3RD GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM ON GENDER IN MEDIA

Very pleased to have been invited to this last week.   Not least because the magnificent Geena Davis was giving the keynote.  If I wasn’t me, I’d like to be her.  You can read more about her brilliant Geena Davis Institute here and its research into women and girls in film, or rather the lack of women and girls in film.  You can also see their excellent See Jane Video which is far more eloquent than me.

Many of my fellow delegates were  interested in the lack of women in the film industry but the research and campaign goes further to show the lack of women and girls in the films themselves.   Don’t girls and women matter?  Is it really true that boys won’t watch girl protagonists but that girls are ok with watching boys?  Really?  Why do girls have to be the ones that give way on this?  What damage have we done, shoehorning our youngsters into gender roles?  I’ve always wanted more from life than fashion and boyfriends and I can’t understand why women continue to punish their bodies with high heels and uncomfortable corsetry.

I got the feeling that the majority of the audience at the symposium would agree that women and girls deserve more from the media and from their lives.  I love the motto, “If she can see it, she can be it”.   It was generally felt that this starts right back in the early years, in kids’ media.  I totally agree and hope that there will be a major shift in kids’ content away from girls being bossy big sisters, the sensible ones and the sidekick/love interests.  I hope there will be an even split of protagonists and sidekicks and antagonists across the genders.  But what I hope most, is that the big profitable organisations (public, private, multinational… broadcasters, film companies, internet providers…)  that were represented at the symposium will not just say there needs to be change, but will pay for it: someone has to.  There were some wealthy players attending and applauding the See Jane campaign – I charmingly asked a couple about putting their money where their mouths were.  They fixed their smiles and moved on.  Obviously they didn’t see this Jane.