Starting The Movement
It’s an interesting time to be alive. A lot of good and bad is happening around the world. I remember in history class, I was interested in learning about the events that occurred in the 60’s and 70’s like the Civil Rights Movement, The Feminist Movement, The War in Vietnam (and the accompanying anti-war protests), and how many notable people where making a difference in society. People like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Gloria Steinem, and John F. Kennedy. These were all people that demanded a change and therefore implemented it into society. They were able to create this change because of the support they received. Humans rely on structure and guidance. People often feel lost and confused when there is not anybody or anything to tell them what to do, how to feel, or how to act. I believe, that people turn to movies and books to escape reality. However while watching or reading, we are paying more attention than we think to the characters. We are aware of their sex and race, if they are tall, short, fat, skinny. We are then comparing that image to ourselves and to those around us. Very quickly, movies and books turn into something that we subconsciously look up to and base our lives off of.
Confronting The Issue
Hollywood has recently come under fire for sexual harassment allegations, sexism, and racism. All three have existed in Hollywood since the beginning – however, now actors, actresses, and everyone in the film making industry are talking about it and challenging it. Last night, March 4th was the 2018 Oscar Awards, according to the Hollywood Report Article, “What is an Inclusion Rider? Frances McDormand’s Oscars Speech Explained” Francis McDormand (who won best actress for her role in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri) gave a powerful speech and at the end of it stated: ” I have two words for you..inclusion rider”. Later Whitney Cummings provided a definition for what an inclusion rider is: “something that actors include/ put in their contracts to ensure gender and racial equality in hiring on movie sets.” McDormand, was therefore voicing her opinion on how the film industry could and needs to do better on including more diversity in the industry. This involves having more people of color in movies and gender equality issues. This Oscar ceremony was much more diverse then previous Oscar ceremonies, and the film industry is beginning to become more diverse thanks to the persistence of actors and actresses but mainly the audience and therefore the critics.
False Reality
One section that stuck out to me in the article, was when it was discussing how movies fail to reflect real-world gender representation. According to the article, inclusion riders “would create a diverse onscreen demography reflecting a population comprised of 50 percent women and girls. In other words, reality.” I found this sentence to be very powerful because directly calls out and illustrates what the obvious gender bias in the film industry. Slowly but surely as more people start to recognize the substantial bias the film industry has, the more people are beginning to call it out.
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