Can’t a girl get most of the lines in her own movie?
Recently, 2,000 different films were broken down by gender and age. Yes, they literally counted the words that each character spoke in the movie and wrote it down; and the data is astounding (and very well organized here).
The findings? 22 of the 30 Disney films in this study have a male majority of the dialogue. There are two female leads in Frozen, yet males have 57% of the script all to themselves. Belle has about 30% of the dialogue in her own movie. Although Mulan disguises herself as a man, her actual male counterparts have 75% of the words. The only princess who could catch a break was Sleeping Beauty, with about 64%.
And it’s not just Disney movies. Out of all 2,000 high-grossing films in this study, only 164 of them had 60%-90% female words. 9 of them were 90%+ female.
This brings a few questions to mind: Can a plot still be centered around someone if they have nothing to say (and they’re not mute)? Maybe so, but not in all cases. Do screenwriters think women have nothing important to say? Do all the important or meaningful comments about the main character have to come from a male perspective? In movies with male leads or male groups, they get 90% of the dialogue. Why isn’t it the same for females?
In short: In a movie with a male lead (with female supporting roles), the male will get the majority of the lines. In a movie with a female lead (with male supporting roles), the male will still get the majority of the lines.
If we’re going to have a princess movie with a hero like Mulan or Belle, they really should be talking the most. This data just uncovers yet another Hollywood problem. People don’t want to hear a woman talk. She’s got nothing important to say. She’s got a supporting role because she’s pretty, because they needed a woman to break an all-male cast, or because she’s a famous actress who will bring money in ticket sales. Maybe she has the lead role, but it’s really about what the important men of this world think about her.
This industry needs to take off their patriarchal-tinted lenses and see what the world is like today. There are heroes in stories of all shapes, sizes, colors and genders, and they will not be looked over. And if that makes moviegoers uncomfortable then they should be really afraid for what’s coming at them in the near future. A woman’s place is wherever she’d like it to be; not just behind the scenes.
Guess what, Hollywood. You already know that we need more female leads. While you’re at it, can you give her some lines, please?
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