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair Magazine” - MOST UNDERRATED IRON MAN CHARACTER Remember her? I adore her. I love how she just keeps popping up to annoy Tony in all the Iron Man movies, but always for the better. Seriously, she’s a total role model. Apart from Pepper she’s the only other character who can go head-to-head with Tony when it comes to sassy banter (take their first meeting: “What do you say to your other nickname? The Merchant of Death”, “Rehearse that much?”, “You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?”). She’s the perfect bulldog-reporter and never gives for a second when it comes to doing her job. I also love how she’s not afraid to shame him and be his conscience, even though he’s this famous tycoon and she’s just a reporter, like when she tells him about how his company funded terrorists - “Is this what you call accountability?” - in the scene that was Tony’s turning point for becoming Iron Man. And she’s the one who basically provoked Tony into revealing that he was Iron Man, knowing full on what she was doing the whole time because she’s a pro like that (oh yeah and gotta love how every reporter stood up screaming and shouting while she sat there completely composed lol). They could have written her as just the random hot girl who’s only there to establish Tony’s playboy credentials, but she ended up having such an active role, however small it was. Anyways, she was way more rounded than a secondary character had to be and I hope she has another cameo in Iron Man 3, because girlfriend is flawless

“Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair Magazine” - MOST UNDERRATED IRON MAN CHARACTER

Remember her? I adore her. I love how she just keeps popping up to annoy Tony in all the Iron Man movies, but always for the better. Seriously, she’s a total role model. Apart from Pepper she’s the only other character who can go head-to-head with Tony when it comes to sassy banter (take their first meeting: “What do you say to your other nickname? The Merchant of Death”, “Rehearse that much?”, “You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?”). She’s the perfect bulldog-reporter and never gives for a second when it comes to doing her job.

I also love how she’s not afraid to shame him and be his conscience, even though he’s this famous tycoon and she’s just a reporter, like when she tells him about how his company funded terrorists - “Is this what you call accountability?” - in the scene that was Tony’s turning point for becoming Iron Man. And she’s the one who basically provoked Tony into revealing that he was Iron Man, knowing full on what she was doing the whole time because she’s a pro like that (oh yeah and gotta love how every reporter stood up screaming and shouting while she sat there completely composed lol). They could have written her as just the random hot girl who’s only there to establish Tony’s playboy credentials, but she ended up having such an active role, however small it was.

Anyways, she was way more rounded than a secondary character had to be and I hope she has another cameo in Iron Man 3, because girlfriend is flawless

5 notes