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Wednesday, April 06, 2016

The 'F' Rated Movie

As one would expect, women are more often seen in movies nude than men.  If fact, women are 3 times more likely to be seen nude or partially nude in movies. It's not surprising to see more female nudism in movies - both women and men view the female body as more sexy and attractive.  For example, no one is interested in men walking the red carpet.
Have Movie Ratings Gone To Far

In a recent study entitled 'The Status of Women in Films' it was reported that 26% of female characters in U.S. films appear nude or partially nude, but only 12% of movies feature females in lead roles. Movies continue to lag TV in incorporating gender equality.  In movies, 30% of speaking characters were female, while on TV the figure is 43%.  These figures seem reasonable but the issue is: would having more females in lead roles bring in the same or higher grosses.

Regarding race, 74% of characters, in both movies and TV, are played by white actors, 15% by black actors (which is appropriate given the black population is about 14%), but only 4% played by Latino and Asian actors which make up 20% and 8% of the greater population and are under-represented in both movies and TV shows.

The 'A' and 'F' Rating

It is true that female actors have a very different status in movies than their male counterparts. Female actors do earn less than male actors, and normally, have much shorter careers.

To correct the gender issue, some in the cinema industry have put forth the notion of initiating a new movie rating - the 'F', for films made by or with major roles for women. I'm unsure if this would have any positive marketing value. Would moviegoers choose to view a movie with an 'F' rating over one that doesn't?  The 'F' rating has been used at a few European film festivals with mixed results and in Sweden an 'A' rating has been added to confuse even more. The 'A' rating is for movies that contain at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. I'm not making this up!

Do these ratings mean anything to moviegoers?  You tell me. Is this the way for the cinema to move forward?  Does the cinema even need to be equal in all ways?  The cinema is a reflection of what moviegoers want to view.  Hollywood mostly copies what is 'hot'. Right now, it's the high-impact, action, super-hero films that generate big numbers at the box-office; therefore, all of the studios follow suit.  An 'F', 'A' or other 'quality' type movie rating is not value-added to the film itself.  As a result, the studios and most exhibitors see no need for quality ratings other than to confuse and, worse still, annoy moviegoers -  and this can't be a good thing.

Just saying,
Jim





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