The Bechdel test gives a guideline of what is the role of women in movies What does a film have to have to pass this test? There must be two female characters with a name, who talk to each other, about something other than a male, and for more than a minute. It seems like a simple slogan, but to get an idea, in the last Oscar nominations, only two of the nominees for best picture managed to pass the test. It is hard to think, if we inverted the genres, of obtaining these results.
Characters, voice and corporality
The Geena Davis Institute -which deals with analyzing representations in the cinema- shows in a 2018 study that in films there are not only more male than female characters, but that they speak more and are the protagonists of the stories. At the same time, women appear – to a greater extent than men – sexualized and naked. There are almost no characters of other gender identities.
In another study from 2019, the same institute focuses on the question of age, and the results are eloquent: women over 50 represent only a quarter of all characters of that age, and do not have leading roles. . The clock would seem to tick faster for women in the movies.
The place in the industry
How to solve this? The problem is cultural, and responds to several causes, but we can quickly find one: the scarce place that women have in the film industry. The Oscar nominations of the last 10 years indicate that for best direction 7% were women, for best cinematography 4%, and for best screenplay 12%. Where there are women is in the nominations for best makeup, where they represent 49%; and best wardrobe, the only category where they are the majority, with 66%.
Having more women occupying these spaces is a first step to start telling other stories. What Thelma and Louisethat although it was groundbreaking 30 years ago for proposing other representations of women, stories like that are not abundant today in the industry either.
Since Grow- Gender and Work This year we are carrying out an awareness campaign on symbolic violence, where we problematize the messages that are reproduced from various spheres, which naturalize roles, corporalities, professions, among other aspects. The cinema is one of those spaces. Reflecting on what is represented is essential to start telling other stories, which allow us to create a fairer society.
Source: Ambito
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