Emma Thompson: Why won’t Hollywood let me play a hot chick? Maybe it’s because I’m 56
My latest blog post for the Independent Women’s Forum:
Must be Wednesday–another none-too-young actress is complaining that Hollywood is “sexist” because it won’t cast women her age as romantic leads.
This time it’s Emma Thompson, age 56. According to People:
“’When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world and when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women and I find that very disturbing and sad,’ she said in an interview with Radio Times magazine.
“The actress, who plays a 77-year-old prostitute in the film The Legend of Barney Thomson, said there’s more pressure for women to look a certain way and take on certain roles than when she started out.
“’I don’t think there’s any appreciable improvement and I think that for women, the question of how they are supposed to look is worse than it was even when I was young.'”
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And now the ACLU is calling for an investigation of “gender discrimination” in Hollywood.
“Even worse, the problem appears to extend far past directing gigs. A study by San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film shows that women made up only 17 percent of directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors and cinematographers who worked on the top 250 domestic grossing movies of the year
“‘The findings drive home the point that men continue to construct the vast majority of the visual and aural worlds featured in U.S. films,’ said Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at SDSU.
“The same institute also found that there are fewer jobs for leading actresses available, since female characters made up just 12 percent of protagonists in the top 100 domestic-grossing films of 2014. This figure is three percent below 2013’s study and four percent below the number in 2002.”
The idea seems to be that there’s a category of films called “top 250 domestic grossing movies”–so all you need to do is have the government set up a gender quota system requiring that 125 of them star female protagonists (and are also directed by women) and bingo! Problem solved!
Posted by Charlotte Allen
Stupid Girl 
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