Geena Davis Takes Aim

She practically glided into the Concourse Theater at New York’s Paley Center for Media. But at a slim, statuesque 6 feet tall, how else could Geena Davis enter a room? Especially in an additional 3 inches of black spike heels grounding a tasteful taupe short-sleeved dress and silver chain-and-bead necklace.

A genteel air of authority accompanies her height, which is presumably what made casting her as President of the United States in the ABC series Commander in Chief a no-brainer. Although Davis herself is anything but a “no-brainer” -- with a reported IQ of 140, she is a member of American Mensa, an organization open to those who score in the top two percent on standardized intelligence tests. This too was evident as she sat opposite Pat Mitchell, the Paley Center's President and CEO (who has an impressive résumé herself), to discuss the actor’s work both on and off screen.

The 54-year-old Oscar winner has been considered a style icon throughout her career, oft praised for her red carpet choices, all rather fitting since she began her career as a model in Ann Taylor windows. But as Mitchell evinced in her introduction, Davis quickly evolved beyond window-dressing roles, such as in Tootsie (she admitted she was mostly in her underwear, but was thrilled to be a part of a film about gender perceptions), to an iconic female powerhouse in Thelma & Louise.

Prior to the discussion, we were treated to a clip from the aforementioned Commander in Chief, with an oily Donald Sutherland trying to persuade Davis’s character not to take over as president. When she acknowledges the pervasive fear of a woman president “pressing the button” at that time of the month, he responds with a dismissive chuckle, “ Well, coupla years you won’t have that to worry about that anymore.”

At that, a low rumble rippled through the audience of mostly women like a sleeping volcano that had opened one eye. That sentiment was echoed on Davis’s face in the scene, placidly absorbing the covert dig as women often do, but oceans were roiling behind her eyes.

And this underlying dynamic was the thrust of the ensuing conversation between Davis and Mitchell: the presence and portrayal of women, and female characters in general, in the movies and television.

Davis has become increasingly aware, through her own career as well as seeking programming for her young children, that there is an acute and pervasive gender disparity in the media, including animated material. But rather than rant and rave, she has turned her attention to hard numbers to make her case. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media concentrates on research and statistics to raise awareness about the disparity -- and begin the process of change.

Some startling observations she made:

• Despite of the success of movies like Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own (both Davis vehicles), The First Wives Club and even Sex and the City, the numbers don’t really change. The ratio of female to male characters in films has been about 1 to 3 since 1946.  

• For the vast majority of female lead characters, their aspiration is romance; career goals are entertainer and royalty. One exception she noted is Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). [Actually Working Girl is another, with romance as a byproduct, but Davis’s primary focus is kid’s programming.]

For a girl, the more hours of TV she watches, the less options she believes she has in life. The more TV a boy watches the more sexist he becomes.”

Davis acknowledged the triumph of Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win as a woman director, but expressed fear that it’s a one-ff. And indeed Bigelow herself has downplayed the benchmark honor 81 years in coming. As an article in the New York Times said,

She might be a female director, but by refusing to accept that gendered designation -- or even engage with it -- she is asserting her right to be simply a director.”

Of course, Bigelow's right, but while in the process of making the significant changes Davis is attempting, perhaps highlighting the achievement would be a positive step forward right now.

As the conversation wound to its close, Geena Davis humbly clarified that she was not actually an Olympian. Factually speaking, she made it to the semifinals competing to join the U.S. Olympic archery team for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, placing 24th out of 300. But with her fact-based initiative on gender equality in media, she has found her target and aimed her arrow at the heart of the problem.