Here’s an excerpt:
There is one area where women surpassed men in films in 2009 — they bought more than 50% of the movie tickets sold in the U.S., according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
Females represent half of the population and half of moviegoing audiences, but they don't hit a third of the characters," Smith said. "Male consumers aren't the only ones going to the movies, but our cultural storytellers today are male. The problem is really thinking about the perpetuation of the status quo.
We’ve seen and talked about these studies before and what can be done to even up the field and do away with sexism in entertainment. I won’t get into it. However, it made me wonder if audiences are even aware of the gender of those characters they connect with the most. It made me wonder if the men are aware.
This week I watched the American Masters documentary on Woody Allen and he talked about this subject. He said that up until meeting Diane Keaton he only wrote from the point of view of the male characters. Allen credits Keaton for showing him that women were far more interesting than men. He had written Annie Hall to show what was in his clever head from Alvy Singer’s POV; but in the editing room he realized the story was not really all that great or even interesting. He noticed the parts that were compelling were Keaton’s. He then re-edited the film and made it Annie’s story.
In The Descendants, a movie about a man who has neglected the women in his life, the daughters and the wife in the coma are far more interesting than the Clooney character. The characters keep on talking about the wife and you really want to find out more about her. In terms of mainstream film structure this could be considered a major flaw but at least it’s realistic. I think it’s cool than a woman in a vegetative state is more intriguing than George Clooney so it works for me.
It’s funny (and unfortunate) that feminists with a stick up their ass have called Allen and Lars Von Trier misogynists. It’s clear that they do not understand the material because they are preoccupied with being offended. If you look at Von Trier’s filmography, after Europa he switched over to female protagonists, and in his latest masterpiece, Melancholia, he shows us what he really thinks of men.
Do you know the gender of the characters you connect with the most?
La-di-da, la-di-da, la la.
