Geena Davis: A Champion for Women

Photo by K.Conner WQmag.com

With 10.45 hours of each day influenced by media, females are influenced by stereotypes and hypersexualization. Fewer than one in three characters in movies with speaking parts are female. G-rated films depict females in provocative attire, much like R-rated films. For girls, the number one-ranked occupation is royalty and the number one aspiration is finding romance. It’s not exactly the kind of research results you’ll find with boys, but it is the kind of research results that led Geena Davis to found the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The comments of Davis’ own children led her to recognize the need for media to repair the image of females. The research results she facilitated made her painfully aware that the more hours of television children watch, the less options females perceive and the more sexist males become. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media was established to work with entertainment creators and companies and inform the public about the need to increase the number of girls and women in media and reduce stereotyping of both males and females, specifically for children less than twelve years of age.

The presence of Geena Davis at this year’s Sarasota Film Festival is only the beginning of her presence and influence in our community. While being honored with a luncheon at the Sarasota Yacht Club, a year-round partnership was announced between the Sarasota Film Festival and See Jane, the programming arm of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The two non-profit organizations join to incorporate workshops and a filmmaking challenge for middle and high school-aged filmmakers into SFF’s educational programming. The partnership represents See Jane’s very first educational partnership with a film festival. The two organizations will work together to help students identify gender stereotypes in the media and work to spread gender stereotype awareness to their peers through the creation of their own films. One school per school year will be invited to participate, beginning with Booker Middle School in the 2011/2012 school year. Davis met with Booker Middle School students while in Sarasota last week. Davis and her Institute’s Executive Director, Madeline DiNonno will mentor the students during the month-long filmmaking process which will follow SFF’s Outreach and Education Department’s workshop and training.

The tireless efforts of Geena Davis were in abundance at this year’s Sarasota Film Festival. “GUESS WHO? The Mathematician and the Baker,” a short film created by student producers at Boston University in conjunction with See Jane, had its world premiere with screenings at youthFEST Hollywood Nights Cinema Showcase and during SFF’s Kids VIP field trips for students. On Saturday, Davis participated in the “In Conversation with…” series, introduced the film “Miss Representation,” and received the Impact Award for her work with gender stereotypes at the Filmmaker Tribute Ceremony.

“Miss Representation,” a documentary in which Geena Davis appeared, showed real life photos of models side-by-side with photo-shopped photos that produced anorexic waistlines. The film provided additional startling statistics attributed to airbrushed photos and gender stereotypes:

Females are three times more likely than males to be shown with a thin figure.
78% of girls hate their bodies by the age of 15.
65% of American women and girls have suffered from an eating disorder.

Among youth 18 and younger, liposuctions nearly quadrupled between 1997 and 2007. Breast augmentations increased nearly six-fold in the same 10-year period.
The United States is 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures, representing only 17% of Congress.
The U.S. has the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world—twice as high as the UK, 4 times as high as Germany, and 8 times as high as Japan.

Studies estimate that 13% to 25% of youth have some history of self-injury, such as cutting. Most studies show that cutting is more common with girls.

Only 7% of film directors are female.
Only one woman sits on the board of Fox News – a board of fifteen people.

Although over 1000 screening requests were received after “Miss Representation” premiered at Sundance, the screening of “Miss Representation” at this year’s SFF was one of the few screenings with an abundance of empty seats, possibly bringing home a harsh reality that films about women and without sex don’t sell. Davis expresses confidence that the images and the stereotypes on the screen are about to change. According to Davis, media executives are stunned when she brings the research to their attention. Thanks to champions of women like Geena Davis, change may be about to come. Sarasota is fortunate to add her voice to our community.

0 members like this