Men speak the most in 'Best picture' Oscar wins

[Steven P. Administrators]

I don't have a link, but it looks like the BBC published it 😛 

Kind of an interesting stat.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

That is not surprising at all. Woman have traditionally been told to be modest and not to "loud". I am very aware in the past I would dominant conversations even in groups of just me and more than one woman. In recent years I have really made a conscious effort to not be that person.

[satukoro]

On 14/03/2024 at 10:38, Steven P. said:

I don't have a link, but it looks like the BBC published it 😛 

Kind of an interesting stat.

Interesting that the criteria includes "more than 100 words". I'm curious if this data changes at all without that limiting factor. Also curious as to why theres a few missing years (2003 and 2012).

[ThaCrip]

Probably not surprising as off the top of my head most good movies in general, at least ones us guys tend to like, tend to naturally gravitate towards guys speaking since they tend to have the major roles. like some examples from the picture above, which are guy movies... Unforgiven (1992)/Braveheart (1995)/Gladiator (2000)/The Departed (2006) etc.

but off the top of my head on one example there... which also has more female speaking, is The Silence of the Lambs (1991) since it's mainly speaking between Jodie Foster/Anthony Hopkins. so it's not surprising the female in this movie has a more sizable portion of speaking.

but with Million Dollar Baby (2004)... that one has basically a female lead, or at least the more central character being female, although general major characters it's pretty much 1 female and 2 males and since everyone knows Eastwood/Freeman quite well it's not surprising they speak quite a bit.

another thing... given the OP's picture is strictly 'best picture winners' that's only a small sample size as I would be curious to see how things would play out in movies that are a bit more female oriented. I would guess their speaking would be on average a fair amount higher off the top of my head, even though may still be less than males speaking. but I would say the more 'guy like' a movie is that probably means females will generally be speaking that much less. not always, but you get the general idea.

but at the end of the day... it just boils down to the kind of movies it is as sometimes females will speak a bit more, other times less so. even taking a quick rough count through my favorite movies (which is 148 movies (out of 2,400+ total I have seen)) that I might consider more of a sizable female speaking role, or at least a big enough role where the female matters more in the movie, I might say as a ball park it's about 47/148 tops. so call it roughly 1/3rd of my favorite movies in general might have a female with a more sizable speaking role, or role in general. but it could go a fair amount less (or maybe a bit more) depending on how picky one wants to be with what one counts, but I feel that 1/3rd is a ball park without being too restrictive or too generous. but if I was more picky on what I counted (like ones I feel a bit more strongly that the female matters either with speaking or the general role) that 1/3rd count would decline some, or if I was a bit generous it could increase some but probably not too much from that rough 1/3rd count.

p.s. while I probably tend to like more guy oriented movies that are my favorites, I would assume not everything among my favorites is for guys only or thereabouts as I am sure some of them would at least have some level of appeal to females.

 

On 14/03/2024 at 11:03, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

I am very aware in the past I would dominant conversations even in groups of just me and more than one woman. In recent years I have really made a conscious effort to not be that person.

Honestly, I would not worry about it (especially if you are not rapid-fire like on any random person where you go on-and-on) as it just boils down to the natural flow of the conversation on who's going to be speaking in general with a bunch of random people on random topics.

I guess the only time it might become a issue, for either the male or female, is if they are talking way too much especially if you got a fair amount of people wanting to say some stuff and a person keeps cutting them off etc, which basically interrupts the natural flow of the conversation etc. then you got peoples personalities as some people tend to talk more than others in general, male or female.

plus, I think some people just naturally gravitate towards the center of the conversation on where it goes than others do as if you get multiple people like that in a room things could get disrupted etc. then again, after a certain point if you got many people, like ones who like to talk a fair amount or more, they might break off into smaller groups and continue their own conversation like happens within my random family get-togethers etc.

p.s. just personally I don't really say much to people I don't know well in real life. but for someone I am more familiar/comfortable around (which for me is only around 5 people or not much beyond that) then I can start to talk a good amount. which, at least for me, means any random person I am around I will come across as the silent type for sure as I say very little to people I don't know well. but I know online, like say around here, I might be more known for typing novels.

Edited March 14 by ThaCrip

[Yogurth]

This probably means that writers of those movies are men, it is not easy to write from a woman´s perspective convincingly if You are a male...maybe even impossible.

[Setnom]

Of course they do, We're talking about best picture winners, after all, not Hallmark movies.

[Zathras5]

On 14/03/2024 at 15:19, satukoro said:

Interesting that the criteria includes "more than 100 words". I'm curious if this data changes at all without that limiting factor. Also curious as to why theres a few missing years (2003 and 2012).

I was curious about the missing years as well and looked it up. 2012 was a silent film... The Artist and 2003 was a musical... Chicago.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 16/03/2024 at 02:16, Setnom said:

Of course they do, We're talking about best picture winners, after all, not Hallmark movies.

Do I have this right, are you suggesting only men have the ability to make Oscar quality movies?

[Setnom]

On 15/03/2024 at 20:43, Jumping Jacinta said:

Do I have this right, are you suggesting only men have the ability to make Oscar quality movies?

You don't have this right - the graph is not about women making Oscar quality movies, but about the dialog in Best picture winners.

Women can, of course, make Oscar quality movies: Kathryin Bigelow, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Valerie Faris, Greta Gerwig, Sarah Polley, Chloé Zhao, Ava DuVernay, etc.

 

[George P Global Moderator]

On 15/03/2024 at 16:53, Yogurth said:

This probably means that writers of those movies are men, it is not easy to write from a woman´s perspective convincingly if You are a male...maybe even impossible.

You'd be surprised how many women writing for male roles there are in Hollywood.   Specially for TV series.    It's not impossible for a guy to write for a female role,  if you're a good writer you're a good writer, your gender isn't a huge factor.

[George P Global Moderator]

On 14/03/2024 at 21:19, satukoro said:

Interesting that the criteria includes "more than 100 words". I'm curious if this data changes at all without that limiting factor. Also curious as to why theres a few missing years (2003 and 2012).

It does because it's just cherry picked statistics.   I'm sure you can change the criteria around and make a number of the above movies with females in major roles look like they have more lines or are more equal to the guys.  

[Nick H. Supervisor]

From what I can see, 18 of those films have one or more main characters that are male which would lead to more males speaking overall. And in about 10 of those films, I think the main characters have to be male because they are historical or (like in the case of LoTR) are based on previous works.

What an odd thing for someone to spend their time researching...

[Yogurth]

On 17/03/2024 at 10:54, George P said:

You'd be surprised how many women writing for male roles there are in Hollywood.   Specially for TV series.    It's not impossible for a guy to write for a female role,  if you're a good writer you're a good writer, your gender isn't a huge factor.

I wonder if that is why most of  the TV shows and movies in last ~15 years suck?

[George P Global Moderator]

On 17/03/2024 at 12:19, Nick H. said:

From what I can see, 18 of those films have one or more main characters that are male which would lead to more males speaking overall. And in about 10 of those films, I think the main characters have to be male because they are historical or (like in the case of LoTR) are based on previous works.

What an odd thing for someone to spend their time researching...

Like I said in my post, it's cherry picking stats to fit some agenda.  It's BS in the end.