The Feds Are Officially Investigating Hollywood's Glaring Gender Gap

Submitted by Mastodon on Wed, 2015-10-07 14:14

Article here. Excerpt:

'The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has officially launched an investigation looking into the lack of female directors working in Hollywood.

The LA Times reports government officials have already requested interviews from some 50 women working in the industry and will start interviews as soon as next week to ultimately determine if Hollywood is violating federal law.

"I hope they force people to change the way they do business because Hollywood is not exempt from the law," Lori Precious said in response to Monday's news. Precious is one of the women the EEOC requested to talk to as a part of the formal probe.
...
Earlier this year, a staggering gender bias study found only 30.2 of all speaking characters in 2014 were played by women.

"For every 2.3 male characters who say 'Dude,' there is just woman saying, 'Hello?!" the Times Manhola Dargis wrote.'

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I'm tired of the gov't messing w/ stuff like national defense, infrastructure, and public safety. Sod that! We need 3 speaking roles for actresses for every one walk-on role for actors in our films, and we need it NOW, by jingo!!

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2015-10-07 23:50

I look forward to reading the result of this study.

Lately, I have begun watching action hero movies (my son likes them; I don't).

I don't like the acting, the plot or the actors themselves. But there is one thing I DO like: how the director fuses multiple camera angles in the big battle scenes. These recent movies have been amazing: the director knows where to anticipate the camera placement for where projectiles land after being viewed as they are ejected from one camera angle (and all while a third camera is moving). I find this to be their artistic value and is the one thing that gets me through the movies.

It is documented that men have better visualization skills than woman. I see this in mathematical (not arithmetic) achievements. I see it in how I drive and navigate tight spaces compared to my wife. And I see it in how men control the multiple camera angles in action movies.

Women can direct the human interest stories. But I think men are better at the huge multiple camera shots. And that is where the money is.

Can women be trained to do these multiple camera shots? I do not know if it is nature or nurture (I really do suspect it is nature, by the way). But if you are investing over 100 million dollars in a movie, what are YOU going to do with YOUR 100 million dollars -- a sure thing or an investment in hypothetical diversity?

So I am looking forward to the results of this study. I am looking forward to how this will impact the assertion that men and women are identical. This is going to be interesting. It will be equally interesting in how they white wash their inevitable results. (Or how the understanding of visualization will extend to pure abstract math.)

(And as for human interest stories, I will never forget the dinner table scene in Woody Allen's "Hannah and her Sisters." I do believe a female director could have managed most of the movie. But that dinner scene... The camera moved around and around the table, weaving in and out of the seating arrangement, not ever revealing itself. Sure, it was a human interest story, but that camera view during the dinner scene was vintage Allen and art. And while a woman could have directed 90 percent of that movie, I am not entirely sure a female director could have pulled off that dinner scene.)

(And as a double aside: almost all films directed by women that I have seen, have bored me even when I did not know in advance that the director was female. In the same way, women's sports bore me: no fast pace multiple angle drives for the goal: just a lot of running around kicking soccer balls and throwing basketballs.)

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Submitted by ThomasI on Thu, 2015-10-08 04:05

that was what the porn movie industry was for. they are always positioned to get the best roles there. don't you agree?

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Submitted by daveinga on Thu, 2015-10-08 06:43