Thelma & Louise is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. The film stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as Louise and Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforeseen circumstances. The supporting cast includes Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and Brad Pitt. Filming took place in California and Utah from June to August 1990.
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actor and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or gender equality within a workplace or educational context. The effort of including a token individual in work or school is usually intended to create the impression of social inclusiveness and diversity.
In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra to land the role of a character in a script, screenplay, or teleplay. This process may be used for a motion picture, television program, documentary film, music video, play, or advertisement, intended for an audience.
The celluloid ceiling is a metaphor for the underrepresentation of women in hiring and employment in Hollywood. The term is a play on the metaphor of the "glass ceiling", which describes an invisible barrier that keeps a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. Celluloid refers to the material used to make the film stock that was once used to make motion pictures. The term is usually applied to behind the screen workers only.
Historically, the portrayal of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in media has been largely negative if not altogether absent, reflecting a general cultural intolerance of LGBTQ individuals; however, from the 1990s to present day, there has been an increase in the positive depictions of LGBTQ people, issues, and concerns within mainstream media in North America. The LGBTQ communities have taken an increasingly proactive stand in defining their own culture, with a primary goal of achieving an affirmative visibility in mainstream media. The positive portrayal or increased presence of the LGBTQ communities in media has served to increase acceptance and support for LGBT communities, establish LGBTQ communities as a norm, and provide information on the topic.
The representation of African Americans in speech, writing, still or moving pictures has been a major concern in mainstream American culture and a component of media bias in the United States.
The Bechdel test, also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test, is a measure of the representation of women in film and other fiction. The test asks whether a work features at least two female characters who have a conversation about something other than a man. Some versions of the test also require that those two female characters have names.
The exploitation of women in mass media is the use or portrayal of women in mass media such as television, film, music, and advertising as objects or sexual beings, in order to increase the appeal of media or a product to the detriment of the women being portrayed, and women in society. This process includes the presentation of women as sexual objects and the setting of feminine beauty ideals that women are expected to reflect. Sexual exploitation of women in the media dates back to 19th century Paris, in which ballerinas were exposed to harassment and objectification. The most often criticized aspect of the use of women in mass media is sexual objectification, but dismemberment can be a part of the objectification as well. The exploitation of women in mass media has been criticized by feminists and other advocates of women's rights, and is a topic of discussion in feminist studies and other fields of scholarship.
Gender plays a role in mass media and is represented within media platforms. These platforms are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.
The socio-political movements and ideologies of feminism have found expression in various media. These media include newspaper, literature, radio, television, social media, film, and video games. They have been essential to the success of many feminist movements.
The Smurfette principle is the practice in media, such as film and television, to include only one woman in an otherwise entirely male ensemble. It establishes a male-dominated narrative, where the woman is the exception and exists only in reference to the men. The concept is named after Smurfette, the only female among the Smurfs, a group of comic book creatures.
Inequality in Hollywood refers to the various forms of discrimination and social inequality in the American media industry. There are many branches of the media industry, such as news, television, film, music, agencies, studios, to name some of the major players. In each one of these branches, there are many instances of inequality since Hollywood formed as the entertainment hub of America in the early 1900s.
Women are involved in the film industry in all roles, including as film directors, actresses, cinematographers, film producers, film critics, and other film industry professions, though women have been underrepresented in creative positions.
The Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) is an American film festival held annually in Bentonville, Arkansas that focuses on diversity.
Films have portrayed professional women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in various ways throughout film history.
ReFrame is an American non-profit organization founded by Women in Film LA and the Sundance Institute together with over 50 leaders and influencers in Hollywood, with the goal of providing research, support, and a practical framework to its partner companies to give them a way to "mitigate bias during the creative decision-making and hiring process, celebrate successes, and measure progress toward a more gender-representative industry on all levels". Alison Emilio serves as the director.
The Original Six are a group of women directors who created the Women's Steering Committee (WSC) of the Directors Guild of America (DGA). Dolores Ferraro, Joelle Dobrow, Lynne Littman, Nell Cox, Susan Bay Nimoy and Victoria Hochberg formed the Women's Steering Committee of the Directors Guild of America in 1979. They carried out landmark research showing that women held only 0.5% of directing jobs in film and television, which they reported to the Guild, the studios and the press.
MA Casting is an American casting and consulting company that seeks to promote Muslim representation and visibility in Hollywood. Founded in January 2021, the company helps productions portray Muslims accurately through DEI consulting. Muslim Casting has been featured in various news outlets such as Variety, NPR, Backstage, The Washington Post, and NBC News.
