Having always been passionate about film and feminism I’d toyed around with the idea of a zine/blog based on the two subjects for what seems like forever. The final idea finally came to fruition when I was reading somewhere that 84% of all film critics are males…and it’s probably not too hard to guess that most of them are middle aged cishet white men too. I was frankly pretty upset about this and thought it was time to change that. I don’t want these guys telling me what I will and will not enjoy anymore.

An incredibly large amount of movies made are made with the aim of reaching a 12-15 rating…aka the teenage market. Typically girls get the rom-coms and boys get the superhero films. I for sure don’t want that. I do not want to be shamed by the people that make the movies for enjoying their rom-coms, and I want to be taken seriously when I talk about superhero films, and when it comes to 18 rated films, I don’t want to be greeted by the familiar ‘but girls don’t like horror movies?’

The platform that film-makers have to reach a wide range of people and change their world-view is pretty astounding. Film can influence peoples fashion sense, their music taste, their personalities, so why not their politics too? Having the same white male directors feeding us misogynistic/racist/homophobic/transphobic rubbish is leaving bad impressions upon their viewers. There are plenty of female/poc/lgbtq directors out there making brilliant and heartfelt films but they are not given the same pedestal upon which to project their voice. Here’s some statistics if you still don’t get the picture:

• 32.8% of speaking characters are female, which means for every 1 woman, there are 2 men.
• Only 4 women have been nominated for Best Director…..EVER
• Only 2 of the top 100 grossing films ever have been directed by women
• 39.8% of girls in films wear sexually revealing clothing while 6.7% of boys do (think about this also in terms of how many of these films were probably directed by men)
• Women make up only 8% of directors, 13.6% of writers and 19% of producers
• 30% of girls get partially naked while 10.3% of boys do

Now, try to name at least 5 female directors off the top of your head……difficult isn’t it?

That’s why this blog is here…

We don’t want to condemn popular cinema, we thoroughly enjoy it! We simply want to review and critique it to highlight it’s problematic issues (remember, you can like problematic things as long as you acknowledge that they are that way!). We’ll be looking at latest cinema offerings, TV listings, DVD releases and all the films in between. We want to try our hardest to make this a safe space for female film fans where they can share their thoughts and opinions and get recommendations without being dismissed for simply being a girl.

…We may also quote Mean Girls sometimes

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p.s follow us on twitter so you know when we’ve posted!

by Chloe  x