Women In the Film Industry
The film industry has always been predominantly ruled by men and this trend continues today. Women have made much progress in becoming a larger part of the film industry, but are still not where men are in many areas. Women are fighting an uphill battle in many areas of the field, such as: pay, getting known for their work, and also the type of character they play.
Women are earning less than men, not only in the film industry, but also in many other fields. In the film industry, the highest paid actress: Emma Stone — making $26 million in the past year, does not even make the list of the top ten highest paid actors, according to Forbes. Ashkay Kumar comes in at number ten on the actors list with $35.5 million in the last year and Mark Wahlberg comes in at number one with $68 million in the last year. How is it that the highest paid actress is getting paid less than the actor at spot number ten, Kumar makes almost one and a half times as much as Stone.
This is not a new story, woman have been making less than men for many, many years. In fact, according to thefilmexperience.net, the first actress to be paid $1 million for one film was Elizabeth Taylor, for her role of Cleopatra in the 1963 film Cleopatra. According to imdb.com, Marlon Brando became the first actor to be paid $1 million for one film in 1960, when he appeared in Orpheus Descending. While three years may not seem like a lot in the huge expanse of time, it makes all the difference in the pay gap between men and women. If we set up a timeline of sorts, we will perhaps be better able to see the differences. In 2006, Forbes lists Drew Barrymore as the highest paid actress of the year, coming in at $22 million for the year. Julia Roberts came in at number ten with $8 million. In comparison to this years highest paid actress, Emma Stone at $26 million, women have been making some progress.
Now let’s take a look at the kind of films that “star strong female leads”: Wonder Woman, Legally Blonde, The Blind Side, Clueless, and Miss Congeniality are all films that pop up on multiple sites when you search “films with a strong female lead” in google. Notice that only one superhero movie came up on the list, now I’m sure that if we were to do the same search only changing it to search for strong male leads, we would get more superhero movies. Wonder Woman was also the only superhero movie with a female lead to be a real success. Then we have the movies like Legally Blonde and Clueless; in these films the “strong female lead” is portrayed as a ditz, that does not know what the real world is like. The other characters of the film always doubt their abilities, but in the end the audience and the other characters learn that this girl is “strong, independent, and smart”, but of course on our way to this conclusion we run into all sorts of funny experiences. Up next is Miss Congeniality, in this kind of film the female lead is looked down upon by her male peers and ultimately sent on a mission that is deemed impossible by everyone, but in the end, she somehow saves the day. The last is perhaps the best, in The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock plays the strong-headed woman, who doesn’t have time to listen to other people’s criticism, she is going to be the woman she is and, in this case, do what she knows is the right thing to do.
The roles that women play, in the film industry, are all over the place. In some films, the female character does not require a man to save the day, but more often than not she does require some male assistance. That’s the kind of film we grew up on, isn’t it, the Disney princess that HAS to find her prince charming or HAS to be saved. These days, though Disney is moving away from that stereotype to a more independent female character with films like Frozen and Moana. This I might add, is great because it teaches kids at a young age that they don’t always have to wait for a savior, that they can be their own “prince charming”.
If we create a timeline of the Disney princesses, we may get a better understanding of how Disney has evolved or not evolved. It all starts in 1937 with Snow White, in her story she is saved by “prince charming”, so to start out Disney provides the idea that women are more fragile and require someone to save them. Next, we have Cinderella in 1950. While Cinderella may not have been directly saved by her “prince charming”, she did require him to get out of her situation, instead of trying to find a way out on her own. In 1959 Disney produced Sleeping Beauty, in which Aurora literally required a prince to wake her from an all-consuming sleep, once again proving that “prince charming” was her only hope. Then we jump to 1989 and The Little Mermaid, while Ariel wasn’t quite saved by Prince Eric, he was the reason she got into all that trouble in the first place. In this film, Disney presses the theme of the star-crossed lovers and that love will always find a way. Next up is Beauty and the Beast from 1991, Belle trades herself for the life of her father, a noble act in some sense, she then proceeds to fall in love with her new captor and turns him back into the prince he used to be, all through the power of love. In 1992 we meet Jasmine and Aladin in Aladin, in this film Princess Jasmine is saved by Aladin and falls for his kindness. Next up we have Pocahontas from 1995, tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers from two very different worlds and their fight for their love. In 1998, we are taken to China in the film Mulan, which tells the story of a young girl that sacrifices herself to save her father (that sounds familiar), trains to become a solider, and saves all of China from the Mongolians, but since she is a woman, she has just committed one of the worst crimes of the Chinese culture. Next up is Tiana in The Princess and the Frog from 2009, is a retelling of the classic “The Frog Prince” with a modern twist. Next, we meet Rapunzel in 2010 in the film Tangled, in this film Rapunzel and Flynn Rider take turns saving each other on their quest to return Rapunzel to her thrown, but in the end, Rapunzel makes the ultimate sacrifice to save her love. In 2012 we met Merida from the film Brave, in her story she makes a poor choice, which then forces her to correct it later on. Next is the film Frozen, released in 2013, this film introduces us to Elsa and Anna, and the quest to find love and learn how to trust yourself. The most recently released Disney princess film is Moana, released in 2016, this film is about a young girl’s quest to save her island and her people and she won’t listen to anybody that tells her she can’t do it. If we look through all of these films, we may see some common qualities in the princesses. In the earlier years, we see the common theme that the girls need to be saved by prince charming, but in the more recent films this is becoming less common and the princesses are starting to take charge and make thing happen themselves.
Let’s look back at the films referred to earlier. Wonder Woman’s character, and many of the other female characters in the film, was very independent. On the other hand, we have the older Disney princess films such as: Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, where prince charming has to save the day, or the princess would die. Like I stated earlier, Disney is making some progress on this front, in having more independent and “strong” leads with films like Frozen and Moana. Then we have the type of film that features a “clueless” female lead, that soon finds her way and learns that she has all these hidden talents. Other films, come close to having a strong woman save the day, like in Miss Congeniality, but as stated earlier, this character is usually doubted from the beginning. Once again, the best kind of character someone can play, if not a superhero, is the strong, independent, bull-headed woman.
As stated earlier, it is an uphill battle for women to get a good hold in the film industry. Not only are women earning less than men, there are less women making movies then men. According to CNN, women are in the minority when it comes to making films, in fact only about 7% of the top 250 grossing films this year were directed by women and women make up about 17% of all directors, writers, producers, cinematographers, and editors. One has to wonder, why women makeup such a small portion of this group. Is it because they are less qualified? Are they less artistically talented? Do they have less ideas? The answer to all of these questions is: No. Then why do women represent such a small portion of this group? The fact remains that film, and many other careers, are dominated by men.
What can be done to help women succeed in the film industry? Well for starters female and male actors should receive the same pay for the same work. If there is no difference in the acting, there should not be a difference in the pay. Next, we should support the women currently in the film industry, while there is only a small number of them, there are a few and they are doing great things. We, the audience, are the ones that can make this thing happen, we can support their films and their work. Also, if women are trying to get into the industry they should be encouraged, this is not a business for just men, it is a business for all people.
This battle for footing in the film industry has been going on for quite some time now, and women are finally making some progress. The pay issue may not be making as much headway as some would like, but we are making headway. Films like Wonder Woman are proof that people do want to see films with a “strong female lead”, which should help convince the film industry to produce more. Wonder Woman was also a great success for female directors, as stated earlier the film was directed by a female director, Patty Jenkins. It is films like Wonder Woman, that we want our children to watch growing up, films that encourage women and portray women as strong leaders. While it may seem like baby steps, any movement forward is a step in the right direction.
