Taylor+and+Sydnee

[|Last Year Was Bleak for Women in Film]


 * ABSTRACT:**

Martha Lauzen, executive director for the Center of Study in Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, constructed a study that analyzed how many female actresses were the protagonist for 2013 movies. Her results concluded that only 15 percent of protagonists in the top 100 grossing films of 2013 were female. This 15 percent is only four percentage more than 2011 and down one percent from 2002. As you can see, the number of female protagonist actresses has not changed drastically in ten years. Lauzen also discovered that in 2013, women made up 30 percent of speaking characters. Lauzen states that "Overall, we have seen little movement in the number soy female protagonists and females as speaking characters over the last decade. Moreover, female characters are less likely than males to have identifiable goals or to be portrayed as leaders of any kind."


 * Taylor's Reaction:**

Honestly, when Sydnee and I were looking for an article for our current events, who would have thought that we would have come across an article that dealt with media when we just were introduced to our media section! Before reading the statistics of the article, I thought that female protagonists actresses were making a come back; from Jennifer Lawrence, starring as Katniss Everdeen in //The Hunger Game and Catching Fire,// to Sandra Bullock staring as Ashburn in //The Heat// and Leigh Anne Tuohy in //The Blind Side.// Before we were introduced to our media section, I never really thought much about the inequality between actors and actresses but, after reading the article and our class discussion, the article makes sense. Lately, teenage girls have gone crazy for actors such as Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, Dave and James Franco, and the reason why they are such a heart-throd to us teenagers is because they are the main characters of the movie. Unlike us, guys don't go crazy for much girls and the reason for this is probably because they don't really see actresses in movies. Guys don't care for romance, which is where female actresses will be seen, they like action, which is basically an all male cast. But maybe 2014 films will be the year of change? Shainlene Woodley will be the new actress to look out for as she will be staring as Beatrice Prior in //Divergent// and Hazel Grace Lancaster in //The Fault In Our Stars,// which all priemer in a couple of months. Maybe this article will serve as a lessen that women should be given a lead role. It may seem kind of hard to do to make the movie appealing to both genders but I'm sure guys wouldn't mind a dominant woman.

Taylor and I had the hardest time finding a good topic to do our current event on! Finally we found the topic about media and it just so happens our next topic in class is media so what a coincidence! I have never really thought much about how there are very little female protagonist in movies. The most recent film I saw with a female protagonist was the Blind Side featuring Sandra Bullock! She is probably my favorite female actor next to Emma Watson! To be honest I love "chick flicks". However, most of those types of film have male leads! It surprised me that only 15% out of all the top leading movies last year had female leads! Hopefully in 2014 there will be more movies with female leads. I feel that movie producers use male leading roles since most time women are the ones who want to see the movies in the first place. Action movies the ones men like to watch always have male leading roles so no wonder lasts years percentage of female protagonist was 15%!
 * Sydnee's Reaction:**


 * Discussion Questions:**