"Ya doggone galoot!" as Yosemite Sam said to Bugs Bunny, as might also have addressed Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone, Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Mickey and Goofy, all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the boys in the band.
Hardly a female in sight, actress Geena Davis (Thelma and Louise) saw from watching children's entertainment with her young daughter. She spoke about her concern at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock in 2012, part of the Clinton School of Public Service lecture series.
Davis had acted on her concerns by founding the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland, in 2004.
The institute (at seejane.org) reports that:
• Even in G-rated family films, female characters are mostly "eye candy" with small waists and "exaggerated body characteristics."
• Boy characters outnumber girl characters 3 to 1 -- and more than 5 to 1 in crowd scenes.
• Women are outnumbered behind the camera, too. Ninety-three percent of film directors, 87 percent of screenwriters and 80 percent of movie producers are men, according to the institute.
"Geena and Friends," 1 p.m. Friday at Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, will feature Davis and other women reading "great dialogue from some significant all-male movies." This event is sold out, the festival reports, but some tickets may be available just before the performance.
-- Ron Wolfe
Style on 05/03/2015