Mainstream movies are slowly becoming better at representing reality with more portrayal of females.
There are a handful of major and independent films coming out each year that are labeled “feminist.” Alainna Marincic, a senior studying integrated media, said there’s no right definition of feminism. Many qualities can earn that label for a film.
In the past few years, women have had some major wins when it comes to representation in movies, with blockbusters such as “The Hunger Games” and “Ghostbusters.” Critics can argue the quality of these films, but they are relevant to the conversation because they have female leads.
When considering good films with main female characters, it’s easy to turn to classics. Among the more well-known examples are “Alien” and “Thelma & Louise.”
Yet “Pitch Perfect” was female-centric since it was directed by a woman, the cast was mostly women and the target audience was women, Marincic said
She said “Magic Mike” could be considered feminist in an unusual way, seeing that the filmmakers catered to “the female gaze.”
Sequels bring the possibility of change, Kt Bugenstein, a sophomore studying screenwriting and producing, said about “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” This addition to the acclaimed film series came out in 2015 and had two leads from underrepresented groups: a woman and an African-American man.
Bugenstein said a film is feminist if it “treats women realistically (and) understands women have internal lives.”
A film does not have to explicitly show this for it to fit the label. Marincic said filmmakers can do as little as include feminist ideas like reproductive rights and empowerment.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” has Charlize Theron’s character “freeing a group of young women out of slavery,” Bugenstein said.
There is also a wrong way to include women in a story, Bugenstein said: Moviegoers can get the impression that some female characters are just being used as “eye candy.”
One cinematic trope named “Stuffed into the Fridge” is used repeatedly. A female character, usually a love interest or best friend who is important to a male lead, is killed off in a horrific way to further his personal growth, Marincic said. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” uses this trope: Logan’s girlfriend is killed, leading him to volunteer for experimentation, which gives him his powers.
Sophia Alioto, a graduate student studying film, said there is “an argument that female characters are usually written one-sided.”
“Hollywood and independent studios are very male-driven,” Bugenstein said, “it’s hard for them to tell stories from other points of view.”
In action movies, female characters can seem stripped of their femininity, since filmmakers often just put in a “female stand-in” for a character originally scripted as a man, Alioto said.
“Not many (diverse) identities are explored in films,” Marincic said, but there are a few films, such as the progressive indie hit “Tangerine,” which details a transgender woman's journey through L.A. and uses very simple technology.
A few film tests are used to judge whether a film has enough realistic female representation. Bugenstein said the Bechdel Test has three simple requirements to test how involved a film’s female characters are on screen: there must be two women, they must talk to each other and they must talk about something other than a man.
Two less familiar tests are the Sexy Lamp Test and the Mako Mori Test, which focus more on how necessary a movie’s female characters are to a story arc.
“The stories need to be there,” Marincic said, “(filmmakers) need to understand issues and how to overcome them.”
Fans can show their displeasure with the lack of feminist films by creating fan stories and art, Bugenstein said, and these works “fill a void.”
They can also voice their opinions on social media and support creators that are trying to make a difference, she said.
“There are not a lot of female voices (in Hollywood). ... (there are) more in independent films,” Alioto said.
In general, Marincic said films are “a direct reflection of what society is (and they) guide how you view the world.”
