News Archive
Geena Davis takes childrens fight to UN
Geena Davis has taken her campaign for empowerment of women in children’s media to the United Nations.
The Oscar-winner says she became concerned about the “disturbing” stereotyping and hyper-sexualisation of female characters after watching cartoons with her then 2-year-old. Read More…
Actress Geena Davis talks media, empowerment of women at U.N.
As an actress, Geena Davis played the first female president on TV and a baseball player in a popular movie, but as a media consumer she concluded long ago that there was something wrong in the way women were portrayed. Davis, a best-actress Oscar winner who is trying to change the portrayal of women in media, appeared at the United Nations Monday promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women in children’s media. Read More…
At UN, actress Geena Davis takes on media for negative images of women
With her ground-breaking roles in such films as Thelma and Louise and A League of Their Own, Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis is no stranger to playing strong women on the silver screen. Off-camera, she is fighting passionately to ensure that women and girls are accurately depicted in the media, warning that they hyper-sexualization and other negative portrayals could roll back hard-won progress in achieving the United Nations-backed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline. Read More…
Shattering Stereotypes Worldwide: Geena Davis Speaks to the UN about Children’s Programming
At our 30th anniversary celebration in November, Academy Award winner Geena Davis shared feedback from fans moved by her portrayals of powerful women who defy stereotypes. Now 18 years since the release of A League of Their Own and teenage girls still approach Geena inspired by the hit movie: “I play sports because of that movie. I love that movie – I’ve watched it 100 times.” Read More…
Geena Davis speaks about gender equality at U.N. ECOSOC session
On June 28, Geena Davis presented key policy outcomes from the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Special Event on Engaging Philanthropy to Promote Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (Fast Forward to 1:29). Watch Online…
Geena Davis: How the Media’s Gender Bias Hurts our Children
I’ve had a sneaking suspicion for some time now that many of the G-rated cartoons and movies that my daughter watches aren’t entirely good for her. Although we enjoyed watching Disney’s Tinkerbell the other night, both my husband and I thought that the popular fairy was entirely too sexualized. I also find Disney Chanel’s Phineas and Ferb funny and clever and yet the show strongly embraces gender stereotypes. Phineas and Ferb are the boy geniuses (dreaming up fabulous inventions) while the girls are either boy crazy or servantile (in this case a troop of Fireside Girls who assist the boy wonders on call). Read More…
Geena Davis Uses Her Celebrity Power to Help Improve the Gender Disparity in Film and TV for Kids
Monday night I had the opportunity to see Geena Davis in conversation with Pat Mitchell at the Paley Center for Media in NYC. They talked through her career but spent the bulk of the time talking about the work she is doing now at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media which is an organization that does research on gender disparities in media for children. She then takes the research and meets with studios and networks and presents them with the facts in hopes that this will address the disparity. Read More…
Geena Davis touts gender equality in kids media at PBWC Conference
On May 11, Geena Davis was a keynote speaker at the Professional BusinessWomen of California 2010 Conference. Watch Online…
Geena Davis: “Looney Toons has 11 characters. The only female character is Granny.”
Ever since I went to see Geena Davis (and freaked out a little) at the Paley Institute, I’ve gotten a somewhat nerdy in my admiration of her. Since founding the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Davis has been outspoken in her support of stronger, and more frequent, female characters in entertainment – particularly in children’s programming. The research of the Institute has uncovered the dire reality of gender in film and television, including the fact that the amount of sexually revealing clothing on female characters in G-rated films is equal to those in R-rated movies, and that the ratio of male to female movie characters (3 to 1) hasn’t budged since the 1940’s. Read More…
Geena Davis touts gender equality in kids media
From “Thelma & Louise” to “Commander in Chief,” actress Geena Davis has embodied iconic – and iconoclastic – female characters. Davis, whose resume includes an Academy Award, Mensa membership, Swedish fluency and Olympic-level archery prowess, is among the keynoters scheduled for Tuesday’s Professional BusinessWomen of California conference, taking place at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Read More…
