Equality in Entertainment: Does the film industry facilitate gender discrimination?

From movie awards to #MeToo, the film and television industry continues to face backlash over discrimination against women both on and off the screen. Over 100 alleged accounts of sexual misconduct were made against Harvey Weinstein and, in March, the renowned Miramax producer was sentenced to 23 years imprisonment. The allegations and evidence against him are a narrow insight into the exploitation of women within film and television. Using his industry-wide influence as bargaining-power, Weinstein intimidated up-and-coming women into sexual activity; even forcing himself upon them. Many kept quiet or acted out of fear that someone so widely respected as Weinstein could end their careers if they dare to speak out against him. The Me Too Movement may have changed the landscape of the industry forever, but viral hashtags can only begin to highlight the most extreme enactment of the wider issue: the entertainment industry facilitates gender discrimination.

The Bechdel Test (or Bechdel-Wallace) was invented by Liz Wallace, and popularised by Alison Bechdel, as a means of testing the representation of women in film. It asks whether a film or other piece of fiction includes two named female characters who have a conversation with each other about something other than men. In 2019, 80 per cent of Rotten Tomatoes’ top-rated films managed to pass the illustrious Bechdel examination, indicating a step in the right direction. However, discrimination against women within the entertainment sector extends beyond screenwriting, and the Bechdel method seems an outdated way of measuring this. Is this test sufficient, or does it simply create a loophole in which filmmakers can appease angry feminists without truly considering gender diversity? Certainly, there are plenty of scenes in Sex and the City where the four protagonists discuss shoes, handbags and wedding arrangements without mention of male characters. Henceforth, it fulfils the Bechdel requirements. But that does not make it an inherently feminist piece of fiction. To gather a more rounded view of the gender bias requires a full investigation into the way in which women are employed and portrayed both on and off the screen.

A 2018 Forbes survey reported that, between June 2017 and June 2018, the world’s top 10 highest paid actors collectively received US$748.5 million whilst their female counterparts received less than a quarter of this sum. And the discrepancy in gender-based wages is apparent across most roles within entertainment. Taking some of the UK’s top broadcasting companies, it is evident that the Celluloid Ceiling (a term coined by the University of San Diego, synonymous with the gendered glass ceiling) affects everyone from writers to runners, actors to accountants. In 2019, the BBC reported an all-time low gender pay gap of 6.7 per cent, seemingly small compared to Channel 4’s discouragingly high 21.5 per cent. But the fact that there is a gender pay gap at all highlights the fact that higher tier jobs are more accessible to men, and women continue to be rejected from such roles through gender discrimination.

Though the ratio of women working in behind-the-scenes roles increased by four per cent between 2018 and 2019, men still dominate when it comes to roles such as directors and producers. It seems almost obvious that this is because men are assumed to be more successful in positions that require leadership and power – fundamental ‘masculine’ traits. The imprint of the patriarchy bleeds into the film and television industry, creating a hierarchy in which men go for roles in which they can assert dominance and express self-assurance. A quick google search for the ‘top directors of all time’ returned 51 names, of which not one name was a woman’s. In this industry, talent comes second to gender privilege.

Using the example of the 2020 Oscar Awards, this privilege becomes apparent. Of a total 214 nominations, more than one third were men. Out of 40 named Oscar winners, only 13 were women, two of which were for awards that men cannot be considered for: Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. This is not to say that men should not be celebrated for their achievements – who can claim that Parasite did not deserve its four Academy Awards on the foundation that Bong Joon Ho is a man? But in the same sense, women should not be excluded from achieving based on gender, and we must strive for a level playing field across the industry.

The only female director to have ever won the prestigious Palme d’Or (Cannes Film Festival’s Award for Best Film) is Jane Campion, for her work on The Piano. We must question why smaller more independent film festivals tend to showcase more gender-balanced work than the high-end alternatives. Some festivals remove gender bias in lesser-known productions by withholding names (and subsequently genders) of directors to prevent review bias. Sundance, Raindance and Locarno exemplify that there is no lack in female or non-binary talent. There is simply a blockade for women to achieve in the ‘big-bucks’ Hollywood region of film-making. In order to elicit a more egalitarian entertainment sector, we need not only more recognition of women’s talent but increased access for women. Access that does not depend on their compliance with sexual advances made by male producers and agents.

Whilst upper-tier, influential men (such as Harvey Weinstein and Jim Carrey) abuse their power through destructive, antisocial and, in Weinstein’s case, illicit behaviours, they are supported by the patriarchy in doing so. Meanwhile, women would be chastised for acting in such a manner. Men have the advantage of preordained gender stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. They are encouraged to be strong, assertive and domineering – an idea reinforced through the portrayal of the gender binary in character development. The Bechdel Test was initially invented as a reaction to the constant portrayal of women as accessories to men in the media. Though numbers of strong, independent female leads have soared in recent years, the ratio of these compared to strong male lead roles is almost insignificant. If we portray these inspiring female characters as an exception to the majority, we teach young women to believe that they are expected to conform to gender roles and that these heroines comprise a small and remarkable proportion of the population. If we make equal numbers of films with male and female protagonists, each with equally strong personality traits, we teach young women that they are just as important and likely to succeed as their male peers. If we stop applauding films for being pro-feminist and instead praise them as a piece of art in their own right, we normalise the prospect of gender diversity and teach others to follow suit.

However, until gender parity is accepted into our daily lives, it is difficult to imagine such equality within the media. After all, the patriarchy illustrated in films and TV series is simply a reflection of the real world. An overarching gender imbalance within the film industry only exacerbates the on-screen discrepancy. In 2019, women comprised just 19 per cent of writers working on the top 100 films. This is echoed in the characters created, where male writers can more easily write male roles because they can base these on lived experience. So, gender diversity can only be achieved on-screen once it is fully established off-screen. The industry must counteract the white male domination of media by creating more roles for women and minority groups in every sub-sector. Employing people who identify as women, non-binary, gender fluid and transgender, as actors, writers, directors, cinematographers, composers, set designers and so forth, will act to neutralise a sphere currently dominated by cis-males.

In her 2018 Oscar acceptance speech, actor Frances McDormand called for the film industry to adopt the concept of an “inclusion rider”. These contractual requirements for gender and racial diversity are perhaps our best chance of giving women their well-deserved place within the industry until inclusion is normalised. Until there is no longer a need to differentiate between an actor and an actress, the film and television industry lacks sufficient gender diversity. By actively making space for women and minority groups, the industry will hopefully learn to welcome them and invite equality.

Equality in Entertainment: Does the film industry facilitate gender discrimination?

Illustrations by Zsófi Mayer.

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