Captain Marvel votes.
Patricia Arquette votes.
Jennifer Lawrence votes.
Ava Duvernay votes.
Harley Quinn can't vote because she's a felon who's been declared legally insane..
But I'm sure Themysciran ambassador Wonder Woman would TELL you to vote!
Maybe not even nicely.
And that's because she'd be upset that you were squandering your hard won right - when
there are still rights to be won!
That's right, just a hundred years ago women couldn't vote.
We didn't get the vote in the US until 1920.
As a matter of fact, women were the LAST demographic to get the right to vote in this country.
And if you won't even exercise a right that has been conceded to you, why should anyone
give any new rights?
Just look at what's still in play in Hollywood itself.
We're in the middle of a comic book movie renaissance, yet since it kicked off with
Iron Man and The Dark Knight in 2008, there hasn't been a single comic book movie with
a female lead - despite there being tons of 'em in the actual comics!
Not to mention, one is already a wildly popular Avengers, yet she can't even get her own toys
and t-shirts much less a movie.
Now there's hope on the horizon with a Wonder Woman movie set for 2017 and a Captain Marvel
movie set for 2018 - oh, no wait, it got pushed back to 2019.
But it's now set to open on International Women's Day...?
Wasp will get to the silver screen first in 2018, but she'll have to share it with Ant-Man,
although to be fair, that one's really the other way around.
But the lack of starring roles for women in blockbusters is kind of weird, considering
how much box office muscle women are flexing these days.
Take two recent female-driven mega hits, The Hunger Games and Frozen.
The Hunger Games has helped make Jennifer Lawrence the highest paid actress in Hollywood,
with fifty-two million earned in last year, about thirty million less than the top paid
actor, Robert Downey Jr.
And Lawrence was plenty shocked when she discovered the discrepancy didn't end there.
Patricia Arquette bravely used her Oscar speech to call attention to the unfair salary situation
in Hollywood, Lawrence took the torch from her and lit a bonfire with her recent article
in Lenny magazine.
Now, Lawrence acknowledged it was no one's fault but her own for not being more aggressive
in negotiations, but even though aggressive women are often looked at far more negatively
than aggressive men, Lawrence said the Sony hack made her realize that she shouldn't care
about being seen as "nice".
What does nice get you?
Less money and less backend points than your male co-stars in American Hustle, including
Jeremy Renner who had a SMALLER role and the same Oscar nomination Lawrence had under her
belt at the time!
And pay inequalities happens behind the camera as well, if you can get a job.
Colin Trevorrow's tweet that women don't direct blockbusters like his Jurassic World because
"they're not interested" in blockbusters got a heck of a lot of attention - and I'm not
just talking about Funny or Die.
The ACLU is so enraged by the lack of films in Hollywood directed by women that they've
actually gotten the US Government to begin an investigation to see if there's legitimate
gender discrimination afoot.
I repeat, the US government has had to get involved in who directs movies!
And they've already begun to interview female directors...
Now with Frozen, that was written and co-directed by a woman, Jennifer Lee.
And there are some working women directors, like Kathryn Bigelow, Ava DuVernay and Patty
Jenkins, who will direct that Wonder Woman movie - her first film gig in six years.
Yay?
Yet the reality is that although women make up half the population and half of moviegoers,
only seven percent directed major films in 2014, and sixteen percent any major television.
Another film directed by a woman is Suffragette, just hitting theaters, and not only does Sarah
Gavron direct, but Abi Morgan wrote it while Alison Owen and Faye Ward produced!
Yet it's still an uphill battle, and as Suffragette star Meryl Streep pointed out women aren't
even fairy represented when it comes to film criticism, with women only making up about
twenty percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
So please, exercise the rights you do have and vote - and remember, you can also vote
with movie tickets.
I'm Grace Randolph and this has been a Movie Byte!
You can watch more, right now!