Acting : The naked truth: Hollywood still treats its women as second class citizens by Richard "RB" Botto

reading the Roundtable in THR was definitely inspiring...it's so clear how the industry views women, but I think we have to look at our culture as a whole because that's definitely where it's coming from.

I wish they'd treat women better....

That's why we'll never see a good quality 'Wonder Woman' film. We might see a crappy one, but not a good quality one. The whole film would be about showing her in a skimpy outfit and ignore while ignoring the character and the story.

Thanks for sending these updates Richard keep them coming. I love reading them.

Yes, that's true and that's the problem Hollywood feels that they are limited with what they can do with the character.which takes us back to the original statement. They feel all they can do with the character is sexualizing her. I wrote a Justice League script for fun and Wonder Woman is a key part of my story and I don't sexualize her at all. Her clothes are skirts. I focus on her character and story and I made it work. She's no 2nd class citizen in my story. I made her equal to the men and the hero in the end.

I personally do not buy the concept that the characterization of women in movies is related to the percentage of men in power at the studios. Women in power tend to behave in the same way as men do, and they get to those positions for much the same reasons: they know how to make things happen, and the things they make happen increase the bottom line (profits). If it were mostly women in charge at the studios, (I should say: even with men in charge) and they were shown the numbers which prove that more sexualized men and less sexualized women will lead to significantly higher profits, you can bet your briefs they'd be churning out heroic and clever leading ladies who somehow save the asses of some vacant but extremely appealing, sparsely-dressed male or two. These people do their research. They develop their test-audiences. They crunch the numbers. What this adds up to in terms of what will make most people buy at the ticket booth ... is exactly what we are getting. It will take a series of risk-takers who pull off this kind of non-sexualized characterizations of women -- in what are undeniably huge blockbuster films -- to begin materializing that all-important "trend line" on their business analyst's monthly financial charts which makes them all stand up and take notice. That unlikely phenomenon, coupled with a corresponding drop in tickets sales for those "more-of-the-same" movies which are contributing to this second-class citizenry of women, would certainly do the trick. If people want it to happen, though, they will need to change their buying habits. No one in the studio is going to keep his job if he keeps bucking the trend and losing the studio money just because he personally gets his rocks off on the leading lady or her sexy girlfriend in the the studio's next film. No, in my opinion, they keep their jobs by following the trend and making the studio money -- regardless of their opinions of what the film's about or who is in it.

An all female prodco was formed last year. There's two sides to this issue, there's what HW does and what HW sells. The sad truth is that we still live in a very sexist culture and sexist characters sell well. Another issue is the media surrounding HW, women are treated on a very superficial level which makes it even harder for female stars to be seen as progressive role models.

Ugh, you don't want my opinion. It is far too long. lol It might cheese the crackers of too many people.

Curiosity piqued.

I would say "people of color" or "woman of color"

Yes, Jacqueline, of course we would not have a definitive answer regarding women in power at the studios until that was a reality, but little would get accomplished if people failed to act until they had definitive proof of their conjectures -- you have to go on the best available evidence. And in this case, that includes understanding people and seeing what happens in similar business environments. We are looking for probability ... likelihood. Not merely what is "possible". Even the most unlikely things are "possible". That's not really relevant. I see lots of evidence (as given) to support my point, but little to the contrary. And that's what matters. So I would still suggest that we look to our buying habits, and not sit around forever blaming the "male-dominated studios" and hoping we can shame them into changing.

Agreed. I just think the blame game that started with pointing the finger at male studio execs is misguided. In my view, the more accurate picture is that although the underlying cause of the sexism against females is ego and stupidity on the part of your average male, the underlying cause of their sexist portrayal in film is not sexism on the part of studio execs, but greed, which has first been directed and fueled by that aforesaid ego and stupidity within the general public. Stop it there, and the execs will follow.

If you think for one second that if female dominated film made more money than male dominated film executives wouldn't be trying to put out female dominated projects then you are in the wrong industry. If not saying female dominated projects won't work, but male dominated projects DO work.

Yes, that's why it's called the movie "business" and the film "industry". In fact, I'll bet that the same exec who might be personally very sexist would still not hesitate to fire some male make-up artist who was harassing and/or demeaning Jennifer Lawrence on the set of this last Hunger Games movie if she threatened to back out of the picture because of it. Whether he respects her personally or not, he knows a lot of money is riding on her participation -- so the obstacle will be removed, with apologies and flowers sent from the studio. It's a business.

Right - they can work, of course. but right now you are asking people to take a stance and change a paradigm when people are holding on to their money and only putting things out that are supposed to be instant money makers. Catching Fire works the same reason Lord of the Rings works - you have an insane amount of people wanting to see the movie version of a beloved book. But the same is said for Twilight and Harry Potter. When I write a movie - I like to have strong female characters that break out of the stereotype. I can also attract quality name actresses because of the quality of character. But it's not what people are really buying. I'm not saying it won't change. Or that it shouldn't change - but realistically women are OK seeing men lead a film, yet men still need to warm up to women leading a film.

How does supply and demand play into this, then? Assuming the studio execs who are men are of the same type that enjoyed going to see Gravity and those other female dominated films, they would be looking for more great scripts like that, right? But what? Not enough hungry scriptwriters eager to fill that need and put a block-buster film on their resume? Let me guess ... we have mostly male scriptwriters who are so sexist, they would rather be turned down than put a respectable female lead into their script.

I don't know any scriptwriters that would want to be 'turned down'.

Yeah, I kinda didn't think so. Not just to preserve their sexist views. Perhaps the problem is this: most scriptwriters know they are going to spend countless hours, giving their sweat and blood, just writing the script, let alone pitching it, over a period of months or years ... so maybe most of them are aiming at the same "sure-fire", "tried and true" formulas that the studios aim for. Except, without a star attached, it's even more of a perceived risk for them to step out of that mold and go for, say, a strong-minded, non-sexualized female dominating their story. Like the studios, they have a huge investment, so if they want a huge pay-off (more screens, larger screens, etc.) they believe keeping to the status quo will increase their chances of not getting "turned down" and in fact hitting that "home run".

Here is an interesting breakdown of male vs. female lead characters in current scripts being submitted for consideration (borrowed from a recent stage32 member's post): http://www.fastcocreate.com/3022129/all-the-things-that-are-wrong-with-y...

Click on the link within my comment to go directly to the related infographic (#3), not the link with the added graphic that is below my comment.