It’s a fact of life that life itself is not fair. Nowhere is that clearer than in this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture.
Just scan through that lineup and you’ll be hard pressed to find a single one of them with a female lead. Look a little further down the list of nominees, and you’ll notice that only one of the Best Picture film is featured in the Best Actress category (Felicity Jones for “The Theory of Everything”). If you’ve seen or read anything about “The Theory of Everything” you know that calling Ms. Jones part a “lead” is a bit of a stretch.
In case you’re wondering, the number one does come into play in the Best Actor category, as in there’s one nominee who appeared in a film that wasn’t nominated for Best Picture (Steve Carell for “Foxcatcher”).
The reason for this is obvious (as Stephanie pointed out in yesterday’s post), when the vast majority of those voting are men (who are also white), they will tend to like films which they can relate to.
So, how do we change this? Well, by changing the system. Which, unfortunately can only be done from the inside, and the only way to get inside is if the people who are voting for these awards let you in…
Another fact of life is that change takes time, but personally, I’m tired of waiting. Congratulations to all the talented women who were nominated this year. And to those who weren’t, keep up the good fight. We’ll get there eventually.
TIME
…just for fun:
