Sexism In Hollywood

Usually, we hear about sexism in terms of one politician or another, or sexism is blamed for women earning less money than men do in the workplace, and there may be some truth to that, but one place where sexism is the most blatant, I think, is in Hollywood.

Although there are some exceptions, nearly every action movie includes scenes where a clueless woman has to be saved by a heroic man. Now, I have no problem with men rescuing women who are in need of rescuing, but do they have to make them so clueless.

Typical scenes include...

• A woman stupidly walking into a dangerous situation, endangering herself and whatever man she happens to be with.
• Pursued by a relentless killer, there is no way that the killer would be able to find the woman in the dense forest or dark building except for the fact that she won't shut up.
• The female victim always trusts the bad guy and distrusts the good guy, a situation that leads to several subplots.
• Just as the good guy is about to vanquish the bad guy, a woman steps out into the way, allowing the bad guy to use her as a shield.
• The male protagonist is the only one who can save the business/town/country/world, but his wife or girlfriend insists that he take out the trash instead.

These are the people who are at the forefront of many of the cries about feminism, yet Hollywood is far more guilty of this than pretty much any other facet of humanity, yet the only outcry that I hear against Hollywood is for more female starring roles. Yet for every movie that casts a woman in a starring role, there are five that portray women as simply getting in the way.