Every woman can be a Wonder Woman.
Gender bias has always existed, especially for women in film. That is, movies portray women more as a cliche than a character with legitimate interests and a coherent story to tell. In an ideal world, women and men would have an equal amount of protagonist roles and the enforcement of gender stereotypes could be eliminated. But, realistically, out of the one-hundred top grossing films of 2016, females only comprised 29% of protagonist roles and 37% of major characters (3). Keep in mind that, Women make up about 50% of the worlds population (4).
Women have been extremely underrepresented in film. Out of the 1,006 directors hired for the top 900 films from 2007-2016,excluding 2011, only 4.1% were female, leaving 95.9% of male directors. Of those same 900 films, less than 1/3 of speaking characters were women. Within the top 1,000 grossing films from 2007-2016, only 4% of directors were female; within this percent, there were only three African Americans, three Asians and one Latino (5). These statistics are disappointing, but not surprising. The shocking comparison between the costumes for the Amazon warriors in Wonder Woman and Justice League show that this type of gender bias is not just something of the past. It’s only thriving in disguise.
Movies serve as a force that can impact the intangible aspects in a woman’s life. Researchers in a district of Fiji conducted research on how the introduction to western television impacted Fiji’s society. Fiji’s “ideal” body type was a full-figured woman including: thick thighs, hips, shoulders and curves. The researchers identified that after three years of the island’s introduction to western television shows, the self inducing vomiting rate went from 0% to 11.3%. One woman justified her reasoning stating that she saw thin women on television, most likely receiving romantic attention, and then wanted to become thin herself (6). This is just one example, unfortunately, how the portrayal of women in the media can individually and psychologically affect the way women see themselves, everywhere.
Furthermore, it’s obvious that many women characters are portrayed as a lover needing to be rescued. Even when women protagonists are portrayed as the rescuer, it’s important to be critical the process that they go through to do so, and how it compares to the male characters (6). Here are four arguments of how women are portrayed as heroins:
- Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest (2006): In the first movie, Will and Elizabeth are both imprisoned. Will gets released and says that he will come back to rescue her. Fortunately, Elizabeth escapes herself and dresses up as a male soldier to find Will. In the second movie, Elizabeth tries to rescue Will this time. She uses her sexuality to seduce Captain Jack Sparrow and handcuff him to the boat, while herself, Will and the rest of the crew escapes.
2. Nala in The Lion King (1994): Nala embarks to find her old friend, Simba, to save the kingdom from his Uncle, Scar. The movie showed the Nala was unable or unwilling to stand up against Scar herself. She was a hero, indirectly.
On the contrast, here are two heroins that have different approaches:
3. Merida in Brave (2012): Merida is not a typical Disney Princess. She stands out from most Disney protagonists. That is, her attire and body shape appears to be more relatable, she is skilled at archery, a stereotypical male dominating sport, is not interested in marriage and does not have a male love interest. Instead the love for her mother leads her to be her own hero.
4. Neytiri in Avatar (2009): The last battle scene of the movie, which heavily determines the fate of Pandora, is fought by Jake, in avatar embodiment, Neytiri and the general. Once Jake’s human body starts suffocating, it is Neytiri who kills the general and then saves Jake’s life. This picture, in my opinion, is powerful to viewers.
It’s important to note that all of these characters are heroes in one way or another. It’s how they carry out heroism that can influence how a woman views her responsibilities as hero. Elizabeth Swann, for example, should be credited with saving the day. It also should be noted that she had to use her sexuality to do so. Even thought it’s a small part of the movie, the accumulation of such scenes, where woman have to manipulate, seduce or indirectly ask for assistance to be a hero, can create a social norm expressing that woman are unable to be their own hero. Neytiri is a perfect example of how male and female protagonist can have equal parts of being their own and each other heroes.
One reason that gender stereotypes may have continued to perpetuate up until present day could be influenced by what is called “post-feminism”. That is, since the women’s movement took care of oppressive policies and gave women “equality”, it is now the responsibility of the individual to make decisions that could change or reinforce their role in society. These decisions that women face, about their role in society, can challenge the balance of a strong, fierce attitude and embracing their femininity (7). Jocelyn Nichole Murphy states in her thesis, The Role of Women in Film: Supporting the Men,
One side of modern feminists contends that owning and celebrating one’s sexuality by being in control of the context of a situation gives women power. The other side, maintaining more values from the previous wave of feminism, argues that power will never be reached until women are equally depicted on film in age standards, in positions of leadership, and by distinction of extra-familial aspirations, among other inequalities. (Jocelyn Nichole Murphy, The Role of Women in Film: Supporting the Men, 2015, 10).
This raises controversial questions in the female community who have differing opinions on how they should be represented in film. What defines a woman’s nature? What films should we restrict our daughters from seeing at a young age? Do we have the moral obligation to restrict in the first place? These deep interpersonal questions also have the potential to stall important change. Since each generation of women grow up in a different political and social culture, identity issues can be subjective. Because of this diverse mosaic of cultures and perspectives of gender roles, uniting on common ground can be complex.
(3) Martha M. Lauzen, It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top 100 Films of 2016, (2017).
(4) The World Bank, Population, female (% of total), ( The World Bank, 2017)
(5) Women and Hollywood, 2016 Statistics, (Women and Hollywood, 2017).
(6) Eugene Nulman, Representation of Women in the Age of Globalized Film, ( Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 2014).
(7) Jocelyn Nichole Murphy, The role of women in lm: Supporting the men – An analysis of how culture in influences the changing discourse on gender representation in film (2015).
Empowered Female Characters 
