Vulture: What Even Our Best Blockbusters Are Still Getting Wrong About Women

In a recent discussion about the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes movie, I mentioned its low female representation - the reaction to this comment was, "no one cares about that."

Here is an excellent article about
why you should care about it.

"Hollywood needs to be better about this. If even a slim majority of the actors in Apes, or in Pacific Rim, or in that Episode VII photo had been women, it would have been near-revolutionary, and yet we live in a country where women make up 51 percent of the population. Why can’t movies come even close to reflecting that? Why won’t people speak up when they look at a call sheet where only one actress is listed — and why do so many talented people look at a sheet like that and think nothing of it?"

Hollywood's Casting Beauty Standards

We're all pretty familiar with the limited roles that women are offered in Hollywood. Often women make up only 30% of a film's cast. This misrepresentation is damaging in and of itself, but what about the disproportionate 'Hot Girl' factor?

In this article, Salon reveals many of the choices made during the casting process. Specifically, it compares how male and female characters are described. Here is an example of a couple in the same script:

Jason Biggs and Taylor Schilling of
Orange is the New Black

Male: 30. 30 going on 21. He’s married to [female]. He’s a fun, hip guy, but at his core, he’s become a family man.

Female: 29 – 30 years old. She’s both beautiful and cool and just a few notches this side of New-Agey.

The male character is described through personality, while the female character's looks are described before any personality descriptors. This is just one example of a long standing pattern in the entertainment world.

Lets not kid ourselves, there has been an established standard of "average" looking TV males coupled with beautiful model-type TV females. For women, attractiveness is not just the first hurdle, it's often the only one. 

Hollywood's Hidden Sexism: How Casting Notices Keep Beauty Standards Alive

"Can producers stop vetoing casting options based on fuckability? And can a physical character description be an afterthought, only included if it furthers the plot? From my perspective, as an actress but also as an audience member, I think it would be nice to see a complex female character physically, emotionally and mentally realized on-screen not by the hottest woman, but by the very real actress best suited to play her."

Hollywood needs to get the memo. Hotness isn't a character trait.