Genna Davis at IC

Genna Davis an Academy Award Winning Actor and Founder of the Genna Davis Institute on Gender in the Media. She recently visited the beautiful Ithaca College on Tuesday, March 31, where she addressed Gender Equality in the Media.

Genna Davis Institute for Gender in Media is a non-profit program which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentage of female characters---and reduce danger stereotyping --in the media made for children 11 and under.

In her speech she addressed that in almost all her roles she plays is a strong women.  This is true through her part of the first female President on ABCs hit show Commander in Chief.  Currently, Davis plays Dr.Nicole Herman on Grey's Anatomy.

Some of her other films included Toostsie, The Fly, Beetlejuice, Earth Girls Are Easy, Angie, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Stuart Little and A League of Their Own. <----- My TWO FAVS!

Some very interesting points that I feel were valid in her speech are:

• Males outnumber females 3 to 1 in family films. In contrast, females comprise just over 50% of the population in the United States. Even more staggering is the fact that this ratio, as seen in family films, is the same as it was in 1946.
• Females are almost four times as likely as males to be shown in sexy attire. Further, females are nearly twice as likely as males to be shown with a diminutive waistline. Generally unrealistic figures are more likely to be seen on females than males.
• Females are also underrepresented behind the camera. Across 1,565 content creators, only 7% of directors, 13% of writers, and 20% of producers are female. This translates to 4.8 males working behind-the-scenes to every one female.
• From 2006 to 2009, not one female character was depicted in G-rated family films in the field of medical science, as a business leader, in law, or politics. In these films, 80.5% of all working characters are male and 19.5% are female, which is a contrast to real world statistics, where women comprise 50% of the workforce.

(http://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers)

James Franco Scandal

Now I'm usually not one for celebrity gossip, but occasionally I stumble upon something that I think is absolutely hysterical. This week was James Franco's 17 year old girl scandle from Buzzfeed. So according to the site James Franco messaged some girl from scotland via instagram because she was staying in New York for the week. The only problem was she was with her mother, and oh yeah, she is 17. I first read the messages and said "no way," but what forced me to believe that it was actually James Franco was the pictures he sent the girl. There was literally a picture of him with a letter of something she asked him to write for proof. What I think is humorous about this whole thing is I can totally see Franco being a little creepy when not in front of a camera. But what tops this entire thing off is that yesterday on the Kelly & Michael show Franco was interviewed and asked about this exact issue. When asked Franco's response was actually kind of respectful and intelligent. "I was just feeling awkward, I didn't want to come on the show and feel awkward. Yeah, I'm embarrassed and I uhhh… I guess Im just a model of how social media is tricky. It's a way of how people meet each other today.. But what Ive learned, I guess cause Im new to it, is that you don't know who's on the other end. You get a feel for them, but you don't know who your talking to. So, I used bad judgment, and I learned my lesson." So I guess the message of this blog is that stay away from James Franco if your an underage girl.

Die Hard 5? <--- Really?

     Okay so one of the most well known acton series is the Die Hard series.  Bruce Willis plays the role of John McClane, a New York cop saving the world.  The first Die Hard movie was unlike anything the theaters have seen before.  The non stop action and comedic language that Bruce Willis is noted for makes this movie a classic in action movies.  Since the first movie came out 4 others have followed.  The second film was not as good as the first but they came back with a third where Samuel L. Jackson co-starred with Bruce Willis and was a slight continuation of the story line from the first movie.

<---FIRST MOVIE

     The story of John McClane ended in 1995 until in 2007 when a forth movie came out to try and re-amp the series that everyone loved.  Live free of Die Hard was a good forth movie for not filming anything in 12 years, but that should have been it, there is now a fifth Die Hard movie!  There is a sense of over kill that has hit this well known and respected series.  A Good Day to Die Hard has been hammered by the critics and the script is said to be uninspiring.  Making Bruce Willis look like a bad ass has been done before!!!  For most of the time on set, articles have said that Bruce Willis barely acted, he really didn't care at al about the film, the producers should have just stopped then, if your starring actor doesn't care about the movie then there should be no movie.

   

<---FIFTH MOVIE
(See the difference)



     I am disappointed in the sense that a fifth movie was done, they should have left the series at 4.