Geena Davis Raps Rampant Sexism in Hollywood

Oscar-winner Geena Davis has no interest playing the girlfriend of the action hero, or the comatose woman seen in a smattering of scenes.

It’s what Hollywood has left for her after hitting the north side of 40.

Davis spared few kind words for the entertainment industry during a May 29 speech at the Motion Picture Association of America. The star of The Accidental Tourist, The Fly and TV’s Commander in Chief described how the number of parts offered to her changed dramatically when she reached middle age. More importantly, the role women play both in front of and behind the camera continues to lag far behind their male counterparts.

In a conversation with Rep. Rosa DeLaura, D-Conn., Davis emphasized that women are underrepresented in almost every facet of Hollywood productions. Just 17 percent of the people in crowd scenes in family films, she said, are women, and the ratio of male to female characters hasn’t changed since 1946….

And she cautioned that the economic success of movies created by women and featuring female characters had done little to significantly change Hollywood’s belief that such projects are economically risky or to challenge the industry’s perception that male audiences won’t watch female characters.