Objectification Of Women In Hollywood Essay

A few months ago, Jennifer Lawrence caused the men and pearl clutching women of Hollywood to gasp collectively when she published an essay about the gap between wages of men and women in Hollywood. She was unafraid to publicly call her male costars out for making significantly more money than her. She did it with elegance and class. While this was a good step in the right direction, it’s one white woman’s perspective. There are hundreds of other non-white perspectives in Hollywood to be considered. Women in Hollywood have overcome innumerable obstacles compared to their male counterparts, including a lack of diversity within Hollywood itself, stereotypes that come into play in roles made for women, the gap in pay between what male and female

actors earn, and the lack of good female roles available.

This year was the first year in Emmy’s history that a woman of African American descent won the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in A Drama Series. Viola Davis won the award for portraying Annalise Keating on the television series How To Get Away With Murder. Contrast this with Hattie McDaniel being the first actress of African American descent to win the Academy Award in 1939 for her performance in Gone With the Wind. Davis only won her award this year. Her tearful acceptance speech made headlines for good reason. Her inspiring words could be the one thing a struggling woman of color actress needed to hear. Her win is proof that barriers are being broken and people are interested in seeing the stories of women of color. TV is no longer just a white woman’s world. That’s not to say TV hasn’t been making great strides with diversity. One could argue that TV has become incredibly more diverse than films are. Roles like Sophia Burset on Orange Is The New Black, Kelly Kapoor on The Office, and Donna Meegle on Parks and Recreation are just a few examples of this. These are intelligent women who are not afraid of men, or of themselves and what they’re capable of. Sophia is a transgender woman played by an actual transgender woman. Donna is a sexually empowered woman who is not afraid to say what she thinks. Kelly is a love driven women who enjoys the frivolous things in life, but is no less interesting for it. This is not to argue that men’s roles in television and film are more diverse than women’s. I’d argue that they’re not. Still, imagine a typical male protagonist in a film or series. Did you picture George Clooney or one of the hundred popular actors that look similar to him? That’s why we have a problem. This problem has been addressed with the diverse characters we see on television, but there is still much more to do. There are more roles to be written, and many more wonderful actresses to take these roles.

Marilyn Monroe made an entire career out of playing the stereotypical “ditzy blonde.” She displayed a great deal of acting talent yet is only remembered for her looks and unfortunate last few years.

It’s unfortunate that many people just think of this when they think of her. Her popular roles paved the way for women to still be stereotyped into similar roles today. More recently, Megan Fox struggled to be seen as an actress capable of more serious roles than the ones she had in the Transformers series. These unfortunate movies caused Hollywood to only see her as the “hot girl” or the “whore.” The frequent objectification of women in Hollywood has become a major problem. Objectification is when someone, in this case a woman, is viewed for her body alone. The fact that one role an actress plays can follow her for her whole career says a lot about Hollywood, and not in a good way. Fox’s comments on the matter and accusations against Transformers director Michael Bay have caused her to almost disappear from the public eye in recent years. This is just one example of a woman in Hollywood speaking her mind and being ridiculed for it. The idea of a women refusing to just simply play her role and look pretty is relatively

revolutionary.

As mentioned in earlier, Jennifer Lawrence’s essay on the Hollywood wage gap between men and women raised a lot of eyebrows. Some of her male counterparts supported her publicly, but others stayed silent. It was revealed that Lawrence made considerably less than her male costars on the film American Hustle. Lawrence portrayed arguably the most influential young adult film character in the Hunger Games series, based on the novels. Katniss Everdeen is a heroine to look up to. Yet Lawrence still wasn’t making as much as the male actors she was working with. She even won an Oscar for her role in the film Silver Linings Playbook. Lawrence acknowledges that she is lucky compared to us “normal” people. I can understand her frustration, but I’m sure her pay is much larger than the women of color actresses she works with.

When someone writes a female character of strength, Hollywood fights over it. In Chapter 1 of the Gender and Pop Culture Reader, the revamped version of Merida from Disney’s Brave was discussed. Disney took the original version of Merida and made her over, making her thinner and more made up. The understandable outrage over this caused Disney to not make this version of Merida a permanent one. Actresses are yearning desperately for roles that will mean something to someone. Gossip blogs make many posts discussing the endless parade of female actresses auditioning for a coveted role. When someone bought the film rights to the Hunger Games trilogy, every young actress in Hollywood wanted the role of Katniss Everdeen. The role promised a steady paycheck for at least a few years given that sequels followed the first movie. It was a role that an actress would be remembered for her whole career. The casting of Bella Swan in the Twilight films had a comparable fervor. It was the same with Tris Pryor in the Divergent films, Hazel Grace Lancaster in The Fault in Our Stars, and Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, to name a few. Tris is a character who sacrifices everything for her family and for the betterment of her world. Bella is a character who fights for who she loves. Hazel doesn’t let cancer stop her from falling madly and deeply in love. Hermione is a character who is smarter than all of the male wizards around her. These are are wonderful and inspiring female characters. When Hollywood sees a truly good role, it can’t be passed up. They are few and far between. Once Fifty Shades of Grey became a hit it seemed that a film was inevitable, and Dakota Johnson was cast as Anastasia Steele. The much maligned film and series have been panned yet the film was still a box office success with more films to follow. It makes you wonder if Johnson regrets accepting that role. Still, it was a role guaranteed to get people to talk about an actress.

In the future, I hope to see women of color dominating the film and television industry. I hope that a female actress can play any role she wants to play, regardless of her looks. She can play the whore, the virgin, the mother, the sister, the friend, the soldier, and the villain. In lecture on September 10th, we discussed the different ways women are portrayed in advertising. These portrayals are also used in Hollywood. Anything is possible. Can we sustain the progress we’ve made? If Hollywood ever became colorblind, maybe things would finally be perfect. Maybe roles would finally no longer be whitewashed. But, like world peace, this will most likely never happen. Yet we can still hope that women of color will have more opportunities in the entertainment industry. More roles should be written with them in mind. Race should not even be a factor when casting a role. In the future, no female actress should play second fiddle to a man on or off set. In the future, people like Jennifer Lawrence wouldn’t have to publish essays about the significant gap in pay between male and female actresses. Female actresses would be paid equal amounts without a second thought. If the quality of the work is the same why are female actresses paid less for their work? In the future, these questions would not have to be asked.

Throughout all of these examples, one thing is clear. If women speak up about inequalities they face in the entertainment industry, the heat they face makes it almost not even worth it in some ways. Will your career be over if you comment on how you earn less than males you work with? On another level, I can’t imagine how disheartening it is to face the hundreds of roles written for white women and smaller amount of roles written for women of color. In the future, I hope to see an entertainment world full of strong female roles and actresses who feel welcomed in the entertainment industry. Women of color will have their pick of roles to play, and they will be wonderful roles. Female roles will no longer be stereotyped. I dream of a Hollywood that welcomes women of all sizes and skin colors. Until then, women will keep fighting to make Hollywood a better place. I believe that this better place can be achieved with a lot of hard work and acceptance. It may seem far off but I think it will happen in our lifetimes. We have to have hope and we have to believe in a more accepting and inclusive world. After all, Lupita Nyong’o is one of the leads in the new Star Wars movie. Idris Elba may be the next James Bond. Screenwriters are writing roles for women that break the mold and the stereotypes. Julianne Moore won an Oscar recently for playing a woman suffering from alzheimer’s disease. Cate Blanchett is gaining global acclaim for playing a lesbian living in suburbia. Things are changing for the better. Women in Hollywood have overcome innumerable obstacles compared to their male counterparts, including a lack of diversity