A new study found that male characters spoke twice as much as their female counterparts in the top 100 domestic films of 2022.
Men spoke twice as much as women in movies published in 2022, according to a new study. In recent years, the unequal representation of gender in cinema is an issue that has attracted more attention from Hollywood and audiences in general. This year saw the release of the acclaimed Sarah Polley film Women talking which, with a mostly female cast, brought another focus to the issue and influenced the representation of women.
However, a new study found that men talked twice as much as women in movies released last year. A report from the San Diego State Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film (via The Hollywood Reporter) found that male characters outnumbered their female counterparts 63 percent to 37 percent. The study looked at the top 100 domestic films in 2022, which adds to its research body going back two decades.
More about the 2022 Hollywood Gender Survey
In 2022, about a third of films (33 percent) featured a female protagonist, which is largely consistent with the current trend of the past five years. However, on a more positive note, this represents a 16 percent increase from 2002, the first year of the SDSU study. Women also made up 38 percent of the main characters in 2022, a number that hasn’t budged much in the past 20 years.
Horror is one genre in which women outnumber men, films that are much more likely to feature female leads. In 2022, 43 percent of female protagonists will appear in horror films, compared to only 4 percent of males. This trend can be seen in some of last year’s top horror movies, including Smile, Scream 6, Noand The end of Halloween, which featured all female leads. Across all genres, films tend to focus on young women, including Cate Blanchett Over and Viola Davis in The King’s Wife represents an external load.
Breaking down female representation by race, white women represented 64 percent of all speaking roles, while 18 percent were Black, 8 percent Asian, and 7 percent Latina, with all races and another race under 1 percent. In 2021, movies like In the Heights, The Story of the Westand Raya and the last dragon resulted in Latina and Asian American representation, although 2022 saw a similar lack of films, except Everything everywhere All at once. Although several strides have been made to increase overall female representation, this survey of 2022 movies identifies a number of specific areas to address.
Source: Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film (via THR)
