Ross Putnam, a Los Angeles producer, started a themed Twitter handle (@femscriptintros) that isn’t particularly shocking to anyone. The handle’s theme: sexism in scripts. As a producer, Putnam receives film pitches on a daily basis. And as a producer, he notices the trend of descriptors for their leading ladies, most of which places emphasis on being a blond “drop dead beauty” or naked. Not limited to physical descriptors, women in these scripts are reduced to tropes of shallow covetousness, emphasizing aspirations of idle wealth or attractiveness, all in 140 characters or less. However disappointing, these personifications of the weak-bodied, amorphous “JANE” are not at all surprising. At least we’re getting better at recognizing it.
JANE, 28, athletic but sexy. A natural beauty. Most days she wears jeans, and she makes them look good.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE (late 20s) sits hunched over a microscope. She’s attractive, but too much of a professional to care about her appearance.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE, a 19 year old Bunny girl – honey-blonde farmland beauty queen.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE, 30s, attractive, intelligent, stands in the kitchen and turns to their housekeeper.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
A gorgeous woman, JANE, 23, is a little tipsy, dancing naked on her big bed, as adorable as she is sexy. *BONUS PTS FOR BEING THE 1ST LINE
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
This is JANE. She’s lithe, leggy, spirited, outgoing, not afraid to speak her mind, with a sense of humor as dry as the Sonoran Desert.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
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