Are movies just a way to pass time on a weekend? Or are they quietly scripting how girls see themselves and their futures?
It’s a question I began asking while working on my master’s paper. I interviewed young women between the ages of 15 and 25 - some students, some professionals, all avid consumers of films and TV shows. Their answers revealed a powerful truth: representation in media isn’t just about whether a woman appears on screen. It’s about how she’s portrayed, what she’s allowed to feel, how much she’s allowed to grow, and whether she exists as a full person, or merely a prop.
From Hollywood blockbusters to Bollywood romances, films are subtly, but deeply, shaping how young girls view their bodies, ambitions, and relationships. And often, those views are built on outdated, limiting stereotypes.
The science behind the screen: Why what we watch shapes who we are
Why does it matter how women are portrayed in film? Why can’t we just “watch and enjoy”?
Because human beings learn through observation. According to Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, people, especially young people, learn by watching others. And that includes fictional characters. Whether it's Hermione Granger solving a mystery at Hogwarts or a passive heroine waiting for love, these characters send powerful messages about what girls can be, what they should aspire to, and how they should behave.
George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory takes it further: the more we see a particular message in media, the more it becomes ingrained in our worldview. If most films show women as emotional, delicate, or dependent, then that becomes the default reality for viewers, especially for those who don’t see many alternatives in their daily lives.
This isn’t just theory. It’s backed by decades of research. In her report “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World,” Dr Martha Lauzen found that in 2013, women accounted for just 15 percent of protagonists in the highest-grossing films. Even by 2022, that number had only inched up to 45 percent. That’s still more than half of stories that don’t center women at all.
It’s a silent curriculum, repeated frame by frame.
Girls know the script. And they’re tired of it
The girls I spoke with didn’t use academic jargon, but they knew something was wrong.
“Why are the girls always just sidekicks or love interests?” asked a 16-year-old high school student. “If you’re not pretty or in love with the hero, you barely exist.”
Another 14-year-old echoed that sentiment: “I’ve never seen a movie where a girl like me was the boss or the main character unless it’s about her getting a makeover or falling in love.”
Their frustration wasn’t just about absence; it was about the type of presence. A 23-year-old master’s student who described herself as a “movie freak” told me she still struggles to name a Bollywood film with a strong female lead. “Even today all I can name, for strong female lead in Bollywood, is Queen. Women are almost always secondary,” she said. “Their looks are emphasized more than their character. It made me grow up thinking girls just had to be pretty and agreeable to matter.”
These stories aren’t isolated. They’re systemic. Films that feature female leads often still center male narratives or reduce female ambition to a subplot. And it’s leaving young women starved for role models who reflect the complexities of their real lives.
Objectified and overlooked: When the camera only cares about your looks
One of the most consistent themes in my interviews was the impact of objectification. Girls notice when the camera lingers on a woman’s body, her outfit, or the way she moves. And they internalize the message: to matter, you have to be beautiful.
A 17-year-old shared: “It’s like the camera is obsessed with what she’s wearing, not what she’s doing. Sometimes it feels like you have to be pretty to matter.”
Objectification Theory, developed by Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts, helps explain this. Their 1997 study argued that women are frequently reduced to their appearance in media, and that this can lead to mental health challenges like anxiety, body shame, and eating disorders.
These aren’t just abstract concerns. Studies by Aubrey and Frisby found that in music videos across genres, female artists were consistently portrayed with significant body exposure, regardless of their race or the theme of the video. Similarly, Glascock and Ruggiero, in their paper “Representations of Class and Gender on Primetime Spanish-language Television in the United States,” showed that women on Spanish-language television were significantly more likely than men to wear revealing clothing.
The American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2010) warned that such portrayals can harm young viewers’ self-esteem, body image, and even academic ambition. And the girls I interviewed confirmed it. “Sometimes I feel like I need to look a certain way just to be taken seriously,” one said. “Because that’s what I see in the movies.”
Who’s holding the camera? Why representation behind the scenes matters
Why is it so hard to find complex female characters in film? The answer often lies behind the scenes.
Most movies are still written, directed, and produced by men. According to Ian Kunsey’s research (Representations of Women in Popular Film: A Study of Gender Inequality in 2018), female filmmakers are seen as “risky” in an industry obsessed with profitability. That leads to safe investments, often meaning stories told through a male lens, with male priorities.
This lack of diversity isn’t just a numbers game. It affects what stories are told, how characters are written, and what kinds of women appear on screen.
And it’s not limited to movies. The Global Media Monitoring Project (2021) found that women make up just 24 percent of expert voices in global news coverage. In sports media, female athletes are barely mentioned. In children’s television, male characters still significantly outnumber female ones.
This invisibility becomes internalized. Girls begin to believe that leadership, expertise, and even adventure are inherently male domains. They start to doubt their own authority, before they’ve even had a chance to claim it.
Real harm, real lives: The price of poor representation
The consequences of all this are not just emotional - they’re structural.
In their 2022 study on body satisfaction and media influence (Pathways from Sociocultural and Objectification Constructs to Body Satisfaction Among Men: The US Body Project I. Body Image), Frederick mentions that regular exposure to sexualized media was linked to lower body satisfaction and higher acceptance of harmful beauty standards. McKenney and Bigler (Internalized Sexualization and Its Relation to Sexualized Appearance, Body Surveillance, and Body Shame Among Early Adolescent Girls, 2016) discovered that internalizing these portrayals leads girls to accept sexist beliefs and tolerate harassment.
It goes further. The APA’s 2010 report linked these portrayals to depression, low self-esteem, and a reluctance to pursue leadership roles. Girls told me they often second-guess themselves in classrooms and public spaces because they’ve rarely seen women take charge in the stories they consume.
“When all you see are women who need saving,” one said, “you start to believe that’s all you can be.”
Girls want a new script and they’re ready to write it
But there is hope and it’s loud, clear, and coming straight from the audience.
The girls I interviewed aren’t waiting for the industry to change. They debate movies in group chats. They recommend shows with strong female leads. They critique films with outdated tropes. “We always have heated discussions about this,” one college student laughed. “It’s not just entertainment. It’s about how we see ourselves.”
They crave characters who are bold, awkward, brilliant, complicated, angry, kind, and everything in between. They want girls who save the day, build things, break the mold, and mess up sometimes without being reduced to a cautionary tale.
“I want to see a movie where the girl invents something amazing,” said a 13-year-old. “Or just gets to be herself.”
What needs to change and who needs to do it
After months of listening to these girls, watching the films they watch, and reading the research, one thing is clear: representation is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.
Stories shape culture. Culture shapes identity. And identity shapes the future. If we want the next generation of girls to grow up confident, curious, and unafraid to take center stage, we need a radical shift in the stories we tell and who gets to tell them.
And most of all, we need to listen to young women because they’re already leading the way.
Because the next generation is watching. And they’re ready for a new script, one where every girl gets to be the main character.
