Naveed Islam looks at the changing perceptions of women in the entertainment industryJennifer Lawrence was recently named the highest-grossing actress of 2014 by Forbes magazine. The annual list ranks actors and actresses based on the combined gross of all their movies at the box office. The 24-year old made an estimated $1.4 billion, with her roles as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and as Mystique in X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past. She leads a pack that also includes Chris Pratt, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Wahlberg and Chris Evans along with several other A-list Hollywood actors and actresses.
Lawrence’s place at the top of this list represents a significant change in how women are portrayed by Hollywood and perceived by its audience. Previous years’ top-grossing actors were Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in 2013, Robert Downey Jr. in 2012, Daniel Radcliffe in 2011, Leonardo DiCaprio in 2010 and Johnny Depp in 2009. Their earnings were bolstered by their roles in action movies or adaptations of comic books, young adult or children’s fiction. Lawrence in 2014 has shown that both the industry and its fanbase are ready for more women to take on starring roles in action films and anchor big-budget franchises. It is strange to think of Jennifer Lawrence as a pioneer in this regard, considering that many actresses have found success in the genre on television. Sarah Michelle Geller had a generation of TV addicts following her exploits on Buffy the Vampire Slayer while Jennifer Garner’s turn as Sydney Bristow on Alias made her a crossover star. More recently, Tatiana Maslany has earned widespread critical acclaim for her starring role in BBC America’s hit science-fiction thriller Orphan Black. Sadly, the same could not be said of women in film as they fail to draw the audience’s interests unlike their male counterparts.
Another industry where the tide seems to be turning is in the videogame world. In Nintendo’s Metroid, published in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, players fought their way through alien hordes on the planet Zebes as Samus Aran only to famously discover that beneath the helmet of the blaster-wielding bounty hunter was a woman. Capcom’s Street Fighter II hit the arcades in 1991 and introduced the world to Chun-Li, an expert martial artist who could match blows with the rest of the male fighters on the game’s roster.
But while Samus and Chun-Li were ground-breaking characters in the medium, they were also glaring evidence of the misogyny and sexism that ran rampant in the videogame industry. Chun-Li was sexualised with tight leggings and a form-fitting Chinese dress ill-becoming of a purported martial artist and players who completed Metroid fast enough were ‘rewarded’ with a bikini-clad Samus. When gaming moved into 3D, the problem seemed to get worse. Lara Croft, star of the Tomb Raider games, led a litany of buxom virtual heroines furthering the argument that women could only star in action games if they showed enough skin. Fortunately, the seventh console generation saw a change in the way women were portrayed in gaming. The champion of this cause was ironically Lara Croft, albeit a redesigned and reborn Lara in the rebooted Tomb Raider. Here, Lara was cast as a believable character, whose harrowing and emotional journey helps her become a strong and capable young woman. Another example comes from Bioware’s Mass Effect series, where players are given the option of playing as a male or female Commander Shepard. While more gamers chose to play as male, it is the female hero, affectionately called “FemShep,” who gets much of the adulation from fans.
In the world of comic books, women have made great strides. DC Comics’ Wonder Woman, who has long been hailed as the poster-child for feminism in pop culture, has enjoyed a revival in interest, thanks to writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chang. Marvel Comics’ Carol Danvers, a longtime member of the Avengers under the alias Ms. Marvel, assumed the mantle of Captain Marvel in a well-received solo series. Both Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel will get their own solo films in 2017 and 2018 respectively, which should be seen as a major breakthrough for women in the lucrative summer blockbuster season. Last year, Israeli-born actress and model Gal Gadot was cast as Wonder Woman in Warner Bros. highly anticipated Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and upcoming Wonder Woman film. The choice of Gadot for the role was divisive, with critics questioning whether or not Gadot would be able to do justice (pun intended) to the role based on her limited acting experience. The fact that this hullabaloo was made over whether or not she could faithfully embody Wonder Woman and not over her cup-size or beauty relative to other interchangeable Hollywood ‘It girls’ shows how far we’ve come and where we’re going.
The entertainment world is bracing itself for something of a creative revolution as women, no longer content with being damsels in distress or pining after their heroes, take up arms to star in action movies, comic books and videogames. It is now cool to fight like a girl.