Katrina #10: Power Imbalance in Movie Scripts
I was thinking about power dynamics in movies when I came across an article from 2017 discussing how researchers discovered a method to assess the power imbalance in Hollywood movie scripts’ between female and male characters.
According to the University of Washington, using machine-learning tools, UW researchers were able to discover “subtle but widespread gender bias in the way male and female characters are portrayed” (Langston). What they found was that female characters had lines that portrayed women in "submissive positions and with less agency than men;" female characters were often limited to more modest statements (“Maybe I am wrong”) while male characters had the more imperative lines (“Bring me my horse”).
The researchers used connotation frames that “[analyzes] subjective roles and relationships implied by a given predicate” (Rashkin). For instance, if a female character “implores” someone to do something, the person at the receiving end would be in a position to object, but if she were to “instruct” someone, it would allude to her having more power. The study evaluated the power and agency in “2000 commonly used verbs” using the connotative meanings from crowdsourcing experiments provided by Amazon Mechanical Turk. On a scale from 1 to 3, each verb was given a rank on the levels of power and agency it implied; the power aspect represented “whether a character has authority over another character” and the agency element demonstrated “whether a character has control over his or her own life or storyline” (Langston).
With the results they found, the team is trying to offer alternative ways to rephrase the language that reinforces these gender biases. Now that it is already 2022 where the patriarchal views on female characters enforced in films are diminishing, I am proud to see how much films have progressed and I hope these improvements will continue until there is equal representation among all sorts of characters.
According to the University of Washington, using machine-learning tools, UW researchers were able to discover “subtle but widespread gender bias in the way male and female characters are portrayed” (Langston). What they found was that female characters had lines that portrayed women in "submissive positions and with less agency than men;" female characters were often limited to more modest statements (“Maybe I am wrong”) while male characters had the more imperative lines (“Bring me my horse”).
The researchers used connotation frames that “[analyzes] subjective roles and relationships implied by a given predicate” (Rashkin). For instance, if a female character “implores” someone to do something, the person at the receiving end would be in a position to object, but if she were to “instruct” someone, it would allude to her having more power. The study evaluated the power and agency in “2000 commonly used verbs” using the connotative meanings from crowdsourcing experiments provided by Amazon Mechanical Turk. On a scale from 1 to 3, each verb was given a rank on the levels of power and agency it implied; the power aspect represented “whether a character has authority over another character” and the agency element demonstrated “whether a character has control over his or her own life or storyline” (Langston).
Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence doctoral student, Ari Holtzman, explained how their results indicated how “men systematically have more power and agency in the film script universe.” They discovered that throughout all genres, there was a trend for male characters to have a higher rank of levels in power and agency dimensions in their lines. In fact, fellow Allen School doctoral student, Hannah Rashkin pointed out how “Even when women play a significant role in shaping a film, implicit gender biases are still there in the script.”
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| https://www.washington.edu/news/2017/11/13/new-tool-quantifies-power-imbalance-between-female-and-male-characters-in-hollywood-movie-scripts/ |
Hey Katrina!I have to say, I’m not surprised. I’m sure gender bias still exists today, so it's no surprise they were much more prominent in the early 2000’s.A strong female lead can be perceived to be too arrogant while a strong male lead is considered to be charming. These differences highlight society’s interpretations and values for both men and women. I’m proud to say society is becoming more and more progressive, but there is still a long way to go. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is really interested in film, I’ve done quite a bit of analysis on films I like and I sadly have definitely seen this pattern in most movies. Films focus on the male gaze, and male power. It is so infuriating to see the overt “less than” status that women are forced to take. Women deserve far more than supporting roles and submissive overtones in media that is so impressionable and powerful in shaping young minds. Not only do girls need to see themselves as powerful and capable, others need to accept girls as such as well. I hope that the tides in media change and quick, it is such a blow to a person’s esteem to be so completely disregarded and underrepresented in media which is such a large a part of young peoples’ lives.
ReplyDeleteHey Katrina! Reading about intrinsic biases are always both interesting and sad. On one hand you have studies that are often rather ingenious in their executions but on the other hand you have the sad fact that we are in fact biased whether we like it or not. This is a case that is especially important though since movies are a form of media that are really widespread and biases with in are likely to root themselves in our subconscious. On that note it is also just as good, as you note, that we live in an age where the effect of that is diminishing.
ReplyDeleteKatrina, this was definitely a unique topic to choose. I think it is a known fact that male characters always have the oppressive or main role while women have the submissive and supporting roles in many movies. Right now, Hollywood is trying to change that by trying to promote movies with female leads and have males play the supporting role. Many of the movies released this past year have had females in the main role but that is mainly in the Hollywood and European movie industries. In the Indian movie industry, it is even worse for female roles. Women are seen as these submissive people in society making them to only play the love interest for the lead male actor and nothing more. The heroine role in many Indian movies is more like an afterthought and not actually integrated into the script. With many Indian movies, if the heroine was removed, the movie would still run smoothly. Hopefully seeing what Hollywood and other European movie industries are doing, the Indian movie industry will write and produce movies with powerful female leads rather then making them seem unnecessarily or an afterthought to the plot.
ReplyDeleteHi Katrina, it is saddening to see the implications of gender bias everywhere, even in films. The thing about it is that it is subtle, that the audience does not find it out of the ordinary. Film script writers might not even be doing this intentionally; they just have these gender biases ingrained in their minds that the scripts of characters come out according to their gender. We should continue raising awareness and breaking down gender biases in our world today.
ReplyDeleteHi Katrina! These implicit biases have been prevalent in media for a long time, and it is really disheartening to see. However, I do agree that we are definitely improving, as there are now more movies with female leads and women who have the "tough and bold" image that were primarily mainly seen in male characters before. In a similar vein, considering books, there are now many YA novels with strong female characters, like the Hunger Games, and many more recent examples. It is important for us to continue breaking down these barriers, as unconscious biases are often difficult to overcome despite efforts to do better, as they have been coded and ingrained into our society. We are much more progressive in this aspect than in the past, so I hope we keep moving forward.
ReplyDeleteHi Katrina! I never thought that gender inequality could exist in movie scripts, but after reading your blog I am reminded of scenes in movies I have watched in the past that portrayed women in a weaker role. I am also happy that progress is being made and steps are being taken towards eliminating gender inequality in movie scripts. I think continuing to allow there to be gender inequality in movies can be extremely damaging since many young, impressionable children assume what is shown in the movies to be what real life should look like. Overall, this topic of power imbalance in movie scripts was so intriguing to me. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Katrina, I agree that it's very unfair for women to continuously receive submissive roles in Hollywood movie scripts even today with advancements and knowledge that women are certainly equal to men. Even though these movies are somewhat realistic to the way women are still commonly treated today, if they were changed, it could inspire women to be more confident or show men that they are not always smarter or more dominant over women. Hopefully in the future, more movies with empowering roles for women will be released to balance this unfairness.
ReplyDeleteHey Katrina, this research on the hidden gender bias still present in movies today truly demonstrates the deep discrimination that still is rooted in our society today. This research also shows that this gender bias is definitely not very recognizable in modern day (although it very much obviously is there), and upon consulting myself about the accuracy of this research's claim I reminded myself of another similar research: the Bechdel Test. My English teacher last year, Mr. Howard, had touched a bit into this test, where it checks movies to see if it contains accurate representation of women. I believe this test, along with your research on the hidden gender bias of movies scripts, can finally expose to modern society the length which gender bias is still prevalent today.
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