Title: "Women in Entertainment"

Class: English 325

 

Ninety-six girls are all sprawled out across the carpeted floors of Alpha Chi Omega sorority house. It is late on a Sunday night and we just started our final recruitment practice. I am nearly positive that for most people, this is not a regular, day-to-day thing to imagine. As for the rest of people – it’s probably their worst nightmare. To me, this scene was becoming all too familiar. Our chapter president introduces our next order of business, and several girls scoot on their butts closer to the front of the room. We are getting ready to watch the final dress rehearsal for the very last skit that would be performed during the closing preference party.

 

Sorority recruitment is one of the strangest, and most intimidating things I’ve ever been through, but strangely, it taught me so much about how the real world actually works. Over the course of three weeks, freshmen and sophomore girls will go through the process of pledging a sorority, and will learn the art of girl flirting, small talk, and marketing any qualities they think they possess by the end of the fifteen-house tour. The skits, like a lot of forms of entertainment, are meant to be funny. Although when I was recruited, I remember most were cheesy or just downright uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch. The ability to make other people laugh is, oftentimes, a key ingredient to having people find you interesting, or worth paying attention to, so it’s not really a surprise that all of the sorority houses attempt to make theirs the funniest. I have found that sorority recruitment skits are not the only situation where that little fact is true – I believe that laughter and comedy have the ability to change our perceptions of people and stereotypes on a much larger scale.

 

Over the three years I have been on the inside of recruitment (meaning I’m not the one pledging anymore), I’ve watched girls do their best impersonations of Justin Bieber, Michael Phelps, and Will Ferrell. Even though we never have any participating men to play these roles, it’s almost funnier this way and proves that we don’t need guys to carry on a hilarious plot line, which has always been my mindset when it comes to comedy. I watched as they re-enacted scenes from SNL, poked jabs at juicehead frat boys, and unveiled hysterical truths that we ladies like to pretend don’t actually happen outside the confines of our private spheres, like the way-too-frequent fear that you just put a second tampon in and need to go fishing for the other one. I never consider myself to be funny in the slightest sense of the word, but I am indeed confident in my ability to laugh. Now, I know not all, or even any, of these girls will become well-known comedians, but watching this skit gave me a glimpse of the increasing empowerment and confidence in women that has resulted from the rise of famous female comedians, and from the stereotype-shattering roles for women in all types of entertainment.

 

The cultural phenomenon of increasingly more female characters in strong, funny, and positive roles has allowed for inspiration, empowerment, and leadership amongst not only women in entertainment, but for women everywhere. By having these women in comedic roles, as well as powerful roles, it allows for emerging female voices to be an important part of pop culture. Entertainment in general has often been a tool of education and outreach to audiences, and it has had the effect of reinforcing stereotypes, both good and bad. So as the views of a woman’s role in the world have continued to change, and as women are being seen as equal to their male counterparts more frequently, it is important that their presence in the entertainment industry also changes. It is beginning to be a man’s world no longer.

 

With this logic, it seems apparent that there would be an increasing amount of females in entertainment and positive roles for them to play. However, even with an increase in the number of films geared toward women and featuring women in lead roles, there is still an incredible lack of diversity in these roles. Over half of the U.S. population is female, but they are still grossly underrepresented and stereotyped in the film and television images we see every day – even with the seemingly dramatic improvement in the empowerment of women. Many powerhouses in the industry predict that there is no future for shows and storylines with an all-too-similar female character. Business Insider tags this character as a woman who is emerging as a “Non-married, childless, brash but charming woman who goes through life saying exactly what she thinks…hilarity ensues” (Grindstone). Other stereotypes that are often represented in film and television include the harried working mother, the neurotic but hopelessly flawed go-getter, the provocative girl next door, or the damsel in distress. This calls for a whole re-imagination of roles that women play in entertainment, and I believe that the increase of women in comedy is that launching pad.

 

The “Bridesmaids effect” is helping women gain leverage that is essential to changing the classic views and portrayals of women in media, and crucial for their overall survival in the entertainment industry. The raunchy film introduced five new female comedians, and may enable women to get put into character roles that were traditionally only for men. The past generation has watched Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, and other men born out of SNL carry huge movies with huge followings, and these men have, until recently, held the title for being the funniest on T.V. and in movies. With fewer and fewer male comedians emerging, the entertainment industry has an opening for women to take over the comedy game. Current female power players set the stage for future women with shows like New Girl, HBO’s Girls, 2 Broke Girls, and the Mindy Project. The stars of these shows are also becoming writers, producers, and directors- further engraining their place in the industry. Females have been stealing the spotlight in entertainment and will continue to make their mark on the world.

 

Whitney Cummings, a famed comedian, not only had three different shows on air last year, but she also co-created and produced shows on CBS, all while starring in her own comedy show on E! News. Zooey Deschanel, star of New Girl, launched her own production company with the goal of developing more TV comedies and dramas for Fox. Another huge female comedian, Mindy Kaling, was a cast member, writer, producer, and director on The Office before creating, writing, and producing her own show, The Mindy Project (YProject). Finally (although this hardly completes the list), Lena Dunham stars in, writes, and directs the hit show, Girls, and has just recently signed a book deal. Even though women are creators, actors, and audiences for media on our screens, they are still underrepresented. With so many female star role models and bold predecessors, women have the ability to use the launching pad that they are creating to empower and encourage women in the entertainment industry. With this change in one industry – one that usually mirrors social views – I strongly believe that we will start to see a change in the way women view themselves, and a change in the ways others view the dynamic roles that women play in our world. Without this significant change in the media’s depiction of women, the industry will continue to reaffirm social issues and stereotypes that will further perpetuate, especially for young men and women, the idea that these things are a part of an inevitable reality when they are not.

 

While people have been busy dissecting the “Bridesmaids effect,” and the role re-imagination that is occurring for women in comedy, another genre of entertainment has gained headway and sparked a new discussion of character roles for females, and what this means for the rest of us. Fifty Shades of Grey, the story of sexual submission and erotic fantasies, has taken the world by storm and introduced a new way of viewing females in pop culture. While the idea of female sexuality isn’t exactly new, the phenomenon of strong, communicative women in all forms of entertainment is definitely an important advancement for females in our world today.

 

In most novels, films, and movies women have been shown to have a hard time knowing and articulating their goals and desires, and even if they are depicted as more “empowered” and able to express what they want, they tend to be represented as vixens who manipulate men, or dragon-lady executives with little to no social skills, or emotionless superheroes. Women depicted in entertainment are found to be either catching or pleasing a man, and are doing it with bodies that are unattainable for the average woman. Anastasia Steele is depicted in the novel as not falling into a normal stereotype, having an average body size, and not bearing striking or enhanced features that would make her character unattainable or not relatable to other women. Studies indicate that nearly three-quarters of all female characters in entertainment are underweight. The problem is not only the images that are portrayed, but also those that are not. For example, women’s sports receive far less airtime than men’s sports on network and cable programming. Also, when a magazine departed from usual procedure and ran pictures of overweight or even normal weight women, they received letters from people overwhelmingly in support of this realism. However, advertisers reacted negatively, and the program was discontinued.

 

It is necessary that we make these changes in the characterization and the stereotyping of women, so that they are at least able to recognize that what they want for themselves can, and maybe should be, different from what other people want from them. Women in comedy and women in strong sexual roles, like Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey, will call for a whole re-imaging of genres and the roles that women play in them. In order to shatter the stereotypes that are being reinforced every day by all forms of entertainment, we must first reconfigure the industry that people view as mirroring the reality of our world.