There’s no denying it: the history of film was paved by white men. Since the release of the first talking film in 1927, The Jazz Singer (and even before), the vast majority of directors, writers, leads, and overall participants in the movie industry have been male. It’s clear to see that women have always been looked at as inferior to men in the field of film. If you don’t believe me, just look at the stats of the Oscars. In the 88 years that it has been running, only four times has a female been nominated for Best Director, and the only winner of the category was Kathryn Bigelow for her direction of the film The Hurt Locker. It’s not as though there’s a shortage of female representation in the industry, either. Vast amounts of women have created, written, and performed in beautiful films, but the media doesn’t often focus on them. That’s why a fairly new website called F Rated is so important in today’s changing world. It showcases all the accomplishments that women have achieved in film, whether it be directing, writing a screenplay, or portraying a strong lead.
Founded in October of 2014 by Holly Tarquini, F Rated is a platform that shows the movie industry and the world that women can do more than just be fans of film. The F Rated website holds many lists that display all the most recent female driven films released. “Directed By Women,” “Written By Women,” and “Starring Significant Female Characters” are three out of four of the given movie catalogs. The fourth list is called “Triple F Rated Films,” also known as the “Gold Standard.” The movies in this list basically qualify as an “all of the above” category, featuring a powerful woman lead, director and writer wrapped up into one movie.
F Rated also extends an invitation to all theaters and film festivals to integrate the rating into their programs. By utilizing it in everyday life, positive representations of women in movies could be featured more and more in the industry.
Organizations such as F Rated are crucial in today’s world, where the younger generation is so involved with the consumption of media. Females, especially impressionable, younger girls should be able to see an accurate representation of women- not the helpless, nagging and inferior characters so often seen in films. Watching intelligent and important women on screen is a major source of inspiration for girls seeking role models, so it’s very important for female heroes on and off the camera to be recognized and appreciated, just as F Rated is doing.
Comments are closed.