Who doesn’t like a good action packed movie: explosions, car wrecks, epic adventures? But think for a moment about all of your movie heroes. Some names that may come to mind are Bruce Willis, Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt and so on. And what do these names have in common? They are all male. And in turn, my question surfaces: where are all of the strong female leads in movies today?

Women’s rights are not often equal to men’s, even in today’s society. On a recent study done by AAUW (American Association of University Women) it was found that one year after graduating college, males make more money than females, and as time progresses, the gap in pay increases. Additionally, only a few years ago a study concluded that only 62% of people in the United States believed women should have equal rights. Women didn’t even get the right to vote for who led their country until 1920, when the 19th Amendment was instituted. Despite earning the right to vote, women struggle to earn equal pay and even attaining the same jobs as men. Not to say women’s rights have not advanced, but after all the progress, why are women still stuck in so many of the same old weak movie roles?

Even recent movies are in on the trend. Where The Wild Things Are is an example of how women’s roles are lacking. When the boy in the movie, Max, finds himself in a distant and strange world he stumbles upon a group of monsters, otherwise known as the “Wild Things.” As the movie progresses we find that Judith, one of the female Wild Things is intent on eating Max, and treats him poorly and meanly throughout the entire film. The only other female Wild Thing, KW, goes on and on about her new friends Bob and Terry. None of the other Wild Things have met her friends, but when we finally do, we learn that they are owls. KW is so far off her rocker that she believes she can understand owls. All the while Max and his Wild Thing friend, Carol (who is male), discuss why they can’t understand the unintelligible birds. The two males are talking like normal friends, while the females are left to be crazy and mean.

Maybe the Harry Potter movies have achieved more in advancing women’s roles. Hermione (the female friend of Harry Potter) is a super smart girl; some characters even refer to her as one of the smartest wizards out there. And while this sounds like a nice role for a female, actually watching the movies gives us a different idea. Hermione very often comes off as a know-it-all, and an overly emotional mess. In fact, in the very first movie after Harry’s friend complains about her being a know-it-all, Hermione storms off to her room red-faced and crying. Is an emotional smarty-pants really the stereotype we need to perpetuate in today’s society?

Hollywood, and more extensively, our culture should learn from Kill Bill. The movie shows us that there is no need to keep women in these dreary rolls they so often occupy.

Or perhaps, maybe women are just left with roles second to the male because the movie needs some sexual appeal to advance its sales. Which, in turn, leaves us with a weak female role solely there for sexual appeal. Transformers 2 makes no attempts to even hide its desire to use women as sexual objects. Megan Fox, the female star of the movie, opens her entrance scene wearing skimpy shorts bent over a motorcycle. It’s hard to deny that scantily clad women appeal to men, but is the audience of men that the sex appeal captures larger than the potential audience it loses due to weak female roles?

There is one movie that reconstructs the way women are typically viewed: Kill Bill. The main character in Kill Bill is Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman), and throughout the movie she proves to the audience that she is no pushover. She kills more people than any average movie would even consider showing, and she has no desire to play the “pretty girl.” Nearly every scene is of her slaughtering her enemies, doing so covered in dirt and blood – sexual appeal is probably the last thing on her list. Kiddo has no problem bloodying her sharp yellow outfit; she isn’t any Barbie doll. In her fights, Kiddo is frequently knocked down, or put into positions that a normal human being couldn’t escape (i.e. being buried alive), and she always manages to bounce back. She is an extremely strong and resilient character.

Hollywood, and more extensively, our culture should learn from Kill Bill. The movie shows us that there is no need to keep women in these dreary rolls they so often occupy. I’m not saying that the only way women can achieve a good roll in film is to massacre a clan of ninjas – there are films with strong peaceful women, like Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia–I’m just saying that if Kill Bill can portray a strong female character then so can other movies.

It might seem that movies aren’t all that important in advancing women’s societal stature. There are many ways for women to work on accruing equal rights: taking problems to the court, signing petitions, or rallying. So why work on movies? Recent studies have concluded that young adults are likely to watch five times more movies than the amount of books they read. That sounds like an awful big media outlet to me. And I know it may not be the most important item on the agenda for advancing women’s rights, but it is clear that portraying women as stronger characters in movies would start to sway the ideas of people who don’t believe women deserve equal pay or jobs or rights, as well as helping to give women the status they deserve.
   
The Ohio State University
February, 2010