2013: A Golden Age For Women in Media?

This past Tuesday, The Representation Project posted a video titled "How The Media Failed Women In 2013." It quickly went viral and was posted on many blogs and journalism websites, including the popular sites Buzzfeed and Huffington Post. The video accumulated over two million views in its first few days and has finally gotten people talking.

From politicians to the most popular musical acts, we see the negative representation of women strewn all over the media. But I want to be positive and focus on the first 30 seconds of the video and the successes of women in media in the past year.

Hollywood movies are dominated by men. Hollywood thinks that films with male characters, about men, made by men, will do better at the box office. This past thanksgiving, The Hunger Games sequel broke box office records for its opening week, and Gravity, fueled by lead actress Sandra Bullock, tops box offices at $500 million worldwide. Cinemas in Sweden have employed a new rating to highlight gender bias in film based on the Bechdel test. If the movie passes the Bechdel test, it receives an A rating, which means it must have at least two names lead female characters who talk to each other about  something other than a man. Such films that have received an A rating, passing the Bechdel test, are the Hunger Games, The Iron Lady, and Savages.

In the TV world, Orange Is The New Black, featuring an all female ensemble cast, becomes Netflix's most successful original series with excellent ratings, however Netflix refuses to release any viewership data. This year, there was a record number of women nominated for directing at the Emmy's. Of the ten nominees, five were women. Gail Mancuso won for best comedy directing for her episode of Modern Family, the first female win in this category since 1993. Tina Fey and Tracey Wigfield also won for best comedy writing, which means that women are dominating the comedy category for the first time in Emmy history. And there's just the success of Tina Fey in general. And let's not forget about the success and popularity of Lena Dunham and her HBO show "Girls." Additionally, Kerry Washington was also the first black woman to receive a nomination for lead actress in almost 20 years.


The Representation Project also lists that 2013 saw the first female anchor team on Newshour, Katie Couric is hired as Yahoo's first female global news anhor, Goldieblox ads go viral, and Malala is featured on the cover of Times 100 Most Influential People issue.
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Some other successful and highly influential women in media are the executive editor of the NY Times, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Arianna Huffington, among a few others. However, the difference in numbers between influential men and influential women is still incredibly way too vast, and while male politicians are still dictating what constitutes rape and whether abortion should be illegal, and that women should pay higher health insurance while receiving less salary than men, something has got to change.

The Representation Project is a "movement that uses film and media content to expose injustices created by gender stereotypes and to shift people's consciousness towards change." In 2011, they released "Miss Representation," a documentary about the representation of women in media and power that was an official selection at Sundance Film Festival, as well as seven other film festivals. 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) is the sequel to The Hunger Games (2012). Although the first movie was very good, I thought Catching Fire was a lot better. The director, Francis Lawrence (Water for Elephants, I Am Legend), did a great job capturing the right mood. The writers, Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt, did a great job adapting Suzanne Collins' book to a film. There was only a few things left out that I wanted to see, as opposed to most other book to movie adaptations which normally leave out a lot.

Catching Fire felt more solid and moving than the first Hunger Games movie. In the first movie, the camera movements were shaky, and I didn't feel the characters were developed enough for viewers to make a strong emotional connection to them. However, in Catching Fire, the camera movements were smoother yet intense. The characters were well developed, which created more of a connection to them.

The action sequences were amazing. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss perfectly: fierce and stubborn on the outside while struggling with being an unintentional leader on the inside.

The only criticism I have is that the lighting was so dark in certain scenes. Sometimes you couldn't see their faces very well. While it worked at times, most times I did not like it.

All this being said, I would highly recommend seeing The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The acting is wonderful and the action scenes are very exciting.

Take a look at the trailer:

The Cabin in the Woods - Purposefully Cliche

I recently watched The Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard, to prepare myself for Halloween. (I normally don't like too many "horror" movies because of how cheesy they can be, but this one was slightly different.) A jock, a nerd, a stoner, a dumb blonde, and a virgin decide to get away for the weekend by going to a desolate cabin in the middle of nowhere. Before which, they were warned by a creepy old man not to go there. Sound familiar?

That's because you've seen it a thousand times in every other scary movie.

However, The Cabin in the Woods played off of these normal cliches in a clever way. I won't explain in detail as to not give it away, but this movie is about ritual sacrifice. It's sort of The Hunger Games with a ritual sacrifice twist combined with every scary movie... If that makes sense.

The plot and writing (Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who worked together on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are what really make this movie worth watching. They play upon the stereotypes of scary movies, referencing many things that have been done over and over again. For example, there are spirits, zombies, killer mermen, giant snakes, flying beasts, and many other horrible creatures. All these typical monsters come out all at once in an exciting, gruesome climax.

To be able to play off the irony of the stereotypical characters, they need to be very well cast. Chris Hemsworth plays the role of the alpha male, thick-headed jock well. Fran Kranz is superb as the "fool" pothead, who's theories turn out to be true this time. Jesse Williams, a bit boring as the nerdy nice guy, but it is always harder to play the straight character. Anna Hutchison has the easy character ("easy" in both senses), as all she really does is look good and scream. And Kristen Connolly - the "virgin" - also seems a bit boring at times, but has a little more intellect and character depth.

All in all, I really enjoyed this film. It's entertaining, as most horror movies are, but also has more substance.

The Hunger Games, and Kevin

First off, condolences to Kevin Michael's family. Kevin was a real asset to the Park School, and the fact that he's gone leaves a gaping hole in the Ithaca College community as a whole. He will be missed.

Of course, we've got to move on from tragedy. So let's talk Hunger Games; which, I suppose, isn't really any better. That's not a stab against the movie -- from the trailer, it looks great -- but the story, if you don't know, isn't the happiest-go-luckiest of the bunch.

Quick summary: Post-apocalyptic world. In the nation of Panem -- which was once the US -- a government punishes their people for past protests in a televised annual event called The Hunger Games, where one boy and one girl from each "district" is called to fight to the death. The winner will bring their district prizes and live in luxury. Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl from the impoverished District 12, is called to play in the games; but she has other ideas for the Games and the government of Panem.

It's not often that I rave about how good a film adaptation of a book looks; but watching the trailer, I was drooling. When I read the books this summer, I had a vivid idea of how the sets would look, how the characters acted, how they fought, the music, etc. Everything in this trailer is exactly how I expected it, except for the actors. They look a little too clean and pretty for poor and oppressed citizens living in the slums and woods. But that's Hollywood; and to be honest, everything else about this movie so far has overshadowed that one little thing.

What's most impressive about this movie is how natural everything looks for a movie that's so unnatural. Maybe it's the rapid fire nature of the trailer, but nothing looked artificial or choppy; the makers of this film really devoted their time and energy into making every detail exactly right, and it shows. Watching the trailer immersed me in this universe. It's something amazing when a trailer can do that.

The movie comes out on my 21st birthday, so I might have to miss opening night for "celebration" and "good decisions." But I predict that The Hunger Games will be the movie event of 2012. What? Twilight? Get that weak mess out of here. Katniss Everdeen will kick Bella's pregnant ass around the block this way and that way. Like, you don't even know.