Geena Davis has called for more women on screen, and more challenging roles in film and TV.
Speaking before a symposium at the British Film Institute in London about gender in media, the actress presented to a packed audience at the BFI Southbank the day after its grand opening and highly-anticipated film, Suffragette.
She was the opening keynote at the Global Symposium, amongst the high profile panellists, and the Thelma and Louise star, who founded a research institute into gender in media, called for “immediate and dramatic” change.
Thursday morning hosted in collaboration with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and Women in Film and Television (WFTV). Geena Davis founded the Institute in 2004 after watching TV with her young daughter and observing there were “far fewer” female characters on screen.
“Surely in the 21st Century we should be showing kids that boys and girls share the sandbox equally. Let’s not embed a negative image,” said Davis. “We are unwittingly training generation after generation to see men and women as unequal. We need to dramatically change the way women are depicted to children aged 11 and under.”
Davis expressed she was very optimistic about the future because of the reaction she had received from Hollywood insiders when they were presented with her institute’s research on Thursday at the BFI. “We can change what our future looks like,” she told the audience. “Today at our symposium at the BFI London Film Festival, we are in a room full of the most influential business leaders and content creators who work tirelessly for equality and the empowerment of women on screen and behind the scenes. I’m thrilled to see the momentum building for better representation of women in the media. Here’s what I say: if they can see it, they can be it.”
“I feel very confident predicting that the needle will move significantly within the next few years, and it will be historic.”
Hear hear.
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Suffragette star Carey Mulligan is a proud feminist, and shares her views here…
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