When researchers from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and data analytics firm Movio explored the connection between who appears in a movie and who shows up for its theatrical run, they found a correlation between the representation of different demographic cohorts and their share of the audience. In other words, we want to see characters we can relate to. But sometimes, instead of giving people a voice, filmmakers reduce them to stereotypes.
Last week, a person who goes online by the nickname Embarrassed-Toe-1920 made a post on the subreddit r/TwoXChromosomes, asking everyone to list movies that made them feel as if the writers' room didn't have a single woman during production.
"This weekend I watched Just Go With It with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, and I was DISGUSTED by the storyline," the Redditor said in their post. "Rich 50-something plastic surgeon with few redeemable qualities dates [a] 25-year-old and then realizes he's in love with his middle-aged assistant and leaves [the] 25-year-old for [the] assistant. That's literally the whole movie."
