Male Gems?

The overall casting opportunities for men and women are still utterly unbalanced. An easy way to get a solid grasp on this issue is to go to IMDB and start clicking on some profiles. Look at the list of work that solid 'working' actors get every year and compare that list to actresses who have similar sized roles. Your average dude who is a solid character actor type will get 4 times as many 'one line' jobs as a female who plays similar sized roles. This is actually used to factor in a reason to PAY women substantially less as well. Because the males are employed at a much higher rate for a greater frequency of roles and more dialogue you end up with a system that actually rewards them with higher payscale for exactly the same work on individual projects.

It is insanely unfair.

My male friends who are actors are wonderful people. it is a hard life. I am absolutely pleased when they get work and sad when they hit dry spells. But I have to admit that they tend to have 5 to 6 times the opportunities offered to them as my female friends of equal training and experience and ability. And that is due to the tendency of writers to pare down all the female characters when they write and add males where females are in reality until the world of fiction is hopelessly skewed to be almost 75% male.

My most successful actor friends are in musical comedy. And that whole genre is supposed to be intensely female skewed. But lately that hasn't been the case. for every Wicked there are two 'The Producers' -- and when shows star women they always have plenty of solid male roles and chorus parts (see Wicked for instance.) while shows that star males -- like 'Book of Mormon' actually end up with a much smaller number of supporting roles for women.

Chick flicks and soap operas don't actually exclude men from their cast lists. People don't protest when males have speaking roles in decidedly 'no men allowed' environments like 'Orange is the New Black.'

It is not OK or an imagined gender issue.

/r/stevenuniverse Thread Parent