The good news is that when women direct and write movies, the number of female characters increases. The bad news is that only 20% of writers and 7% of directors are women, which kinda/sorta/totally explains why only 31% of speaking roles in movies go to female characters. Even worse, female characters are five times more likely to have their appearance commented on in a film than male characters are, which means that what speaking time female characters do get is often wasted discussing their appearance rather than the plot. *LOUD ANGRY SIGH*
If you found that as upsetting as I did, scroll to the bottom for a great quote by real-life badass Hollywood heroine Geena Davis about one thing Hollywood can do to change things for the better — and not just in movies, either.
