Women consume a lot of media, we are the fastest growing audience and early adopters. So how come when it comes to gender and representation across all fields we are the ones that are being left behind? We know these things for sure: women are more educated, we have ideas and we are motivated and willing. So why should be support women:
- Representation
It’s simply not good enough to have a woman in a token role, I won’t take it and I know that they days of the female sidekick are hopefully long gone. Representation and diversity are two things that also encompass female empowerment. Statistics from 6, 421 writers show that 71.1% are male and 28.9% are female, which are frankly staggering statistic. We all know that good storytelling begins in the writers room, so in order for women to be represented fairly we must at least attempt at fairness. In writing this, it is important to acknowledge that the statistics for people of colour and LGBT representation is even lower, which means we don’t get to see multidimensional storylines in film and television.
- Perception of Female Directed Films
Executives feel more comfortable hiring women if they are perceived to be hired for female driven projects. Well that is not only sexist, but extremely limiting to the female voice. This power struggle is not only the result of almost of century of institutional sexism but a lack of female voices in the executive positives. The perception that the female audience is only interested in perceived ‘female’ is frankly insulting the female audience. Studies have shown that women, more than their male counterparts, are more likely to be early adopters of television and film; and their participation in fandom culture means that they are more involved. I would urge you to watch films by female directors that go against the norm (and in the coming week, I’ll make a list of my favourite films).
- Increased Diversity
With the increased success of shows like Orange is the New Black and Amazon’s Transparent, the issue of diversity is a hot button issue. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are more highly inclusive of female directors and creators than their counterparts on networked television. In Australia, we’ve seen the success of Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake. It is also interesting to note that comedy in the US had a higher percentage of female creators, and showrunners than dramas. Also these comedies tended to be from a diverse range of women. Shows like Jane the Virgin, Black-ish, Broad City and Fresh off the Boat are all niche shows that have gone on to receive both critical and industry acclaim.
Supporting female driven, female written, female directed content should not be seen as a chore. Actually I think we all had our way, there would be no distinction between female and male driven content; only good content. However until the gap is fixed, this issue will remain.
Coming up this week: Period dramas helmed by women
The shows that you should be binging on before the Emmys
Girl's got direction 