Female Leading Roles In TV Dramas Are A Rarity: A blog around women in theatre and media.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that female-centric movies and TV shows are a rarity. There is no dearth of movies and shows that have male protagonists, but the opposite is true only in select cases. If you think of some of the most famous and popular movie franchises like Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Batman and Spiderman (and the list is endless), the female presence is always that of a sidekick or love interest. And if there are any female leads, they are normally outnumbered by their male counterparts.
In TV series too, this situation is prevalent. For example, when we look at sci-fi shows like Lost or Doctor Who or superhero shows like Heroes or Arrow or even fantasy shows like Once Upon A Time, we see that the male protagonist’s story line completely overtakes every other character’s story line. It becomes all about him/her/them and there are very few instances where the female lead gets to shine for more than one season.
Most of the time, she is a pretty face to the male protagonist but is rarely the lead. A female protagonist in TV dramas is still a rarity.
Female Leading Roles In TV Dramas Are A Rarity: A blog around women in theatre and media.
The recently concluded TV drama ‘Alvida’, has been making waves on social media for all the wrong reasons. The drama featured Fawad Khan and Sanam Jung in leading roles. It was a story about a married couple who separate due to some family differences but reunite after many years. This drama with its story line is not unique and has been adapted from several Hollywood dramas and soap operas. The drama was aired on Hum TV and was directed by Ahson Talish, who is known for his work on Kuch Pyar Ka Pagalpan, Meri Zindagi Hai Tu, Mere Qatil Mere Dildar, Meri Saheli Meri Bhabi and Maat amongst others.
The serial had everything that made it an instant hit, good looking actors, popular background music, catchy dialogues and a story that makes you cry but what went missing here was the creativity in bringing something new to the table.
In a list of the most successful actors in the world, there are no women. This is not a surprise. It is something we are used to see. However, if you take a closer look at the list, you will realize that female leading roles in TV dramas are a rarity. The list contains twelve male actors and only three female actresses. These three women, Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson, have all played leading roles in TV series where men are either not present or do not play an important role.
And it is not only in film that we see this trend. In 2017, the most viewed TV shows were “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead.” Both shows had very few female characters – most of them come from supporting roles – while male characters stood out and played major parts in the plotlines. In contrast, women play more stereotyped roles in these two series. Even “The Crown,” which tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II – one of the most powerful women on Earth – has no female characters with any significant amount of screen time.
In this day and age, there are still fewer female leading roles in TV dramas. This is evident in the latest statistics released by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB). The WGGB have published their annual statistics on the gender breakdown of writers who have worked on original UK drama broadcast between 1 June 2016 and 31 May 2017.
The findings show that only 30% of writers were women – a 2% decrease on last year’s figures. Further to this, only 15% of solo writer credits were assigned to women and also women received just 28% of shared writing credits. Additionally, 28% of writers with an official ‘created by’ credit were female – a 3% increase on last year’s stats but still a very low number.
What does this mean for women? In short: fewer opportunities, less male-dominated stories, fewer opportunities to break stereotypes, more inequality and so on…
It’s the lack of female leading roles that is the main problem. It’s not that there are no great female parts, it’s just that, usually, there are very few. And when there are only one or two good roles for women, we can’t expect more than one or two women to be cast in them.
And since you don’t see so many women, you don’t get to see how many different kinds of performances they can give. You don’t get to see what kind of variety and range they possess.
So we need more parts for women. That doesn’t mean ‘turning men into women’ (that would be an interesting experiment though). It just means writing more plays (and films and TV shows) with interesting parts for women.
Over the past few years I’ve become a big fan of tv dramas. The best tv dramas are fantastic, inventive, and visually stunning- especially when they’re set in another era or an imaginary world. In the last week I’ve watched all five series of Mad Men (which I loved), and the first series of Downton Abbey (which I liked).
Mad Men is set in America in the 1960s and Downton Abbey is set in England between 1912 and 1925. Both are period dramas, which makes them highly enjoyable to watch for people like me who love vintage fashion and design. The clothes, furniture, décor and hairstyles are inspiring, especially for someone who runs a blog about women’s clothing from the 1920s to 1950s.
But there’s something missing from both shows- female characters with any real agency or power. There are plenty of women in both shows but they have little control over their lives. They may be rich or poor, married or single- but they are all defined by their relationship to men: either as wives, mothers or daughters.
There is a dearth of female leads in films, let alone films that are based on women’s stories. A lot of actresses are tired of playing second fiddle to male stars, and the now famous (or infamous) essay by Catherine Deneuve about the “witch-hunt” that has ensued since
