(Image source: Dreamworks/ Paramount)


 
BY MALLORY PERRYMAN
 

A new study finds women speak less- are more naked-- and are generally underrepresented on the big screen.

KABC has some of the numbers from researchers at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

“Out of more than 4,300 speaking characters that appeared onscreen in 2009's top-grossing movies, 32.8 percent were female and 67.2 percent were male.Women aren't doing much better when it comes to making movies. Just 3.6 percent of directors for the same 2009 films were women and they accounted for only 13.5 percent of writers.”

Add to that-- the Huffington Post reports the study also found women are...

“...more likely to be seen in sexy clothing (25.8 percent to men at 4.7 percent) and more likely to be partially naked...”

What’s driving those numbers? One of the researchers tells the LA Times..

"Some of this is a function of the fact that we see more males working behind the scenes than females, and they're telling the stories that they know...If the numbers behind the scenes move, we're likely to see numbers on-screen move."

A blogger for LAist says-- the results of the study aren’t shocking-- but still-- it’s nice to see some cold hard facts on the issue.

“It's not exactly news that Hollywood doesn't offer up equal treatment of men and women. For every hulking male that crashes through a plate glass window to save the day, there's at least one scantily-clad woman whose primary function is to seduce/be seduced/smile and look pretty.”

Underrepresented-- oversexualized-- but still-- women make up more than half of movie ticket sales in the U.S. A blogger for The Frisky suggests-- women should use that buying power wisely.

“So what can we do? Support female filmmakers and screenwriters with our dollars... recognize that we can [affect] change in the media by making better media choices.”

The study found when movies were directed by a woman-- nearly half the characters were female. For male directors-- ladies made up only one third of the characters.
 

Entertainment News: Film Gender Study

Study: Women Underrepresented, Over-Sexualized on Screen

November 24, 2011
(1:56)
A USC study found only 32.8 percent of speaking characters were women in the 100 top-grossing movies of 2009.
   
TRANSCRIPT

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