Newswise — LOS ANGELES _ November 11, 2017 _ While parents, teachers and even advertisements may tell girls that they can do or be anything, a new study reveals that popular movies have a different message. The report, out today from Professor Stacy L. Smith focuses on the depiction of girls age 6 to 20 across 900 top movies of the last decade. The findings show that younger female characters are missing and marginalized in top-grossing films.
Entitled “The Future is Female,” the report is the latest from the Media, Diversity & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and was released today at the Surefire Girls conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The report is available here.
Quantitatively, the study focused on the demographics and hypersexualization of younger characters appearing in the 900 top films from 2007 to 2016 (excluding 2011). A qualitative investigation focused on academic pursuits, relationships, and activities of these characters in 200 films from 2015 and 2016. The results demonstrate that elementary and teenage females on screen bear little resemblance to their real-world counterparts.
“Girls of today are dynamic and diverse,” said Smith. “The entertainment industry continues to tell stories that bear little resemblance to the reality of today’s girls and young women. Where are their intellectual pursuits? Their interest in STEM? Their desire for justice and equality? Those passions are not being shown with frequency in popular movies.”
Child and teen characters made up 12.5 percent of all speaking characters in the 900 films analyzed, which is 7.9 percentage points below the U.S. Census estimate for these age groups. Of those characters, 39.7 percent were female, a ratio of 1.52 males to every one female character. In 2016, however, younger female characters reached parity with younger males, as they accounted for 48.2 percent of all speaking or named roles in this age bracket. Despite this progress, younger female characters were predominantly white, as only 23 percent of female child and teen characters were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group.
“Invisibility is the norm for girls and female teens from diverse backgrounds,” said Smith. “When 89 percent of 200 top films from 2015 and 2016 did not feature a single Black or African-American female speaking character age 6 to 20, and 94.5 percent did not feature young Latinas, this is grounds for concern. Not only are these groups erased, but 96.5 percent of movies did not feature a female character with a disability, and younger females from the LGBT community were completely missing from the films we examined.”
The report also addressed the low number of younger females driving the action in films. Only 15 leading or co-leading characters were younger females in the 200 most popular films of 2015 and 2016, with eight females in 2016 and seven in 2015 at the center of storytelling. This was virtually unchanged from 2007, when six younger females were in leading roles. All but two of the leading characters were played by white actors across the three years.
“Young people spend critical hours each day learning from media, and this report shines a light on the messages that film can convey to them,” said USC Annenberg Dean Willow Bay. “It also shows why we must continue to provide young girls and young women with new stories, role models and opportunities to become leaders and to create real change.”
The study also explored the sexualization of female characters. Female teens were almost four times as likely to be shown in sexually revealing clothing and over twice as likely to be shown with partial nudity compared to teenage males on screen. Teenage females were also more likely than male teenagers to be thin.
The authors evaluated whether the age of the actor portraying the primary and secondary female characters aligned. Over half (53 percent) of the female teens in these key roles were played by actors whose age did not match that of the characters. Most often, the actors depicting these characters were older than the role they played. “The casting of adult actors to play younger roles may be one explanation for the sexualization of teenage characters,” Smith said. “However, what Hollywood may consider standard practice may have negative consequences for young female viewers.”
The qualitative analysis of primary and secondary young females further demonstrates the disconnect between girls on screen and girls in real life. Feminine stereotypes are still the status quo in film, as 35.8 percent of young female characters were shown engaging in chores such as housework or caring for siblings. Additionally, over half of the female teens evaluated were shown with an opposite sex romantic interest in the story. There were no young LGBT female characters depicted in the top 200 movies of 2015 and 2016.
When stories focus on stereotypes, scholastic pursuits are pushed to the side. Slightly less than one-third (31.7 percent) of younger females were shown in an academic context or doing homework. Only 12.2 percent of the female girls or teens were shown with an interest in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). Few (7.3 percent) of the female characters revealed professional aspirations.
“Girls and young women are a vital part of our global future, and this report makes it clear that popular films do not value their stories, or the ways they already contribute to building a better world,” said Ann Lovell, one of the study's funders. “We can and must do more for them.”
“As a movement builder for the advancement of women and girls, these results reveal how much we have to do. The leaders of the next generation—our future CEOs, lawmakers, doctors, lawyers, teachers—do not see themselves or their stories told,” said Jacquelyn Zehner, President of the Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation, which funded the study. “If we do not show them what is possible, who will?”
The report is the latest from the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative, and can be read in full at this link.
About USC Annenberg Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative
The Media Diversity & Social Change Initiative (MDSCI) at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is the leading think tank studying diversity in entertainment through original and sponsored research. MDSCI findings create valuable and sought after research-based solutions that advance equality in entertainment. Dr. Stacy L. Smith is the Founder and Director of the MDSCI, which launched over ten years ago. Dr. Smith and the MDSCI examine gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT status, disability, and age on screen and gender and race/ethnicity behind the camera in cinematic and television content as well as barriers and opportunities facing women and people of color in the entertainment industry. The MDSCI also conducts economic analyses related to diversity and the financial performance of films. In 2015, LA Weekly named Dr. Smith the #1 Most Influential Person in Los Angeles, and she has spoken on research at multiple high-profile engagements ranging from the TED Women stage to the United Nations. Dr. Smith and the MDSCI have been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and NPR, among others. The MDSCI’s most recent research reports include the Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity (CARD), multiple landmark studies with Sundance Institute and Women in Film Los Angeles and two studies on inclusion on screen and behind the camera across 900 top-grossing films conducted at USC Annenberg. The MDSCI is generously supported by The Annenberg Foundation, The Harnisch Foundation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, EPiX, Humana, LUNAFEST, The Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation, and other individuals. To learn more, visit http://annenberg.usc.edu/mdsci or follow on Twitter @MDSCInitiative and on Facebook.
About the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals, across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school's comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university in a global urban environment.
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