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by Meabh Aine Broderick Picture this:
A young child hunkers down in the velvet chairs of a dimly lit theatre, her miniature figure barely filling half the large space. She sits patiently, popcorn in hand, waiting to be plunged into darkness. No sooner do the lights go down than a spectacle of colour and sound erupts onto the screen. Before her eyes, she sees a world beyond imagination unfold. A powerful woman dominates the screen, fighting the bad guys alongside her team. In her ear she hears the voice of a woman in a lab coat sitting at a computer, frantically analysing the screens. Meanwhile, the action cuts to a hospital where a mother operates on her injured son. When the lights go up, she offers a sideways glance to her mother and feels a sense of familiarity between her and the characters she had seen on screen. As she skips out to the car holding her mother’s hand, she feels like she could take on the world and be whoever she wants to be. That child is me, but her experience is something I could only dream of. For me, the doctors, scientists and heroes were replaced by princesses and damsels in distress. As it faded to black and the credits rolled, I began to scan the room for a real-life incarnation of the figures on screen, to no avail. When I returned home, wanting nothing more than to be like the women I had just come to know, I stood in front of the mirror, desperately searching for ways in which I could transform myself to achieve this goal. While this may seem like a bleak outlook on the experiences of a young, naïve child, I know that everyone can identify with it in one way or another. Ever since I was a young girl, I have dreamed of being a part of the wonderful world of film. However, this dream has always been shadowed by a series of unattainable goals that I felt must be achieved before I could do anything else. They are not random or irrational. They have been subconsciously forced upon me from the very first time I sat through a film and have stuck with me until this very day. Films have the ability to teach us and can leave a lasting impression. Unfortunately, they can also leave a nasty mark. For me, films have led me to believe that in order to succeed in life, I must look and act a certain way. That there are a limited number of roles I can fill in life and that the highest praise I can ever get will always end with the words, “for a girl.” While I have learned that the real world has a little more to offer, a part of me can never shake these feelings that have lingered in me since childhood. Representation of women in film is severely lacking when compared to what we see of men. Positive representations are even fewer and farther between. The Geena Davis Institute of Gender in Media has undertaken several studies to analyse the inequality that currently exists in the film industry. The results offer a clear explanation for the way women, including myself, feel about their position in the world. In an analysis of Family Films, it was revealed that only 13% of films featured a balanced or slightly female centric cast. This means that growing up, young women have very little opportunity to find and relate to characters on screen. To add to this, even within this lack of representation, it has been found that female characters are far more likely to be hypersexualised and valued for their beauty than male characters. While R-rated films emphasised thinness in its female characters, G-rated films heavily featured women with tiny waists and unrealistic body types. In the same study of family films, it was found that only 20.3% of female characters were employed while male characters occupied 79.7% of all jobs. This means that women of all ages are constantly being fed ideas about what they should look like and what professional roles they can fill in an ideal world. However, my ideal world looks a lot different. In today’s world, films that feature a predominantly female cast or a female director garner a heavy amount of praise for their inclusivity and equality. Featuring a woman of size 12 is considered revolutionary and a diverse cast is deemed extraordinary. However, while this is well deserved, films that do not offer this are not chastised. When watching a film, the average audience member does not bat an eyelid when the credits roll and only one female name appears for every ten males. For this is the norm. We have grown to accept and even expect this so much that when a film strays from this and goes out of its way to embrace equality, we are taken aback. But why should it be considered a feat in filmmaking to do something that should have been happening since the very beginning? I am not belittling the achievements of those who have embraced equality and diversity up until now, because in the current climate of the film industry it really is something to be proud of. However, in my dream world, every billboard and poster we see features one woman for every man. Every heroine is just as powerful as any hero on screen. Everybody tall or small, young or old, man or woman can see themselves represented on screen. I dream of a world where we do not commend films for achieving this because why should we expect anything less?
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