Hollywood Studios Waging War on Women Amid Cultural Shift

A new study shows that it’s not the Republican Party that’s waging a war on women—it’s Hollywood!

A study by the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism shows that roles for women in Hollywood movies are drying up.

For example, of the top 100 movies at the U.S. box office in 2012, only 28.4 percent of the 4,475 speaking characters were female, a decrease of 13.4 percent from the 32.8 percent number three years ago. Also, only 6 percent of those movies had a “balanced” cast, which was defined as a percentage of 45 percent to 54.9 percent.

“When they do get screen time,” the study said, “31.6 percent of women were depicted wearing sexually revealing clothing in 2012, the highest percentage over the five years [of the study].”

Deplorably, this sinful depiction was even more true for teenage female characters, where 56.6 percent of teen girls wore sexy clothes, an increase of 20 percent since 2009.

It’s also interesting to note that, according to Big Hollywood on the Internet, the Cannes Film Festival’s lineup this year includes only one female director (last year’s festival had none!).

“Hollywood needs to re-examine its moral standards,” says Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission ministry (CFTVC), which also does business as Movieguide: The Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment.

“The sexual revolution ushered in by Hollywood, the psychology profession, the secular education establishment and the Supreme Court in the 1950s and 1960s has been a disaster for American society, but especially for women and children. Because of the sexual revolution and other factors, millions of single mothers and their children are at risk to deadly sexually transmitted diseases, poverty and violent gangs, which just repeat the cycle of unwed mothers, poverty, diseases and violent crime … even though there is an antidote to the problem: media wisdom.”

There is good news to report, however, Baehr says.

“Movieguide and the Christian Film & Television Commission have made great inroads in redeeming the values of Hollywood and influencing Hollywood leaders to put more Christian faith and values, and more traditional, patriotic values, in their movies and television programs,” he says.

Baehr cites the recent high ratings for such family-friendly, faith-oriented and patriotic television programs as The Bible, Duck Dynasty and NCIS, as well as the increase in successful faith-oriented movies like The Blind Side, 42 and Soul Surfer and the popularity of family-friendly movies like The Blind Side, Ice Age: Continental Drift, The Croods and Oz the Great and Powerful.

Says Baehr, “People are crying out for good faith-based, patriotic entertainment that’s morally and spiritually uplifting.”