Indian films high on sexualisation, stereotyping of women: UN report

United Nations: India tops the chart in showing attractive women in its movies and as much as 35 percent of these female characters are shown with some nudity, finds a first-ever UN sponsored global study of female characters in popular films across the world. [caption id=“attachment_1727479” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Agencies[/caption] The study, commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, with support from UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation, reveals deep-seated discrimination, pervasive stereotyping, sexualisation of women and their under-representation in powerful roles by the international film industry. Indian films, the study finds, have a significantly higher prevalence of sexualisation of female characters and the movies score low in depicting women in significant speaking roles and as engineers and scientists. While women represent nearly half of the world’s population, less than one third of all speaking characters in films are female and UK-US collaborations and Indian films are at the bottom of the pack. Both the American/British hybrid films (23.6 percent) and Indian films (24.9 percent) show female characters in less than one-quarter of all speaking roles. Even the frontrunners (UK, Brazil and South Korea) feature female characters in 35.9-38 percent of all speaking roles on screen. Sexualisation of female characters in movies is a standard practice across the global film industry and women are twice as likely as men to be shown in sexually revealing clothing, partially or fully naked, thin, and five times as likely to be referenced as attractive. Indian films are third behind German and Australian movies in showing females in “sexy attire” and, at 25.2 percent, India tops the chart in showing attractive females in its movies. About 35 per cent of female characters in Indian movies are shown with some nudity, the study finds. The prevalence of female directors, writers and producers in the Indian films was also not at a very high number. PTI