Geen Davis Supports Children in Media
Geena Davis Supports Girls Roles and Children In Media for Film and TV by F&EG Staff -6/2008-
Interview and live report from 2008 GDIGM Conference in Los Angeles, Ca, by attendees, Fund & Edutain Guide Staff—- F/W 2008-09
Inspired, from watching tv shows and videos with her then 2-year-old daughter, the beautiful academy award winning actress/activist, Geena Davis founded The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (GDIGM). Considered to be the largest research project on gender in media in 2007, it opened the door to awareness and a serious need for major transformation of female roles in TV and entertainment.
Born in Wareham, Massachusetts January 21, 1956, Geena Davis was the tallest girl in school at six feet. She graduated from the school of Fine Arts, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, receiving her BFA degree in acting. Geena modeled with the Zoi modeling agency and then debuted in her first film, Tootsie.
Geena is best known for her roles in Accidental Tourist, Beetle Juice, Thelma & Louise and Commander in Chief, and is currently in Sydney, Australia filming Accidents Happen. Married with three children, Geena also supports title IX in schools.
The GDIGM conference brought together some of the ‘top dogs’ of the film and TV industry including celebrities, top national and international researchers, critics, film educators, toy company executives, child educators and the public.
Geena and her team at GDIGM presented their research and data findings and led panel discussions with top executives at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media Conference: Children and Gender in Film and Television at the Town & Gown Ballroom, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Conference attendees included some of the best known in the entertainment business including Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, 20th Century Fox Animation Studios, ABC, CBS, Columbia Pictures, PBS, Oxygen, Dreamworks Animation, Walt Disney and more.
The event opened with a strong message, depicted in a 1980s ‘Tiny Toons’ clip called ‘Fields of Honey,’ where Babs the Bunny (voice actress, Tress MacNeille) tries to find a female mentor. As she talks to Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Tweety, a frustrated Babs comments on the lack of female stars and their mention. She adds, “Tell me something, how come all the old Warner Bros. stars were all guys? Not one girl, it isn’t fair, says Babs the Bunny. (‘Tiny Toons’ is a Stephen Spielberg creation)
Geena laughed with her audience and said, “She actually has a sense of what’s right for women.”
“Let me tell you when this all started,” recalls. Geena, “It actually started a while ago, back when I played the part of Lucas McCain in the ‘Rifleman’ with my friend in her backyard. I decided I wanted to be Chuck Conners, because I’m really tall,” Geena laughed. “When I was a kid I liked to watch ‘Bonanza’ and the ‘Rifleman.’ Very good examples of ‘The Dead Mother Syndrome,’ which is so prevalent in our culture,” she stated.
“The remarkable thing to me is at the time we didn’t notice or think it was odd that there weren’t any major women roles or characters that we wanted to pretend to be when we were playing,” said Geena.
“The two shows that I watched a lot with females were ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ and ‘Bewitched’,” Geena informed us, “and you would think those shows had lead characters with a lot of cool ‘super powers, but it seemed like in almost every episode, it was about them having to sit on their abilities so as not to piss off their husbands.”
“As an adult struggling in the business, I realized then how many few parts there were for women. There seemed to be a lot more male characters than female characters,” said Geena. “I decided I wanted to find out if this was true – if it was across the board. I wanted to do something about it…bring attention to it and talk to the studios.
The first thing I knew I had to do, before I approached them was get some research done. Research and education are the cornerstones of affecting change.”
At that point Geena joined with another non-profit, Community Partners, and raised the funds to sponsor the largest content analysis ever done on G-rated movies. (Community Partners is a non-profit 501c-3. They are a catalyst for community change and civic action.)
“I was stunned by the research findings which showed that only one out of every five characters are female,” exclaimed Geena.
The findings were astonishing as the research shows a vast under-representation of female characters in popular TV and media. Geena added, “I have to say that since we have been presenting our findings to the studios, we’ve really received a good response from them. They are welcoming and surprised with the findings. They said they thought the results would have been better.”
Research was largely conducted by principle researcher Dr. Stacy Smith and her team at USCs Annenberg School for Communication. “What I think is important,” said Dr. Smith, “is that we need content makers, writers, etcetera, to be aware of the data and study the numbers before they make decisions on programs.”
“We carried out 4 discrete studies, including one on children’s television and three on film. About 200 USC Annenberg undergraduate students, including more than 50 research assistants, sitting in the audience as new graduates, helped in the research that was done in partnership with GDIGM,” stated Dr. Smith.
Panels of children’s show producers and executives were in the hot seat and somewhat guarded with their response as they answered questions and discussed various topics including: Entertainment industry perspectives, Current number of female roles in a perspective show, Stereotyping, International perspectives on gender in kids’ TV, and Toy-product-media-marketing connection. There were also special feature speakers from the entertainment and academic communities.
“What is important to me now is quantity,” said Geena. “The first thing girls and boys see on TV is an unbalanced world. Our main concern now is filling scene space and backgrounds in movies with women. Females need to have more presence, so that girls and boys see a balanced world, and so boys listen to girls stories and give them respect,” urges Geena.
GDIGM made the following recommendations to content makers & studios:
- G-rated movies and certain TV categories need more females as main characters, minor characters, narrators, and in crowds.
- G-rated movies and certain TV categories need more characters of color, especially female characters of color, and as main characters, minor characters, narrators, and in crowds.
- G-rated movies need to create more female characters with aspirations beyond romance.
- G-rated movies need to create more women and girl characters that are also valued for their inner character.
The Fund & Edutain Guide staff would like to thank Geena for inviting us to this dynamic conference. It was not only an amazing
gathering of major entertainment and media heads, but it was an awe-inspiring educational event and a tribute to the power, knowledge, research, talent, passion and determination of Geena Davis and her entourage of friends and supporters.
Thank you Geena.
For more information on Geena’s project please visit www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org
