Representation of Female Characters in Movies Is Improving - the New York Times

10/13/2017 Representation of Female Characters in Movies Is Improving - The New York Times Representation of Female Characters in Movies Is Improving nytimes.com /2014/09/07/movies/fall-arts-preview-representation-of-female-characters-in-movies-is-improving.html 9/3/2014 Clockwise from left: Chloë Grace Moretz (with Jamie Blackley) in “If I Stay”; Emma Roberts in “Palo Alto”; Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1”; Aubrey Plaza in “Life After Beth”; Elle Fanning in “Maleficent”; Quvenzhané Wallis in “Annie.” Sean McCabe Girls grow up on big and little screens, and sometimes the thinking about girls and girlhood grows, too. Inspired by Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” — a magnificent film that tells the story of a boy’s life from 6 to 18 — we are taking a look at how girls are growing up in the movies. American mainstream cinema, a timid enterprise dependent on formulas and genres, can be mind- blowingly retrograde when it comes to women and girls. And while an occasional woman or girl rules the box office, too many of their on-screen sisters are sidelined or just left out of the picture. Characters like Katniss Everdeen are changing girlhood and challenging tired stereotypes by not waiting for some guy to save the day: They’re saving themselves and their worlds, too. Yet Katniss, her screen sisters and the industry have a very long way to go. In one study the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media looked at 5,554 “distinct speaking characters” in 122 family movies rated G, PG or PG-13 that were released between 2006 and 2009. The institute discovered that only 29.2 percent of those roles were female, while a whopping 70.8 percent were male. In other words, there were 2.42 male characters for every female one. Put another way, there was Harry and Ron and then there was Hermione, the smartest girl in the class. Hermione ruled, but not nearly enough. In the past, some actresses had a measure of power or at least staying power in Hollywood, but too many more were typecast as bratty sisters, dutiful daughters or sexpots, and then cast aside. And some of their most memorable characters were, like their adult counterparts, defined by hypersexuality or asexuality. Such was the case in 1962, when Dolores Haze, better known as Lolita, was the barely pubescent object of her stepfather’s lust in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the notorious Nabokov novel. That same year, Scout Finch was the object of her father’s moral instruction in the movie version of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” A year later, Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” rocked the country, becoming a best-selling portent of second-wave feminism. What has changed in the years since? Quite a lot off screen, if not nearly enough on: Nymphets and tomboys still show up, as do brainy, funny, scary and tough girls. The picture of girlhood at the movies has become an increasingly diverse, sometimes contradictory array of identities, including bold revisions of age-old archetypes and brave new heroines. That said, the faces of these girls remain exasperatingly monochromatic. So all hail Quvenzhané Wallis, who after leading the charge (and earning an Oscar nod) in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” appears in December as Little Orphan Annie in a remake of the 1982 movie musical. The sun will come out tomorrow — but this time so will the daughter. Here, we take a look at some of the other pixies and powerhouses who are also changing movie girlhood. 10/13/2017 Representation of Female Characters in Movies Is Improving - The New York Times Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1.” Murray Close/Lionsgate THE WARRIORS Katniss Everdeen, who returns this fall in “Mockingjay — Part 1,” the third installment in the “Hunger Games” franchise, is so cool, so capable, so focused, with her archer’s eye, on the task in front of her that it’s easy to lose sight of just how revolutionary she is. Not only in the dystopian fictional universe she inhabits, where she has been radicalized by the cruelty of the Hunger Games and the iniquity of the society that supports them. In the world of mass entertainment, too, Katniss is a transformative figure: a solitary warrior, a heroine whose personal struggles for survival and dignity are joined to a larger fight for justice. And also, as played by Jennifer Lawrence, a potent force at the global box office — a blockbuster Joan of Arc. 10/13/2017 Representation of Female Characters in Movies Is Improving - The New York Times Saoirse Ronan in “Hanna” (2011). Alex Bailey/Focus Features, via Associated Press On the movie landscape, Katniss is not entirely alone, though she is still very much outnumbered. In recent years, there have been a handful of movies