Software developed by The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media can now analyze a film and determine how much time an actress actually appears on the screen. A ninety minute film can be processed in just fifteen minutes, and The New York Times reports that in the first round of research, the findings are eye opening:
In the first round of research using the tool, a study of the 200 top-grossing, nonanimated films of 2014 and 2015, like ‘Jurassic World’ and ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ found that overall, in 2015, male characters were both seen and heard about twice as much as female characters. Parity on paper does not help: In films with male and female leads, the men nonetheless appear and speak more often than the women. Even in films with female leads, the men still get nearly equal screen and speaking time.
The report is available at the Institute’s web site along with some interactive charts, which are vivid. Here’s the data for 2015. Pay particular attention to the pie graphs, which nicely summarize total screen time.
Read the full report at seejane.org.
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