Saturday, March 8, 2008

Contact Governor Baldacci

To leave Governor Baldacci a comment (especially about the new budget cuts!), click here.

New Report from See Jane

Gena Davis as moved her institute for gender equity in film to Los Angeles. Her research team recently released a new report. The found that males outnumber females in feature films, 3 to 1. They also examined the hypersexualization of both male and female characters in film and tv aimed at kids.

They invite youth, ages 13 - 26 to submit a PSA for the "I Want to See Jane campaign. (Win a trip to hollywood!)

Older findings include:

THE NEEDS DR.SMITH AND HER RESEARCHERS FOUND
G-rated movies and certain TV categories need more females as main characters, minor characters, narrators, and in crowds.
3 out of 4 characters in G-rated movies are male.

This pattern remains steady even when the data is analyzed from multiple perspectives (major characters, characters in groups, movies released in the 1990s versus the 2000s).

In TV made for kids 11 and under, the bad news is that in TV-Y and TVY7 there are twice as many males as females, while the good news is, TVG is almost balanced at one for one.

G-rated movies and certain TV categories need more characters of color, especially female characters of color as main characters, minor characters, narrators, and in crowds.

In the 101 highest grossing G-rated movies 1990-2005 characters of color are most often sidekicks, comic relief, or villains. In TV aimed at kids 11 and under, three-fourths of all the individual, speaking characters are white. Girls of color are least likely to see themselves reflected in media made for kids.

G-rated movies need to create more female characters with aspirations beyond romance.
In G-rated films, Dr. Smith and her researchers discovered that often female characters have no personal aspirations beyond romance i.e. romantic love or marriage.

G-rated movies need to create more women and girl characters that are valued for their inner character, too.

In G-rated films, Dr. Smith and her researchers discovered that most often plots with female leads revolve around physical appearance and ability to attract a mate.