In vain, Emma Watson knows how to manipulate the strong analogies in order to make her say: "I do not think Hollywood is ready to change, or at least until we twist her arm" the actress, in March, to the magazine Esquire. In 2014, it was before the United Nations that it launched the campaign "HeForShe" (literally him for her), calling on men to mobilize for equality. And it is far from being the only one to have, in recent times, brandished its feminist tendencies.
If Meryl Streep has long been isolated to denounce the sexist injustices of the Hollywood jungle, at the Oscars 2015, it is Patricia Arquette, rewarded for her (second) role in "Boyhood", who hammered that it was time to "claim the equal wages once and for all, and the same rights for women in the United States. " Since then Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Robin Wright - and even Jesse Eisenberg and Kevin Bacon - have spoken out against this sexism.
Holywood is a relic. In the realm of progressivism, Hollywood is a relic. In fact, by 2014, only 12% of the main roles were attributed to women, when 74% of the characters were men over 40 years old.
A Golden Age forgotten
The decor has not been as "testosterone". "In the years 1910-1920, women were the ones who governed the cinema, being paid better than men and in positions like producers, directors, studios patrons ... that they had to abandon, at the beginning of the 1930s, with the arrival of the talking and the recovery in the male economic hand, "recalls the French director Julia Kuperberg, co-author, with his sister, Clara, documentary" And the woman created Hollywood.
It is therefore by the yardstick of the revival that these fronds can be observed, and the initiatives which flourish to recover from this lost power. "What is changing is that well-known actresses finally take a stand," says Julia Kuperberg. "Women are still more affected than men during economic crises, and 2008 has woken up minds."
On March 1, 2016, Juliette Binoche and Jessica Chastain launched a feminist production house called "We Do It Together". An initiative that echoes that of Reese Witherspoon, Pacific Standard, which carries films with less caricatured female roles (Wild, Gone Girl). His next project? The life of Ruth Handler, creator of Barbie. Another way to dress up the famous doll.
Hollywood in numbers
16 is, in percentage terms, the share of women professionals in the film, used in the two hundred and fifty of the most successful American box office in 2010.
52 in millions of dollars, the biggest stamp in 2015 by a woman (Jennifer Lawrence), against 80 for her male counterpart (Robert Downey Jr.)
15 in percentage, the share of directors in the United States (of which 7% in Hollywood)
25 is the average age difference in Hollywood couples between feminine (younger) and masculine (older) figures.
While these numbers are increasing, the road ahead for gender equality is still long.