Support your argument with relevant evidence and examples

Women performers and producers are persistently and systematically underrepresented in screen media
Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Introduction The issue of screen media being the mirror and creator of
cultural norms has certainly remained among the most contagious issues of scholarly debate in the
empirical investigation of the relationship between the society and the screen media. During the last
decade, much of the scholarly researchers have pointed in direction of persistent and systematic
underrepresentation of women performers and producers screen media. In turn, women are seen as
sidekick or in the background (Gray 2013). Films have prevailed as increasingly powerful medium
since the discovery of moving images during the late 19 and early 18
century. While they have been
used to entertain the mass audience, they have also conveyed truths regarding the prevailing conditions in
the society, including gender inequality and whether women are well represented or underrepresented in
the screen media (Gray 2013). The image of women in films and their participation in the production of
messages that the screen media disseminates cannot be investigated separately from the broader social,
cultural, political, and economic context at an explicit moment in time (Johnston 2010). This paper explores
divergent conceptions underlying underrepresentation of women performers and producers in screen
media. The main argument guiding this paper is that the ways in which women are represented in the
screen media is as a result of interplay of social forces, such as screen media and gender inequality, which
shape social reality. The screen media generates messages and symbols that create or frame the apparent
place of women in the society, and ultimately affect how they are treated onscreen, behind the screen, or in
real life. Women are underrepresented in the screen media, as fewer women work behind the scenes as
producers and directors compared to the men. In a study by Smith et al. (2013), it was showed that women
are significant underrepresented on screen media in the 2012 films. For instance, of the
4,475 speaking characters studied on screen, merely 28.4
percent consisted of females. Put differently, it translated to a ratio of 2.51 men to each 1 woman on screen.
On the other hand, merely 6 percent of the top-grossing films of 2012 indicated a near balance
4
1
5
in the casting of male and female characters, where females were
nearly 45 percent of the entire speaking roles. By any standards, this still shows that women were
underrepresented in the screen media (Smith et al. 2013). Conversely, the female narrators were only 27.5
percent, while only 16.7 percent of the 1,228 producers and directors were female in the 2012 top 100
grossing films. The rest were men. Women also face difficulties working in media both behind and on
screen. They are generally seen as the weaker gender. Their on-screen supportive roles also confirm this
argument. “From 2006 to 2015, women have received 327 nominations in behind-the-scenes roles that
include producers, writers, directors, and cinematographers, compared to 1,387 men” (Stone, 2016).
Clearly there is a biased view on women who work behind the scenes. Women feel discourage because
their achievements are not recognized or validated by society. Collectively, these findings still show that
women producers and performers are underrepresented in screen media. Women’s underrepresentation in
the screen media has resulted in a situation where they are shown on-screen in a rather sexualized way.
Generally, women are represented as being sex objects and victims, or subject to men’s sexual desires.
This representation is ironic in that the qualities that the women are expected to embrace, such as
passiveness, beauty and sexiness, to contribute to cultural ideals also contribute to how they are victimised.
They are essentially shown as objects that stand to attract men or as victims of women’s sexual desires. A
study by Gray (2013) established that nearly 31.6 percent of female characters were depicted to be clad in
stereotypically “sexy” dresses, in comparison to only 7 percent of their male counterparts. On those women,
some 31 percent
were shown partially nude, in comparison to 9.4 percent of their male
counterparts (Gray, 2013). The media is
more judgmental towards women and holds them to a different slandered than men. Women are forced to
fit a mold. The one size fits all mold. They are publicly shamed for their weight gain or loss. There are more
women than men actors with eating disorders. Women are hardly ever seen as the strong character. They
usually have to be saved by the leading man in most action movies and they are sexualized in those movies
as well. Princess movies aimed for children almost always show the princess being rescued by the prince.
This is because of the sexism of the media. Within the context of women underrepresented behind the
screens and on-screen, it could be argued that if women were overrepresented as producer and
performers, more men would be also be depicted to be clad in stereotypically “sexy” dresses. Again, more
men would be shown to be partially nude. Because of their limited representation in the screen media,
women have been forced to play one size fits all characters. They have to fulfil the competitive demands of
playing strong independent women, child-bearing women, and sexualised women. On one hand, while
some women have to be shown to be celebrating their sexuality due to women power, others have to play
roles of being submissive to men (Johnston 2010). Women underrepresentation in the media has also led
to a situation where women of colour shown onscreen are racialised. Hence, Women of colour face both
sexism and racism in the media industry. The roles they get are even more limited and more stereotypical
than white women. The minority women tend to be less visible in the screen media, such as in Hollywood
where African-American women rarely appear, even as other women of colour like Indians virtually do not
exist in the screen media. When the women of colour appear, they are often given stereotypical roles or
supporting roles instead of being the main characters (Boyd 2015). While the men of colour may be
represented as being lazy, unlawful, or incapable of handling authority, the women of colour are depicted as
being sex objects or domineering (Wood 1994). They are often portrayed as uneducated. They are seen as
lower class and usually criminals or addicts. The women of colour are cast in supportive roles instead of
leading roles in the screen media. They are portrayed as rather passive and waiting for the attention of
men, while the males are depicted as directing women or exploiting them (Murphy 2015). They are also
portrayed as objects of men’s desire. The women of colour are, to a small extent, also shown to be
embittered, independent, and lacking close relationships (Boyd 2015). Despite an apparent
underrepresentation, an innovation that has been used to promote women’s empowerment during the
recent years is
the Internet, as a form of alternative media.
