Discrimination in Movies

By: Chesley Buser/Gordon Parks Academy 

Award season has come to a close and got me thinking, what are the differences in the movie business for men and women? Throughout the years it is a known fact that women haven’t always had fair representation in Hollywood. There have been many ways that women in the entertainment business have stood up to discrimination. Today let’s discuss that.

Directors

I’m going to start off with some of the ways that women have stood up to men. One of my favorites was in 2018 at the Golden Globes. Natalie Portman and Ron Howard were presenting the Best Director award. After giving the little speech Natalie simply said, “ And here are the all-male nominees”.

This was so simple yet so impactful and shows how women are neglected by the academy.

Now I understand that maybe that year there weren’t any women directors that the academy felt deserved it. I see that opinion but this year at the 2019 Golden Globes all the nominees are yet again, all male. There were SO MANY women directed films eligible such as, A Wrinkle in Time, The Darkest Minds, Mary Queen of Scots, and many more!

This graph shows how many times men outnumber women! It’s absurd and unfair that women aren’t recognized in directing but they aren’t the only ones.

Actresses

On the screen and in movies women are the star in only about 15 percent of films. And I bet you are like “ You can’t be mad at that!”. Well, guess what? I can.  This percentage hasn’t gotten any better since the 1930’s! That right 1930’s A.K.A 89 years ago! A.K.A The great depression! A.K.A A YEAR AFTER THE OSCARS WERE CREATED! That is insane how in 89 years of wonderful films the percentage is still 15.

It is a known fact that Hollywood is trying hard to have equal representation on all fronts such as race, gender, sexuality, etc. But just 10.7 percent of movies produced since 2007 until 2012 had equal men and women on the silver screen.