The current Cannes Film Festival lineup features one female director competing for the coveted Palme d’Or, but that’s an improvement from last year when no women directors had such a chance.
Meanwhile, roles for women in Hollywood are drying up, according to a new study by the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Yet celebrities rushed en masse to help re-elect President Barack Obama last year and blast GOP candidate Mitt Romney for being a soldier in the so-called War on Women.
Among the 100 highest-grossing films at the US box office in 2012, just 28.4 per cent of the 4,475 speaking characters were female. That represented a fall from 32.8 per cent three years ago.
Only 6 per cent of the top-grossing films in 2012 featured a balanced cast, defined by the study as females in 45-54.9 per cent of all speaking roles.
And when women are fortunate enough to land a role of consequence, chances are they’ll have to bear some skin along the way–no matter their age.
When they do get screen time, 31.6 per cent of women were depicted wearing sexually revealing clothing in 2012, the highest percentage over the five years.
For teenage girls, the number who are provocatively dressed is even higher: 56.6 per cent of teen girl characters in 2012 movies wore sexy clothes, an increase of 20 per cent since 2009.
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