BASIC REPRESENTATION SCORE: -10
FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: +6
THE MALE GAZE SCORE: -5
GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: -5
WILDCARD SCORE: 0
Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)
No.
TOTAL SCORE: -14
IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)
IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)
BOTTOM LINE: Women are almost entirely absent from this story, beyond a few brief single-scene appearances as figures of limited authority (in which their authority is shown as a sham or as something for men to divert around), as a supportive wife (in a very small role), and as decorative objects (and though the film treats it as a joke that women onscreen are typically depicted as decorative objects, these women are still primarily decorative). The story may be based on fact, but some of the major characters in the all-male main ensemble are composites of real people or almost wholly invented, so there’s no reason at all why at least one of them couldn’t have been written as female.
Click here for the ongoing ranking of 2015’s films for female representation.
Click here for the ranking of 2015’s Oscar-nominated films for female representation.
NOTE: This is not a “review” of The Big Short! It is simply an examination of how well or how poorly it represents women. (A movie that represents women well can still be a terrible film; a movie that represents women poorly can still be a great film.) Read my review of The Big Short.
See the full rating criteria. (Criteria that do not apply to this film have been deleted in this rating for maximum readability.)
This project was launched by my generous Kickstarter supporters. You can support this work now by:
• buying some Where Are the Women? merch
• becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber of FlickFilospher.com
• making a pledge at Patreon
• making a one-time donation via Paypal
Unfortunately, there’s a reason so few women work on Wall Street:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/opinion/a-colleague-drank-my-breast-milk-and-other-wall-street-tales.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
It would have been interesting to see the film make reference to that toxic environment.
There are some, though. And there were some women who were shouting about the mortgage crisis before it imploded, too.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-21/odd-lots-calculated-risk-doris-dungey
I actually think it makes a point in that the main characters and bank heads used their white male privilege to their advantage in getting ahead. I saw it as a statement.
I didn’t see that. At least not any more so that every other movie about white men. You know, those few that are out there…
*shrugs* Interpretation, interpretation.
I’d like to see some unambiguous critiques of white male privilege.
Ok.
The Editing Room agrees with Where Are the Women’s assessment. Scroll down for Marissa Tomei’s big moment.