Although films have existed for decades, the alternative social media that focus on women’s viewpoints
have steadily increased in number (Devi 2012). Indeed, currently, media sites that explore women’s ideas,
opinion, and concepts are commonplace. They provide opportunities to represent the marginalized women.
Women have started speaking and stepping out of their usual roles. They are using the media instead of
being used by the media. There is a new media trend of women empowerment. This movement is
especially true with women of colour. Women are stereotyped to fit a mold. For this reason, the new media
have provided men and women with equal opportunities to express their alternative viewpoints, different
from what the screen media, which has underrepresented women, has been doing for decades. Indeed,
Devi (2012) argues that the new media’s objective is to encourage women empowerment, and to stimulate
women’s consciousness to man’s domination. Devi (2012) further argued that the emergence of the new
media and its high usage by women has ensured that it provided opportunities front for gender equality in
terms of how they are represented in the screen media and to make them the focus of media attention.
Conclusion In conclusion, the ways in which women are represented in the screen media is as a result of
interplay of social forces, such as the screen media and gender inequality, which shape social reality. The
screen media generates messages and symbols that create or frame the prevalent images of women in the
society and women stereotypes. Women are underrepresented in the screen media, as fewer women work
behind the scenes as producers and directors compared to the men. Women’s underrepresentation in the
screen media has resulted in a situation where they are shown on-screen in a rather sexualized and
gendered way. Women’s underrepresentation in the media has also led to a situation where women of
colour shown onscreen are racialised. The manner in which the screen media depicts women of colour in
any culture is dissimilar to how the women of the dominant culture are represented. The screen media may
teach or emphasize stereotypes, which in turn influences how other individuals would interact with the
women of colour. It also influences how the women of colour regard themselves. References Boyd, J 2015,
“An Examination of Native Americans in Film and Rise of Native Filmmakers,” The Elon Journal of
Undergraduate Research in Communications, vol. 6, no. 1, pp.105-113 Devi, L 2012, “Empowering women
through alternative media,” International Conference On Interplay Of Economics Politics And Society For
Inclusive Growth Gibbons, S. (2011) ‘Comparative Essay: Girls, Women & Media’, journalism and Mass
Communication Quarterly, 88(4), pp. 858–861. Gill, R. (2012) ‘Media, empowerment and the ’Sexualization
of culture’ debates’, Sex Roles, 66(11-12), pp. 736–745. doi: 10.1007/s11199-011-0107-1. Gray, E. (2013).
Women in film are underrepresented, hypersexualized despite ‘year of the woman’ claims. The
HuffingtonPost. Retrieved: <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/women-in-film-underrepresented-
hypersexualized-report_n_3273398.html> Griffin, R.A. (2013) ‘Push ing into precious: Black women, media
representation, and the glare of the white Supremacist capitalist patriarchal gaze’, Critical Studies in Media
Communication, 31(3), pp. 182–197. doi: 10.1080/15295036.2013.849354 Jaworska, S. and Larrivée, P.
(2011) ‘Women, power and the media: Assessing the bias’, Journal of Pragmatics, 43(10), pp. 2477–2479.
doi: 10.1016/j.pragma.2011.02.008. Johnston, J 2010, “Girls on screen: How film and television depict
women in public relations,” PRism, vol 7 no 4, pp.1-16 Murphy, J 2015, “The role of women in film:
Supporting the men — An analysis of how culture influences the changing discourse on gender
representations in film,” Journalism Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 2 Smith, S., Choueiti, M,
Scofield, E & Pieper, K 2013, “Gender inequality in 500 popular films: Examining on-screen portrayals and
behind-the-scenes employment patterns in motion pictures released between 2007-2012,” Annenberg
School for Communication & Journalism, viewed 8 July 2016,
<http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/Gender_Inequality_in_500_Popular _Films_-
_Smith_2013.ashx> Washington, M. (2016) ‘The post-racial mystique: Media and race in the Twenty-First
century, by Catherine R. Squires’, The Black Scholar, 46(2), pp. 66–69. doi:
10.1080/00064246.2016.1147997. Wood, J 1994, “Gendered media: The influence of media on views of
gender,” Communication, Gender, and Culture, pp. 231-244.