The Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media (CIMA) proposes ten tips to screenwriters, directors, creators and the general public to avoid gender bias in series and films.
It is the
Decalogue of good practices to combat sexism in audiovisual stories
, created by the film critic María Castejón Leorza based on a proposal by Alexa Portillo, head of the CIMA education delegation, and designed by Paula Lupiáñez.
The material was published on November 18.
The decalogue has two versions, one in comic, shorter, and a longer one in which the ten points of the guide are developed.
Leorza explains to
Verne
that they had "the need to articulate some material that was super simple and that could be useful to find new references in the cinema."
Her background as a researcher on film and gender issues and her experience with audiovisual productions have been the references to reach the ten recommendations.
This material is intended to serve as a guide to suggest new points of view for female characters in audiovisual products.
It has primarily an educational and awareness intention.
According to CIMA on its page, the document will be sent to the ministries of Education and Vocational Training, Culture and Sports, and Equality, and to parliamentary groups.
In addition, the association has requested a meeting with heads of the European Parliament.
María Castejón Leorza recalls that nowadays there are already women in prominent roles, but that they still remain very much on the surface of female representation: “It is not only that we are women in the movies -that we also-, but that the interpretations are a little more complex ”, he details.
Detail of the 'Decalogue of good practices to combat sexism in audiovisual stories'.
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Thus, the decalogue highlights in some of its points the importance of diversity when representing women in audiovisual content.
"Women exist ... and they are not only mothers, girlfriends or victims of violence", there are more roles that can be attributed to them without feeding back a perpetrator.
"Women are not just bodies", and we must avoid sexualization and objectification of female characters.
“Women exist before the age of 20 and after the age of 40, and things even happen to them”, and taking this into account contributes to making a considerable part of women visible.
Not promoting gender violence and sexual violence is also one of the good practices recommended by the Decalogue.
The material recalls that there is also symbolic violence: a set of representations that contributes to reinforcing gender stereotypes.
“If they only take five minutes from us in a movie, as mothers or as the hero's trophy, for example, that is a form of symbolic violence because you are making the rest invisible and a representation that is not natural is being naturalized, because women are much more than that ”, explains Leorza.
Finally, the decalogue highlights the importance of creating new references not only for women, but also for men.
Leorza reflects: "We women are conquering action, with films like
Wonder Woman
or
The Hunger Games
, but something that would be absolutely revolutionary would be to have men taking care of the cinema", be it the family, the children or the house.
Leorza still highlights the importance of audiovisual pieces in how reality is perceived: "The stories educate us, they have the ability to be subversive or to naturalize inequalities and they have a lot of influence throughout our lives."
"The more powerful female characters we have and the more variety also in masculinities, the more we can have fun, the better we can think and we will have richer fantasies", he concludes.
Detail of the 'Decalogue of good practices to combat sexism in audiovisual stories'.
TOP
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