Login
Gender Inequality in the Hollywood
Introduction
There have been persistent differences between men and women behind Hollywood scenes. The entertainment industry seems to value men more than women. The creators of films believe that men have more abilities than women, at least this is what society has seemed to have taught them. They then display these differences in their films. Up to this day, gender inequality in the entertainment industry has remained a vicious cycle with both genders being victims. The industry has forced men to accept this bias and women to endure its consequences. The differences in the roles of the two genders in the film industry are because of society’s view on gender roles and how people perceive women on screen.
Discussion
Even today, the society still views the woman as having a lower stand as compared to men. In turn, this makes it difficult for many males in the entertainment industry to turn their power over to a female. The society has defined gender roles in some way, and the stereotypes that exist have made people view women as people who cannot handle money, cannot have a major role in the workplace and are unable to handle themselves emotionally in certain scenarios. While people are defying the stereotypes every day, what has already been there has done lasting damage to the female population. For the society to be successful, then women should be given equal opportunities with men.
Another thing that has caused gender inequality in the film industry is how people perceive women on screen. When film creators sexualize and manipulate women on screen, women end up not feeling compelled to work with them. As a result, the number of women in the industry keeps on diminishing. While some women may make it their quest to change how people view them in the industry, others may want to avoid joining the industry whatsoever as they may see it as a hostile environment. As time goes on and the society gains more ground on gender equality, then there is hope that there would be a decrease in women sexualization on screen. Still, this is not the case, and therefore, the industry needs to make a rapid change for them to realize gender equality.
As a result of the societal view of women and negative perception of women on screen, there has been a decline in the number if women in the entertainment industry. Further, most women who are in the industry are being paid lower salaries than their male counterparts who are at the same level. While both women and men in the film industry receive exorbitant payments, the discrepancies between the payments are huge. Unfortunately, there is no legislation on women receiving the same payments as their male counterparts. For there to be gender equality in Hollywood, there must be two things: either there is a decrease in men’s payment or an increase in women’s payment. To make matters clear on the issue of gender inequality in Hollywood, it is worth taking into consideration the career of a female actor and put the challenges that she has faced into consideration. An example of a popular female actor in Hollywood, who has faced major challenges in her career due to her being female, is Megan Fox.
Worry about reaction paper writing? Find useful info in an article "Purchase a Good Reaction Paper from a Trustworthy Writing Agency" or calm down and order expert written paper from us.
Megan Fox has spoken about gender disparity at various incidents in her career. She seemed to have summed up a major issue that most women in Hollywood face. Many a time, females in the film industry receive critiques of either being too sassy or even bossy when all they are trying to do is to be strong and confident in fighting for equal treatment. At one time, Megan stated that rather than people just viewing her as attractive in a film, she would rather they view her performance. Further, she claimed that she has an interest in featuring in less sexualized characters. As a role model in the film industry for women to fight for gender equality, Megan Fox stated that she would like to influence girls to be intelligent and strong and fight for what they deem to be right.
In the popular sequel The Transformers the studio wanted to make a certain amount of money and therefore used some of their stars including Megan Fox to promote the movie. Essentially, it was not about her performance but her looks that eventually resulted to oversaturation of the media with her. Apart from her roles in movies, Megan Fox has featured in various other media such as magazines that earned her an image of a sex symbol emblematic of an era. Rather than looking at what she has to offer, some people only look at her appearance to attract more viewership, profits and other benefits.
The case of Megan Fox is just but sort of a needle in a haystack as there are various other issues that make gender inequality still alive in Hollywood. For instance, there are still few films that have female protagonists. Even more is the fact that there are not that many female directors in Hollywood films. In turn, when there are fewer female directors, there is a higher chance that there will be fewer females in other roles. Other women in Hollywood, who have had an issue of gender inequality in Hollywood, are Patricia Arquette, Jeniffer Lawrence, Catherine Hardwick, Amy Schumer, Sandra Bullock and Lena Dunham. All these women at one point have made it clear that women face a lot of issues in the film industry. Further, some of them have complained about the gender wage gap in Hollywood and the limited offering of major roles in films.
Apart from the wages and roles in films, women in Hollywood also face gender imbalance when it comes to nominations for major awards. There is usually an unequal number of best actress and best actor nominations at major awards. It seems that various event only concentrates on women’s wardrobe more rather than their work and performance. Some have termed that it is hard to be a woman in the film industry as they cannot achieve their full potential only because of their gender. If gender discrimination continues, then there is bound to be stigmatization of the society. Therefore, there is a need for change and balance in gender roles.
Conclusion
The gender inequality in Hollywood has been there for a long time. The fact is that the creators of the film in Hollywood still value men more than women. Though the change to realize the power of women in the film industry may be gradual, not all people will accept this gradual change due to the many fat paychecks and big reputations that have a connection to the very foundation of gender inequality. The entertainment industry has a major role in providing information to the younger generations at an early age and therefore making them have a better understanding of the need for gender equality in all areas of life. All the relevant stakeholders should take appropriate actions to realize gender equality as the entertainment industry is one of the fronts in the battle of ensuring gender equality.
