Joy, 20th Century Fox (2015)
Before addressing Hollywood, I want to begin this post discussing professional sports and the blatant gender pay gap that exists between men and women—so blatant we're talking about the difference of millions of dollars. For example, in 2015, WNBA players received salaries between $39,000 and $110,000. On the contrary, NBA players were paid anywhere between $525,000 and 17 million. I can already hear the opposing argument to this disparity—“no one watches women’s basketball, it’s a supply and demand thing, women don’t compete at the same level as men”. Ok, let’s examine one of the most recently controversial pay gaps in sports history—the 2015 Women’s World Cup. The U.S. Women’s National Team was awarded $2 million in prize money for winning the esteemed world championship meanwhile Germany’s men’s team was paid $35 million for their victory. Even the U.S. men’s team took home a bigger check—racking in 9 million dollars for coming in a whopping 11th place. The Women’s World Cup was one of the most watched sporting events of 2015—gaining over 25.4 million viewers. The event accomplished significantly higher ratings than the Stanley Cup (7.6 million) or the NBA Finals (13.9 million). Wait a second, I thought this was all about money. Sports, especially televised events, are another form of entertainment. Keep in mind these are numbers talking, not the rhetoric of some third wave feminist agenda.
U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (2015)
An enormous pay gap between men and women also exists in Hollywood. For example, female actresses, directors, writers, and producers are still paid significantly less than their male counterparts. For instance, it was reported that in 2015 the highest paid actor was Robert Downey Jr., making 80 million bucks. On the other hand, Jennifer Lawrence was the highest paid actress but made $52 million. Looking at box office numbers, nearly 50% of the top 15 grossing films had stories with female leads (i.e. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Inside Out, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2, Cinderella, and Pitch Perfect 2) Similar to the Women’s World Cup case study, there’s something else going on here. The audience, the customer, is clearly "buying" female driven stories—remember it’s numbers, it’s economics.
Finally this discussion brings us to our most recent controversy —the 88th Academy Awards and the heated debate concerning Hollywood’s gender pay gap and lack of diversity for minorities. Specifically looking at female driven plots or female leads, this year’s 8 Best Picture nominations featured only 3 films with a female lead—Room, Brooklyn, and Mad Max: Fury Road. However, the Academy did have the opportunity to nominate some other films of quality cinema, it's not like the content didn't exist. For example, some snubs include: The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Joy, Carol, and Suffragette, to name a few.
Moving on... the Best Director nominations featured no female directors. ZERO nominees are women. This is 2016 not 1950. At least the Documentary Features and Documentary Shorts nominations have one or two female directors. The categories for Original Score, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects also have no female nominations. The individuals that earn awards for these categories in film production and post-production are typically known to require a more “technical” skill set, perhaps a skill set the woman's brain doesn't possess (???). It's sad, a female Director of Photography has never been nominated for an Oscar in the history of time. Then we look at the Costume Design category and 4 out of the 5 nominees are women. That’s interesting isn’t it? Not taking anything away from the artistry of Costume Design by any means but come on those are some interesting numbers... With that being said we should at least celebrate and root for writers, Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton), Phyllis Nagy (Carol), and Emma Donoghue (Room) for their screenwriting accomplishments and nominations.
For those who are hosting an #AltOscarParty, why don’t we have an alternative vote for Best Picture of 2016? Click this survey and submit your response!