Women in film: count….eh not many.

This is great, I accidentally stumbled upon some figures I didn’t realize I was looking for. Check out this bloggers post on female leads in film: xkcd

And the conversation it stirred up is really interesting.

Equality Now honors Joss Whedon in 2006

I just came across this while surfing and think it’s worth seeing again. An incredible speach.

The Business of Being Born

If you haven’t already, go get this movie. If you have netflix and a PC on hand, you can catch it in your Watch Instantly listings too.

U.S. culture and our healthcare system has a death grip–literally–on the way women give birth here. We have the second highest infant mortality rate in all of the developed world; and The Business of Being Born explains how medical interventions during labor domino each other to turn birthing into something to be cured of instead of an experience to behold and causes more complications than should happen.

But the movie isn’t just about exposing the statistic that one in three births in the U.S. are by Cesarean section, many of them planned, or that women are being cattle-shot through maternity wards in order for their doctors to get dinner on time. In addition to these staggering details, this movie ends up being largely about women’s empowerment, ancient women’s knowledge and intuition, and

Ricki Lake’s produced the film and Abby Epstein directed. I think the film is more universally understandable because these two women and others were so honest about their own births–the fears they had, the lack of information Ricki had during her first birth, and that they disclosed their process for the film. It doesn’t seem like such a radical idea because all of the normal questions and concerns came up: What about clinical monitors? What about being transferred to a hospital in case of an emergency? What about pain? What about the fact that most women are filled with fear and anxiety about birthing and so they lack the confidence in their own bodies and minds to think of having a natural birth? All of it comes up, including a nasty history of hosptial birthing, which helps with some answers to Why are we like this?

I stayed up way too late watching this film, but it was well worth it.