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Article: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/21/emma-thompson-sexism-in-actingindustry-is-worse-than-ever?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Reference: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/12/hollywood-sexism-female-directors-aclu-federal-stateinvestigation

Emma Thompson: sexism in acting industry is worse than ever

Summary of Article

I. Oscar-winning actor Emma Thompson revealed that sexism and ageism in

Hollywood films is getting worst.
II. The current situation is something that she did not expect when she first entered
the media circle.
III. In many projects, she was asked to play the role of a women that is much older
than her actual age.
IV. Her comments prompted research which showed that female leads in Hollywood
movies were on average four and a half years younger than their male
counterparts.
V. Thompsons comments are rooted in the idea that actresses continue to find
themselves fighting for roles that are primarily dependent upon how their exterior
comes across.

Generalisations
1. Movie industry rarely casts women for roles based primarily on the qualification of
their actual ability to effectively play the part in question.
2. The industry creates very few options for actresses old enough to have spent time
evolving their craft, since such actresses would not fit Hollywoods superficially
sexualized mold of how a woman is supposed to look.
3. Numerous studies in recent months have shown entrenched bias against women
on the screen, behind the camera and writing the shows and movies.

Concepts

Sexism; Ageism; Inequality, The Arts, Culture; Racism; Media; Artists;

Rights; Justice; Law Enforcement & Protection; Acting Industry; Media;
Prejudice

Current Situation; Controversy Issue

1. BBC had to do more to put more women on television, as well as tackle a lack of black,
Asian and minority ethnic actors on-screen.
2. The ACLU will demand in May 2015 that both state and federal agencies investigate the
hiring practices of Hollywoods major studios, networks and talent agencies and consider
filing legal charges.
3. The ACLU found rampant discrimination against female movie directors and has focused
its latest investigation mainly on that sector of the industry, but also raises concerns about
long-term gender discrimination involving actors, writers and other roles in both film and
television.
4. There was also a significant element of racial bias.
Facts

Facts
Data/ Evidence

Case Study

- Jane Campion,

director of The
Piano and
BBC2s Elisabeth
Moss drama Top
of the Lake, last
year said there
was inherent
sexism in the
film industry.
- Jill Soloway Has
A Simple Fix For
Ending
Hollywood
Sexism
- Why Amy
Schumer Is Your
New Feminist
Best Friend
- It's Time For
Straight White
Men To Give
Someone Else A
Turn In
Hollywood

Thompson, 56, plays a

77-year-old prostitute in
her latest project, The
Legend of Barney
Thomson
Gyllenhaal, star of BBC2
drama The Honourable
Woman, said earlier this
year that she was told by
a Hollywood producer
that she was too old, at
37, to play the love
interest of a 55-year-old
man.
An annual report
conducted by San Diego
State University provided
statistical proof across
Hollywood that the
number of male leads
increase as they get
older, while their female
counterparts are, oddly
enough getting younger.
In 2014, only 7% of the
directors of the 250 topgrossing Hollywoodproduced films were
women which was
down 2% on the
equivalent figure for
1998.
In 2014, 70 network
television shows almost
a third hired no female
directors at all, the
advocacy group said.
69% of all the television
show episodes analysed
by researchers for the
ACLU having been
directed by white men.

Facts
Definitions

Quotes

- Sexism or gender - The Sense and

discrimination is
prejudice or
discrimination
based on a
person's sex or
gender.
- Ageism is
stereotyping and
discriminating
against
individuals or
groups on the
basis of their age.

Sensibility and
Nanny McPhee
star said the
world was in a
worse state than
I have known it,
particularly for
women.

Facts Trends
and
observations

- Hollywood

sexism is
ingrained
and should
be
investigated
, American
Civil
Liberties
Union
(ACLU)
says