Today, in infuriating but unsurprising stats: Pretty much every popular movie or book you can think of -- “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” and “Game of Thrones” included -- stars a disproportionate number of heroes, and a maddeningly low number of heroines and villainesses. Yes, even with Professor McGonagall and Hermione factored in, J.K. Rowling's series includes a 63.5 percent male cast -- and hers isn't even the biggest offender.
This info (illustrated below) was collected by Icelandic design duo Sirrý & Smári, who've illustrated and written graphic novels and children's books. For the below graphic, they note a 14 percent female cast in "Star Wars IV" through "Star Wars VI," with a six percent improvement for episodes one through three. The only included story with more women than men is Pixar's "Inside Out."
This unofficial count is just another statistic to bear in mind when choosing what to watch or read. Add to it the recently unearthed facts that fewer women writers get reviewed or win awards, and fewer books about women win awards, and the gender disparity in the stories we consume becomes clear.
There have been several attempts to even the scales, including the promising VIDA count, and one publisher's commitment to only publish books by women in 2018. Until then, here's to reading and watching stories peopled by both fabulous genders.
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