Black Widow and the Marvel Girls quantitative study
Heather M. Porter
Real job producing reality shows in LA
Looked at 9 of 10 movies, not Hulk
Had to appear in 2 of the films
Bechdel test (2 named female characters, talk to each other, not about a man)
Avengers doesn’t pass.
Many films that pass with poor depictions of women.
Major issue of this test is that it only requires small changes.
Fails to look at bigger issues.
We want good female characters.
Strong female characters
Buffy Summers
Veronica Mars
Katness Everdeen
Kickass or written well…
No checklist on these people
Discussed what makes a “complete female character.”
Also discussed the percentage of scenes that female characters were in for all 9 movies (28% to 56%).
conclusions:
trend of increasing complete female characters
Black Widow carries through most movies.
Not a lot of characters carry through.
Phase Three shows promise of more of these characters with Captain Marvel movie on the slate.
19th movie before woman lead
Black Widow won’t have her own.
Gina Davis Disparity
29% of speaking roles in all movies
2.42 men = 1 woman