Women in the movies

The Iron Lady may have helped Hollywood actress Meryl Streep, win her third Oscars in a leading role, but let’s face it... cinema has never always been so kind to women. Late last year, a US daily, published a startling research conducted by the USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism proving Hollywood’s gender inequality.
According to a study being released, in a survey of the top 100-grossing movies of 2009 — including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Twilight Saga: New Moon — researchers found that 32.8% of the 4,342 speaking characters were female and 67.2% were male, a percentage identical to that of the top-grossing movies of 2008.
The study also showed that women were more likely than men to wear sexy clothing in movies, such as swimwear and unbuttoned shirts (25.8% versus 4.7%), to expose skin (23% versus 7.4%) and to be described by another character as attractive (10.9% versus 2.5%). And these are not imagined figures.
However, there are a few strong woman-centric roles essayed by strong actors in the past few years which have not gone unnoticed by many. Here is a list of some of them...
THE GIRL WITH THE
DRAGON TATTOO:
Rooney Mara, plays Lisbeth Salander, a tough, unsocial computer hacker. She is repeatedly abused by many men who come and go in her life. but she struggles to prove herself. The Swedish version too is just as gritty and stays true to the Millennium Trilogy.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN:
Is it any wonder that Keira Knightley’s character makes it to this list? She fought pirates and the East India Company! For a young lady who was supposed to swoon even at the sight of blood, Keira’s Elizabeth Swann, can sure kick ass.
THE READER:
Kate Winslet essays the role of a beautiful tram conductor with a very dark past. She falls in love with a young teenager who finally teaches her everything she knows. After she is accused of multiple murders, Kate’s character, mutely accepts her fate and sentence.
KILL BILL:
It is by far Quentin Tarantino’s finest piece of work. The movie was placed in a magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Films of all time at number 325 and Q’s character The Bride (Uma Thurman) was ranked number 66. Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride (Uma Thurman) plays a blood-thirsty revenge-seeking assassin. The rest, they say, is movie magic history. Enough said.
EAT, PRAY, LOVE:
Julia Roberts plays a woman struggling to understand herself and find inner peace. She fights her demons while journeying around the world. In the end, she overcomes her fears and ego to embrace love and happiness.