Movies are for the most part written by, produced by, and directed by men. This means most protagonists are male. The men tend to get better and more roles, made even worse with age. But there are other, more complex issues.
In any good story, the protagonist has to go through some kind of life changing event. They learn a lesson. Commitment-phobe gets married, drug user gets clean, playboy becomes content with one woman, etc. etc.
This creates lots of great scenes - I am a sucker for the big romantic gesture - the boom box above the head, the race to the airport, or quitting your job to be with the one you love. (Of course, if you tried most of that in real life you get arrested and of course, a restraining order. It's wish fulfillment and deus ex machina, not a realistic solution.)
But a tight script leaves little room for similar character development for other characters. And because the men are doing the writing, producing and directing, that often means the female characters get no growth.
They never do the big romantic scenes. Where the guy goes through a huge amount of effort and money to apologize, the women rarely even says she's sorry. In the movie Hitch, Will Smith's character took Eva Mendez on a jet ski trip to Ellis island where he showed her a relative. (Yes, it went bad, but that was a huge romantic gesture, even if it turned to crap.) At the end, Eva Mendez barely said she was sorry, trying to add excuses for her bad behavior. No guy could ever get away with that poor excuse of an apology.
Why? Because they made Eva Mendez's character had no real growth. Will Smith and Kevin James got growth, but Eva Mendez (and Amber Valleta) got shorted. They were there as support for the male heroes, not as heroines themselves.
This does have a side effect that affects how women are viewed. With no real growth, it gives the impression that women never made real mistakes. That they are 2 dimensional characters that do everything right and kill joys that stop guys from having fun.
Worse, if the writers are good writers, they actually portray the women making actual mistakes (such as Eva Mendez's character), but pretend it wasn't a significant one. She destroyed the real romance between two people and destroyed the man she loved's career, but a 'sorry, not sorry' apology was supposed to be enough. Will Smith even had to fix the romance, rather than Eva Mendez. That scene on the boat should have been Eva apologizing, not Will. If the writer is a BAD writer, they don't even admit the mistake was a mistake at all.
My favorite example of this is the woman that hides the fact that she was pregnant from her lover, often because she thinks he would be a bad father. Even if that is true, unless the father is a member of organized crime, doing that is just wrong on so many levels. She is depriving her own child of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, half brothers and half sisters. 'Woman up' and tell him that yes he is the father but no he can't see his kid till he gets his act together (moving to another state to enforce this, if necessary).
Some men and woman have a twisted view of woman because of how common this stereotype is. Woman in real life are not like in the movies. They like to have fun, they make mistakes, and yes the experience personal growth, just like men do.
Women cheat on their husbands, just like men cheat on their wives. The get drunk, abuse drugs, commit crimes, etc. etc. They like to have fun too - Gambling, dancing, orgasms (though they tend to be pickier than the men because orgasms are often harder for the woman to achieve).
In any good story, the protagonist has to go through some kind of life changing event. They learn a lesson. Commitment-phobe gets married, drug user gets clean, playboy becomes content with one woman, etc. etc.
This creates lots of great scenes - I am a sucker for the big romantic gesture - the boom box above the head, the race to the airport, or quitting your job to be with the one you love. (Of course, if you tried most of that in real life you get arrested and of course, a restraining order. It's wish fulfillment and deus ex machina, not a realistic solution.)
But a tight script leaves little room for similar character development for other characters. And because the men are doing the writing, producing and directing, that often means the female characters get no growth.
They never do the big romantic scenes. Where the guy goes through a huge amount of effort and money to apologize, the women rarely even says she's sorry. In the movie Hitch, Will Smith's character took Eva Mendez on a jet ski trip to Ellis island where he showed her a relative. (Yes, it went bad, but that was a huge romantic gesture, even if it turned to crap.) At the end, Eva Mendez barely said she was sorry, trying to add excuses for her bad behavior. No guy could ever get away with that poor excuse of an apology.
Why? Because they made Eva Mendez's character had no real growth. Will Smith and Kevin James got growth, but Eva Mendez (and Amber Valleta) got shorted. They were there as support for the male heroes, not as heroines themselves.
This does have a side effect that affects how women are viewed. With no real growth, it gives the impression that women never made real mistakes. That they are 2 dimensional characters that do everything right and kill joys that stop guys from having fun.
Worse, if the writers are good writers, they actually portray the women making actual mistakes (such as Eva Mendez's character), but pretend it wasn't a significant one. She destroyed the real romance between two people and destroyed the man she loved's career, but a 'sorry, not sorry' apology was supposed to be enough. Will Smith even had to fix the romance, rather than Eva Mendez. That scene on the boat should have been Eva apologizing, not Will. If the writer is a BAD writer, they don't even admit the mistake was a mistake at all.
My favorite example of this is the woman that hides the fact that she was pregnant from her lover, often because she thinks he would be a bad father. Even if that is true, unless the father is a member of organized crime, doing that is just wrong on so many levels. She is depriving her own child of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, half brothers and half sisters. 'Woman up' and tell him that yes he is the father but no he can't see his kid till he gets his act together (moving to another state to enforce this, if necessary).
Some men and woman have a twisted view of woman because of how common this stereotype is. Woman in real life are not like in the movies. They like to have fun, they make mistakes, and yes the experience personal growth, just like men do.
Women cheat on their husbands, just like men cheat on their wives. The get drunk, abuse drugs, commit crimes, etc. etc. They like to have fun too - Gambling, dancing, orgasms (though they tend to be pickier than the men because orgasms are often harder for the woman to achieve).
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