MAKERS: Geena Davis

Full text:

I don’t know how in the 20th century we can possibly justify not showing girls things they can aspire to and at the same time how can we possibly be showing boys this narrow vision of what women are and what they can be. Eighty percent of media consumed worldwide is made in the United States so we are to a great extent responsible for exporting this negative image of women and girls. It’s the one area of gender disparity that we could fix overnight. We can’t snap our fingers and now Congress is half women. No matter what it’ll take a while. But in the next movie somebody makes, they can say, “Hey wait, let’s make some of the scientists women. Let’s make 40 percent of the police force women and not talk about that they’re women.” Because no matter how much we tell them, boys and girls are equal and you can do whatever you want, if they’re not seeing it, it’s not sinking in as well. It’s kind of working, there are movies coming out now that we’ve been directly credited with bringing that to their attention. So I’m really excited. I think for the first time since the 40s the needle might actually move within the next few years.

IF SHE CAN SEE IT, SHE CAN BE IT®