To grossly oversimplify the perception - men relate better to male leads; are simple and thus like simple movies; therefore most films aimed at men will have a male lead, will have a relatively simple style and therefore communication will be either between the male lead and someone else, or actually about the male lead. I agree it is sexism, but it is a sexism based on perceived audience behavior.
There is indeed broad sexism. I've participated in a few threads where sexism in general was the topic, and noticed that some guys don't see an imbalance. So this thread quantifies a very specific subset of the imbalance: depiction of women in films.
What do you think it says about sexism and culture that men relate better to male leads? Do women have this problem?
I like Christopher Nolan's Batman. I liked the Star Trek reboot. I'm really looking forward to Man of Steel. I thought Star Wars was okay, and really appreciated Han Solo's character, Obi-wan, etc. I mostly liked Lord of the Rings, including the dynamic characters of Boromir and Gandalf. I liked Indiana Jones even though all four movies didn't even have a single instance of two women having a conversation about anything at all (even a man). Come on George Lucas, seriously. I loved Morpheus and Agent Smith from the Matrix. I liked Fight Club even though it was a movie specifically about guys and as part of the storyline they specifically excluded women from their club. I liked Lion King and Aladdin, including the male characters of Aladdin, Jafar, Simba, Mufasa, and Scar. I liked Michael Clayton and the dudes in it. I liked Valkyrie and the dudes in it. I liked Saving Private Ryan and Shawshank Redemption even though they almost completely lacked any females.
What percentage of men and women do you think went to see Dark Knight Rises compared to the percentage of men and women that go and see any examples of the smaller subset of popular movies that fail the Bechdel test for men?
A lot of women go and see movies that are mainly created by men and about men. Sure, I really like it when there's a female character, especially in the leading role, but I'm not picky either way. Gender is a small component of character. I'm only picky when popular movie after popular movie seems to be a total dude-fest where two women don't even speak to each other in an entire trilogy and then my co-workers are like "I don't see why more women don't like this."
When you consider that the test is so very simple, 54% is not very impressive; mind you I am more interested in those that fulfill at least 2 of the 3 criteria, 65%, which I personally find quite horribly low.
The 54% might perhaps be attributable to having a smaller cast, having a more central story line etc - yet the 65% simply indicates that what ever female characters are involved, they are not actually interacting to any considerable extent, that instead, their interaction is through discussions with males.
Now personally I would prefer the shawshank redemption/private ryan type movies be removed from such statistics prior to comparing them, but even then, it still seems far too low.
Yup I think it should be over 90% probably.
To any guys that think 50% is acceptable, I'm happy to hear what their favorite movies are where two men never talk to each other.