Women Behind The Camera

While writing my junior theme about the lack of women directors, a statistic i found interesting was how many females are directing documentaries. In one article, it said the ratio of men to women was nearly fifty percent (Silverstein). This made me wonder - why are there so many more women directing documentaries, but then if you look at the number of women directing feature films, they barely make up ten percent? While interviewing Maria Finitzo, one of the many women creating documentaries, she said that "perhaps that is because you don’t make any money directing documentaries, and so the men go for narrative directing." 

This is a valid point, that for the most part, documentaries make less money than top box office hit films, especially in a world where money seems to dominate and is one of the main focuses in many people's lives. Most people want to do something they love, while making a sufficient amount of money - that is the perfect job - but if your passion is directing, wouldn't you much rather direct a movie where you make more money? Most people would answer yes to that question. But for women, where directing is not an easy thing, documentaries can get them much more work opportunities.


But is money the only reason? It's been a question for years, and researchers have found hundreds of statistics, but never a solution to this problem. But what is there to do to fix it?

Women In Front Of The Camera

While researching my junior theme, why there are so few women directors, one idea i came across is that women were wanted in front of the camera rather than behind it in positions such as directing. ""It seems as if historians were primarily interested in women in front of the camera as actors and sex objects" (Link). Women in film, tv shows, advertisements, etc. also have a certain "image" they want to follow, which makes everyone else look like that. A few weeks ago, my adviser was talking about wearing high heals, and how we see a celebrity walking around in them, so we automatically think they wear them around 24-7, so we should do. However, in reality they wear them for twenty minutes during an interview, or just walking down the red carpet. 

While reading another article, it said "The pressure put on women through ads, television, film and new media to be sexually attractive—and sexually active—is profound" (Link). There is a huge pressure put on celebrities, which then puts the pressure on everyone else. Even in computer or video games and animated childrens movies, this image is already introduced to them. For example, in Disney movies, the size of the princesses are very inaccurate and not proportional at all. Pocahontas is a good example of this. My adviser also brought this up one morning, and how it puts stress on everyone to have their body like this, when it reality it is nearly impossible. 

White Noise In Film

About a month ago, we read the book "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. In the book, there are many common themes brought up throughout, including the importance of media, death, success, and fame. Jack Gladney, the main character, teaches Hitler studies at a local college. This program that he created has brought him much fame and success, which is what he really wanted. A friend of Jack's, Murray, who works at the same college wants to also get the same kind of recognition that Jack is receiving, which is why he wants to start an Elvis department. This fame is very important to both of these men, however there seems to be a lack of recognition going out to the women in the book. Even less important characters, for example Heinrich's friend, Orest, demonstrates a sense of power when he is training to be in the book of world records for sitting in a cage with deadly snakes. This sense of power and strength he shows, as he has confidence that "they wont bite me" (197). Even though this character is far less important to the book, is still a greater power than Babette demonstrates.

Babette, Jack's wife, is very concerned about living a long, healthy life, and is not powerful at all. This lack of power mirrors the lack of power women have in the film industry. For the little over a century that film has been around, the number of female movie directors is a bit pathetic. While doing my research, i learned that it wasn't until 2010 that a woman won best director at the Academy Awards, in which Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurtlocker. I found it interesting that it took over 100 year, and 82 years of the Academy Awards,  for women filmmakers to even be recognized at the Oscars.

The roles between men and women in the book are very different, as the men are very determined, hard working people. For example, Jack's son Heinrich is always interested in everything going on around him and tries to be informed about the world around him. There is not a woman character similar to this in the book, which relates to the film industry, and how the men were always seen as more "sophisticated" for the job of directing.

The way that women appear throughout history has always been similar, as they are usually a less dominate character, and this is portrayed in both the film industry as well as in DeLillo's book White Noise.