Women all throughout entertainment history seem to be overlooked for their accomplishments, especially those that fall into more than one minority group such as women of color, LGBTQ+ or even women in their “Golden Years.”
Out of the 76 people who have hosted the Oscars, only 16 of them have been women. To add onto that, only three women have hosted the Oscars in the past 28 years. As some may recall, at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, Natalie Portman called out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for only nominating male contenders for the Best Director award. This issue isn’t new to this award though. According to Time Magazine, over the past 75 years, only seven women have been nominated for the award.
But the problem isn’t just with the lack of female nominees, the winners too are lacking in diversity. Barbra Streisand is the only woman to have won the Best Director award. She won for the movie Yentl in 1984.
Times are changing though, some women that are taking a stand against this unfair and biased treatment are widely known for their causes, while some are not. A few of these influential women and their causes are Beyoncé (intersectionality), Lady Gaga (sexual assault), Miley Cyrus (LGBTQ+ issues), Shonda Rhimes (female representation in entertainment), Emma Thompson (human trafficking) and many more.
Women are also beginning to receive a lot more representation in movies as well. The movie Wonder Woman is a perfect example of this. Gal Gadot, the actress who portrays Wonder Woman, served in the Israel Defense Forces and is a fierce advocate for empowering young women to become strong self dependent human beings as well as educating men. Gadot explains, “This movie is for everyone. It’s for boys to go to the movies and see that women can be amazing and badass and strong and inspiring, and not only me.”
Another female-empowering movie is Black Panther. While the movie mainly focuses on T’Challa, King of Wakanda and the Black Panther, the movie showcases strong female characters such as an entire female army, the Dora Milaje, that prove to be more than just sidekicks and saves Wakanda. These characters are loosely based off of real women armies in Africa, such as the Dahomey Amazons.
While women haven’t been fully represented and haven’t gotten their full recognition for the parts they play in bettering our society, there has been progress made and women are proving that they are, in fact, and should remain their own heroes.
