U.N. and Geena Davis team up to study women in film

Wait, didn't she star in "Earth Girls Are Easy"?!

Have them watch Thelma and Louise

Looking forward to the study! "Miss Representation" highlights the same problem, how women's representation in the media is so limited and harmful to not only young women, but to men as well. I wonder how Japan will score, showing only the same type of women on tv - young, slim and not prominently leading, as opposed to the diverse types of successful male tv personalities ranging from Mino Monta to London Boots hosting more than one tv show. It's about time we see a broader and healthier range of women in leading roles.

Agree that there should be no negative potrayals that are untrue to a woman or girl's character in real life, but the question is, are women in film a reflection of how they are in real life, or are they affecting real life to the point where women portray what they see in film? Anyway, should be an interesting study, and if it results in empowerment and better and more active roles, great.

The issue is much more complex than that, smith. I do encourage you to watch Miss Representation or browse thru the Geena Davis Institute See Jane pages for solid facts. For instance:

girls are learning to see themselves as objects. American Psychological Association calls self-objectification a national epidemic: Women and girls who self-objectify are more likely to be depressed, have lower confidence, lower ambition and lower GPAs. Women respond to advertisers’ messages of never being good enough: American women spend more money on the pursuit of beauty than on their own education. More than 70% of women on TV are in their 20s and 30s. “A male dominant system values women as child bearers so it limits their value to the time that they are sexually and reproductively active and they become much less valuable after that.” – Gloria Steinem “All of Hollywood is run on one assumption: That women will watch stories about men, but men won’t watch stories about women. It is a horrible indictment of our society of we assume that one half of our population is just not interested in the other half.” - Geena Davis