Introduction
If you are one of many who might read the blurb above and think, "Women aren't misrepresented in the film industry! Women have had equal rights for years in America! This must be another one of those feminists making stuff up to complain about!" then I would like to ask you to please give this site a chance, and I ask you for two reasons:
1. The disadvantages of women in modern-day America can be difficult to spot.
Though it may be true that women legally have the same rights as men in America, this does not necessarily mean that women actually have the same rights as men in America. The government may be able to change the laws to reflect gender equality, but if a problematic way of thinking about women still exists in the minds of Americans, they will still treat women accordingly, and the government is powerless against such abstract issues. If you don't think there is any discrimination against women in America, you are not the only one. Society makes it difficult to spot, raising us in an environment that makes such discrimination seem normal. Even many women are blind to the fact.
2. Being a feminist only means that you believe women should have equal rights.
It is a common misconception, in the current day, that feminism is a radical movement, striving to put men down and gain superior rights for women. Feminists are seen as being whiny, claiming problems where they don't exist, and aggressive, insisting that men are chauvinist pigs who should be blamed and demoted in the gender hierarchy. These things just simply aren't true. Feminism is simply another word meaning "supporting equal rights for men and women." Feminists (both female and male feminists) are attempting to unite men and women in the fight for equal rights for all.
Please click through the links at the top to learn about the Bechdel test, how it helps weed out misrepresentations of women in film cased by the concept of the gaze, and what it needs in order to truly ensure gender parity within the medium of the movies.