Miss Representation - weekly action

The Oscars are the biggest night in Hollywood. Broadcast worldwide to millions of viewers, it's meant to be a celebration of the greatest cinema of the past year. Unfortunately, while we're excited to see who wins, we also know there will be a serious lack of female representation Sunday night. In 84 years, only 4 women have ever been nominated for Best Director and only 1 has won.

It's not for lack of talent though. Melissa Silverstein of Women in Hollywood has a list of women who made excellent films in 2011 but were inexplicably left out of the Academy Award conversation (watch her video here). It's no wonder though when you consider, as the Los Angeles Times reported last week, that 77% of the Academy voters are male. 

Moreover, when women are interviewed or highlighted during Oscar coverage, they are often recognized first for their looks and dress, and second for their artistic accomplishments. This kind of scrutiny further diminishes the actual achievements of women in film and helps maintain Hollywood's glass ceiling.

This week's Get Healthy action is to be conscious of the media's emphasis on the physical appearance of female actors as compared to male actors, and to avoid the post-show gossip and looks obsession which will flood the Internet on Monday. 

As part of our SexyorSexism? campaign we will be partnering with Women's Media Center (@womensmediacntr) to live-tweet the event using #femTV. We'll be tracking the following questions:

1. How are women being spoken to on the red carpet?
2. How are they being represented by the TV media?
3. Is the attention they are receiving based on their achievements and talent? Or is it based on their appearance?

Join the discussion on Twitter Sunday at 5pm PT or e-mail us your observations throughout the night! Together we can change the conversation around the Oscars and make a difference for future broadcasts of the event.

Warmest,

The MissRepresentation.org team

http://www.missrepresentation.org/