| | | There it was—what I'd been waiting for! Delivered to my desk was a newspaper, and on the cover of the "Lifestyle" section was a full-color image of the women of the new Shrek the Third movie (opening May 18) poised and ready to kick some butt. The article that accompanied the photo promised that Fiona, Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Sleeping Beauty will thwart a coup on the city of Far Far Away. I had been thinking quite a bit about the images of women I've been seeing in the movies, and TA-DA! Here's the perfect example.
My thesis, or maybe my desire, is that women are becoming more powerful and more influential, and that fact is rippling through our entire culture—including our pop culture. The change in the movie industry is just one example. The fact that we're not simply the damsel in distress anymore, that we're being portrayed as smarter, stronger, and wittier than we have even as recently as five years ago, is the by-product of women's changing stakes in our economy, and decision makers wising up to the fact that strong women can mean big business.
Hollywood really has an obligation to change. The status of women as power players in the marketplace is undeniable. Just look at the numbers:- Women made up 62% of new entrants into the workforce in the last 10 years and are projected to account for 51% of the growth of the labor force between 2004 and 2014.
- In 2005, 60% of all women over the age of 16 are working or looking for work. That's a record 66 million women contributing to the economy.
- Women-owned businesses are growing at twice the rate of all privately held firms.
- The largest percentage of working women (38%) work in management, professional or other related occupations.
- Specifically regarding the movie industry, according to the Motion Picture Associate of America, in 2005 the number of moviegoers fell to its lowest in eight years. However, women who see movies with some sort of regularity were at 56% of those surveyed—Not far behind the men at 59%.
These are just a few examples of how there are more educated women with money out there, deciding what movie they might want to spend their hard-earned dollars on, women who want to see more women like themselves and their heroines on the big screen.
I don't know if Shrek the Third will be everything I'm hoping for, but I remain just that: hopeful. I'm sure that, since the title of the movie remains Shrek the Third and not Fiona Saves the Day, that Shrek will undoubtedly be the main protagonist of the movie. This in-and-of-itself is a powerful metaphor of the status of women in the market—growing in influence, but not quite influential enough to save the day. Still, I wonder, will Shrek the Third continue on with the male hero we're so used to seeing or will they both take charge of their unique tasks? And along with Fiona, will the pack of princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and the narcoleptic Sleeping Beauty) prove to be capable of not only taking care of themselves, but saving others after hundreds of years of needing Price Charming to come to their rescue? Will other business and industries get wise to this new trend of catering more of their goods to the growing population of women like me? I can only wait in anticipation to see!
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