Problems Within the Film Industry

As the years have changed, so has the film industry, but not as much as expected. When it comes to the industry, though, things don’t look so equal. The film industry is supposed to be a place where creative people come together to make one unique story. The industry is ruled by white males from middle-class or better socioeconomic backgrounds which makes the film industry unfair. Due to this unfairness, women lack the opportunities men have. 

Women are seen as having a “distinct disadvantage” and many people would agree that gender exclusion is  wrong. Women don’t get the recognition they deserve, and the main characters in films are usually men and rarely women. Women are still being hired to play stereotypical roles. Female actresses have fewer opportunities at the main roles in movies. 

This is another problem in the industry that hasn’t changed for a while. There are stereotypes held on people but no one has ever heard of how these stereotypes affect lives and how much of an impact it has. Although people who go into this field know what they are gonna go through, it doesn’t make it okay for them to be stereotyped.

Beauty and the Beast and Wonder Woman were released in 2017 , and both movies had women as the lead characters. The success of these films signified hope for the industry because of this, its perception of giving women the lead roles was a higher percentage.

In many television shows, and movies, a lot is shown and it says a lot about the people who are directing it and are in charge of what happens in scenes. Another not surprisingly fascinating fact is that only seven women have been recognized for their directing and only two of them won an Oscar for it.

Women rarely get the recognition they deserve. What is the difference when women are directing? We shouldn’t give more attention to men because they “have better work”, it should be equal. There should be no such thing as comparing genders. 

As of today, 78.9% are males in the film industry and the share of women working as movie directors in 2020 was over five percent higher than the previous years. Not a lot of progress has been done and it should be talked about more. It is harder for women to be able to have their film-wide release.

Gender inequality in the film industry favors one gender over the other on multiple aspects such as opportunity and pay. The pay gaps are extremely different between men and women actors, many movie industries’ employers prefer to hire male employees than female employees, and usually, female employees are sexually harassed.

The typical times when women become the main focus is when the attention is drawn to their physique and not acting talent. This has been a part of our generations forever and it’s outrageous. Most women are held to a certain standard and it’s unhealthy because it teaches younger girls how the world wants to see them and it messes with their minds.

The male gaze in the film industry not only hurts the actresses but also the minds of those who watch these movies and think this is what they have to do to be recognized. Not only is this a huge problem in film but we also have over many additional things wrong with the industry that we are not fixing.

Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar for her work in the film for releasing The Hurt Locker in 2008.  Her win signifies the fact that women can be involved in filmmaking and succeed in it. However, there has been little done to involve more women in the process of filmmaking.

Women are still being hired to play stereotypical roles. However, gender equality in the film industry is still not fair yet. Not only Hollywood has this problem that discriminates against female employees, so do other countries around us as well. Female employees who work for movie industries have been discriminated against in multiple ways. If there were more female directors, gender equality might improve across the board.

Halle Berry is an American actress and she has dealt with being mostly recognized for her naked clip. She was offered nearly half a million dollars for this specific scene that would make this movie make tons of money. Everyone was hoping for her to do it and it possibly made her feel peer pressured into doing this scene. Multiple women have been through this before and it shouldn’t be a standard for women in the film industry to do this. 

The film industry should be about who is the most creative and it shouldn’t be about what gender is better. We should also make sure that directors make actors and others a part of this field feel safe and not make anyone feel uncomfortable, or left out.