Is Your Favorite Movie Sexist? New UW Research Lets You Find Out

SEATTLE, WA - Spoiler alert: some of your favorite movies might be sexist. That's according to new research from a team of University of Washington computer scientists. The team used artificial intelligence to uncover subtle gender bias in 800 movie scripts.

The researchers searched for language cues indicative of gender bias. For example, male characters having more forceful lines in a movie (“Show me the money!”) compared to women having more passive lines (”Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope").

The researchers also analyzed how movie characters fit into a narrative. Do male characters more often get roles where they have power over women, like being a boss or captor? Do the female characters control their own destiny (for example "Thelma and Louise")?

More often, men have more power in movies, the research found.

“For example, if a female character ‘implores’ her husband, that implies the husband has a stance where he can say no. If she ‘instructs’ her husband, that implies she has more power,”co-author Ari Holtzman, an Allen School doctoral student, said in a press release. “What we found was that men systematically have more power and agency in the film script universe.”

You can search the database of 800 movie scripts here to see the gender bias in your favorite movie.

Photo: Matt Damon, right, and Ben Affleck hold their Best Screenplay for a Motion Picture award at the 55th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 18, 1998. Damon and Affleck won for the film "Good Will Hunting."

Image via Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press