Department of Duh Finds That Movies Overly Sexualize Young Women

A study conducted by USC’s film school has concluded, totally surprisingly films disproportionately sexualize female characters and that movies are treating younger and younger women as sexual objects.

Researchers analyzed the 100 top grossing films of 2008 and discovered that while 51% of the American population is female, only 33% of speaking roles in films go to female characters.

For example, if a movie features a teenage girl, there’s a 30% chance that she will exhibit some form of nudity. Teen male characters are only 8% likely to appear in a state of undress (and, I’d guess that of that 8%, 50% of those instances of nudity involve the fucking of pies).

Why is this happening? Because (another jaw dropping game changing twist that I’m sure no one saw coming) the movie industry is owned, run, and controlled by men.

For the films studied, women constitute only 8 percent of the directors, 14 percent of the writers and 19 percent of the producers. In the instances where a woman worked as either a director of writer, the percentage of speaking roles allotted to females was 44 percent; in all other films women netted only 30 percent of the speaking roles.

I’d hardly say that these findings are surprising, as one could come to a similar conclusion from watching the previews before any blockbuster. In the face of this truth and the crappy ways that other media treat women, is it any wonder that girls and women place undue emphasis on looks and grow up with a fucked up relationship with their bodies and selves? It’s ironic that a cultural stereotype that’s perpetuated by movies- that women are superficial, catty, and overly obsessed with looks- could actually be caused by movies.