about young women who can throw a punch, land a kick and run like the wind, girls who are more than sidekicks or pneumatic eye candy. Shailene Woodley’s Tris Prior in “Divergent” — another crossover from the fertile world of young-adult dystopian literature — is, like Katniss, a fighter against corrupt authority. In Joe Wright’s “Hanna” (2011), Saoirse Ronan is a big-eyed, sweet-faced killer, trained in combat by her father. In the culty “Kick-Ass” movies, Chloë Grace Moretz portrays the fearless Hit Girl with a foul mouth and an appetite for combat. The violence there was played partly for laughs and shock value, making the most of the incongruity between the cuteness of the actress and the viciousness of the character, but it also tapped into a deep reservoir of restlessness and rage. For most of movie history — from the old westerns to “Thelma & Louise” by way of exploitation gore-fests like “I Spit on Your Grave” — women’s violence could be justified by narrowly defined motives of self-defense or revenge. The broader battle between right and wrong — and also the pleasure of action for its own sake — have typically been male prerogatives, handed down over the decades from gunslingers to superheroes. The comic-book fraternity has been slow to admit women as full members. Ms. Lawrence has made an impression as the blue-skinned, shape-shifting Mystique (a role originated by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), but her team is still called the X-Men for a reason. And if women can fight their way toward parity, it will be Katniss who blazed the trail. A.O. SCOTT Mia Wasikowska in the coming “Tracks.” Matt Nettheim/Weinstein Company THE NEW SEARCHERS Journey is one of the most overused words in movie-speak. One reason are guides like “Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need!” that borrow heavily from Joseph Campbell, who wrote that whether the hero is “ridiculous or sublime, Greek or barbarian, gentile or Jew, his journey varies little in essential plan.” Too bad that in Campbell’s “monomyth” that journey is also unequivocally male: “The woman is life, the hero its knower and master.” The classic trip has been so historically male that one critic, Eric Leed, gave it a biological spin, labeling it a “spermatic journey.” Never mind that every so often a girl or woman — Dorothy, Thelma, Louise or Hushpuppy — hits the road. She gets out of the house and, like a footloose Penelope, weaves an adventure instead of a shroud. 10/13/2017 Representation of Female Characters in Movies Is Improving - The New York Times Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Jess Pinkham/Fox Searchlight Pictures, via Associated Press The truth is that women were on the move in movies before talkies, in serials like “The Perils of Pauline” (1914) and westerns like “The Covered Wagon” (1923). Although girls tend to experience more domestic exploits, a few second- wave feminist girls did get out and about, including in “Paper Moon” (1973) and the original “True Grit” (1969). In recent decades, the movie industry hasn’t been much interested in women and girls, so it hasn’t created all that many female- driven escapades. Yet the emergence of new peripatetic girls and women who voyage with purpose and goals — in the latest “True Grit,” “Winter’s Bone,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and the coming “Tracks” (Sept. 19) — suggests that our movies may be finally catching up to female Americans on the move. MANOHLA DARGIS 10/13/2017 Representation of Female Characters in Movies Is Improving - The New York Times Aubrey Plaza in “Life After Beth.” A24 Films SCREAM TEENS Movies have long embraced young freaks and ghouls, those teenage werewolves and other children of the damned, and, in recent years, the young adult book market has helped pump fresh hot blood into the screen. The horror genre goes so well with the adolescent body, after all, both fertile sites churning with strange liquids, violent passions and seemingly inexplicable, terrifying changes. “I want to be normal,” says the spectacularly paranormal Carrie (Chloë Grace Moretz) in the recent remake of the 1976 Brian De Palma freak-out. There’s no chance of normal for Carrie, no matter her era, or for the title character in “Life After Beth,” a young zombie (Aubrey Plaza) whose morbid resurrection turns her into the ultimate clingy girlfriend. “I kind of wish she’d stay dead,” her boyfriend says with a sigh. Chloë Grace Moretz in “Carrie” (2013). Michael Gibson/Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer Pictures and Screen Gems Having a monster for a boyfriend has metaphoric potential, but it’s also true that these days it’s harder for a white girl to hook up with a black guy than it is to get serious with a super-white vampire (“Twilight”) or suck face with a deadly white zombie (“Warm Bodies”).

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