Blockbusters slammed for portrayal of women

Toy Story 3 was branded 'carelessly sexist' for its negative depictions of women in the film and prevalence of male roles. Photo / Supplied

Blockbuster movies are perpetuating negative female stereotypes, according to a study that shows women barely get a look-in on the world depicted in children's cinema.

Men, or male characters, dominated the 122 biggest-grossing family films released in the three years to September 2009, American researchers found, prompting campaigners to warn that children are getting a lopsided view of life.

In the male-centric universe of the silver screen, a woman's role is as "eye candy", where her looks, age or what she is wearing matters more than what she does, the report found.

Geena Davis, the actress who campaigns for gender equality, said she was shocked by the findings.

"Zero progress has been made in what is specifically aimed at kids," she said. "What children see affects their attitudes towards male and female roles in society. And, as they watched the same shows and movies repeatedly, negative stereotypes are imprinted over and over again."

From the young, blonde and beautiful Alice, in the 1933 animation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, to the slim and busty Princess Fiona in Shrek the Third, wasp-waisted female characters have long landed all the big parts in Hollywood.

Even the summer hit Toy Story 3 was branded "carelessly sexist" for its negative depictions of women in the film and prevalence of male roles: for every seven male characters, there was just one female.

Aric Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, called the age gap between male and female actors "the biggest inequity" on the cinema screen.

"Girls learn through omission that only the young count; physical youth is all in terms of female worth and therefore self-worth," he added. When it came to female roles, the psychologist said he was "less concerned about quantity than quality. The numbers are less important than how the women are portrayed."

Davis, best known for playing Thelma in the feminist road-trip film Thelma and Louise, added: "Eye candy is not for kids." Three years ago she set up an institute to push the film industry to take women more seriously.

The study found that of 5554 speaking roles in 122 movies, 71 per cent of the characters were men or had men's voices and 29 per cent were women. Of the female characters, a quarter wore sexy clothes, while one in five were partly nude.

The researchers were Stacy Smith and Marc Choueiti at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism.

- INDEPENDENT