As a hetero guy I would rather see a movie or TV show with female presence. And I haven’t figured out why network programmers haven’t thought of that. I watched NBC’s “Must She TV” rather than Monday Night Football (of course I don’t care about football in the first place, so that wasn’t much of a contest). But they put those sitcoms on Monday so women, not men, would have something to watch.

I detest shows where the woman is merely a zero-dimensional object of affection for the man, or where the only personality the writers could think to give the woman is clumsiness.

I’ve never seen any of the films you mentioned… I’m adding them all to my netflix queue and looking forward to seeing the subversion of this trend!

Mostly, you’re right, but there are definitely exceptions in history. One example that stands out is Tulsa. And then there’s Silkwood. The China Syndrome too.

In movies, women are never the producers of energy, but we sure are consumers! In movies, we are obsessed with shopping. The woman is sad? She should go shopping. The woman is mad at her man? She should go shopping. Take public transportation? Never! She needs a minivan for all those packages, or at the very least, a taxi.

This focus on the world of men, showing women silently (but happily) using energy-consuming products, driving, and shopping, deliberately avoids certain situations. Women in movies never have to deal with rising energy bills. They never talk about efficiency or try to reduce their carbon imprints (let alone reduce the amount of clutter created by endless shopping trips!) Women in movies never use recycling bins or CFLs. They never have problems with brownouts, or water contaminated by fracking. All of these things would break the illusion that movies create: women as the blissful consumers of energy, energy magically bestowed upon them by men.

Good luck with your panel!