Producer Ross Putman, who has worked on a few films, took to Twitter this week to begin highlighting the sexist and often repetitive way women characters are introduced in scripts he has read.
Putman began his Twitter account on Feb. 9 and has since posted 21 descriptions of female characters in the scripts. Many of them are unrealistic fantasies of young women. The oldest character is a 40-year-old woman who is “drop-dead beautiful” and a “raw, sexual force.” Three of them are described as “sexy” and nearly all of them include a description for how the character should look.
Each post is word-for-word what Putnam sees in the script, although he changes the names of the characters to “Jane.”
Putman started his Twitter feed just after a study was released that showed that women made up just 22 percent of the lead characters in 2015’s top 110 highest-grossing films. And only 33 percent of speaking roles went to female characters. Amazingly, these low numbers were actually up from the previous year.
While Putman’s entire feed is worth reading, here’s some of the highlights (or low-lights).
JANE, 28, athletic but sexy. A natural beauty. Most days she wears jeans, and she makes them look good.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
Though drop-dead beautiful, JANE (40) has the appearance of someone whose confidence has been shaken. She is a raw, sexual force, impeded.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE (late 20s) sits hunched over a microscope. She’s attractive, but too much of a professional to care about her appearance.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
This is JANE. She’s lithe, leggy, spirited, outgoing, not afraid to speak her mind, with a sense of humor as dry as the Sonoran Desert.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
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