In the 2018 Oscars, only total six women won, compared to thirty-three men (Telegraph, 2018). This incident shows the Oscars still cannot show a full perfect image of gender equality in the film industry, despite it is one of the biggest Hollywood’s recognition award ceremony in the industry. As general information, women are often seen as the lower class in the hierarchy, historically. That is not how things should be in this modern world. ‘Feminist’ is a term used to refers to a person who supports the women’s rights. Proudly to say, there are both female and male feminists and powerful voices in the industry, like Angelina Jolie, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Radcliffe, Jennifer Lawrence, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Will Smith, and more that have shown their stance in this movement (Hollywood Reporter, 2017; InStyle, n.d.). Despite having a great amount of feminists in the industry, gender equality in the film industry is still seemed to be a debatable topic. The film industry still has its long way to achieve the day when male does not entirely dominate the industry, but the females will too. It is undeniable that the industry is about talent but women still have lack opportunities and recognition in the film industry because they are always given the minor roles, the industry sets high standards for them and their hard work hardly even pays off and recognized.
2.0 Women Are Always Given the Minor Roles
To begin with, in the film industry, women are always given the minor roles on screen. Women rarely be given the lead role unless it is a “women’s” movie. Research shows that for every one woman who speaks even in films with less than an R rating, there are around three male speaking characters and that crowd shots have an average of 17% women (The Guardian, 2016). In the 100 top grossing films of 2017, films that are well known for having female as their protagonist are like Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Wonder Woman (2017). But in that same list, there are fewer female protagonists than 2016, making up just twenty-four percent, compared to twenty-nine percent in the year before (The Wrap, 2018). So with that being said, last year, women had lead role in less than a quarter of top 2017 movies. To stress this point even more, movies with high sexual content directed toward the male audiences mostly use women as the sex objects. For example, movies such as I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell (2009) and National Lampoon's Dorm Daze (2003) portray women to be good for nothing but just sex. In these movies, women are viewed to only have sexual value. They are portrayed as sexy and willing to abide by the male's sexual fantasies in these movies. Thus, women do not have the opportunity for them to entirely showcase their talents because the current situation does not provide them enough quality lead role.
3.0 The Industry Sets High Standards for Women
Other than that, the film industry sets high standards for women to be achieved. Men have been recognized by their heroism, women, however, have lived and still live under the stigma of beauty. The industry demands women to look certain way on screen. Women have to be the triple threat, with a beautiful face, body and personality. Then, women need to work hard in order to achieve that industry standard and stereotypes, just to hope for a little screen time and exposure on the big screen to be seen by the industry. The industry is full of very thin aspirational women. So it’s not surprising that people have the idea that thin is good and women feel they have to starve themselves to be attractive (Psychology Today, 2016). The film industry also tends to show a disproportionate number of very slim figures, and to stigmatise overweight. Overweight characters are usually the funny sidekick, villain, anything but the lead. The ugly brutal truth is this industry values appearance than talent. The film industry seeks for perfect women instead of real women. For instance, Marilyn Monroe – a famous American actress, found difficulties to get out of the stigma of “dumb blonde” and affirm herself as a respected actress. Undeniably, beauty concepts did change through history: from the plump forms to the current days of the thin shapes (Medium, 2017). But, the feminine ideals have in common of the perpetuation of slavery, the insecurity and the self-sacrifice daily practiced by those who search to fit to standards and be desirable. Women who cannot fit the industry standard, then lose the opportunity to shine.
4.0 Women’s Hard Work Hardly Pays Off and Recognized
Next, women’s hard work hardly even pays off and recognized in this competitive film industry. In 2017, Forbes released its World's Highest-Paid Actors list and sitting at the coveted top spot was "Transformers" star Mark Wahlberg, who pulled in a whopping $68 million over the last year. However, Emma Stone, who won an Oscar for her performance in La La Land (2016) topped the highest-paid actress list with just $26 million (ABC News, 2017). One time Oscar winner actress – Jennifer Lawrence penned an essay in 2015 titled, "Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?" discussing on the truth of her pay as the lead female is lesser than her male co-star lead. During 2017’s Oscars, presenter cut to the chase with just six words: “Here are the all-male nominees,” presenting the award for best director. Very few women are ever nominated or even won for this category in major film awards ceremonies (The Guardian, 2018). This incident shows a clear gender bias on this award category that talented female directors’ hard work hardly even been noticed. For instance, the film Lady Bird (2017) directed by a female director, Greta Gerwig has an almost perfect critical response, yet did not get nominations for the Oscars. In the history of the Oscars, on average sixteen percent of the nominees have been women, and this figure would be even lower if the acting category had not been segregated from the start (Vanity Fair, 2016). These factual figures would discourage the upcoming young women and also women to continue contributing in this industry.