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Here I will jot down thoughts, snap-shots, analysis and perspectives relating to the situation of actresses – and along with that write about great, funny and inspiring moments. You can just drop in once in a while, or activate the email-notification (on the right) or follow me on TWITTER, there you will also be notified of new blog posts.
The meaning of SchspIN and ways to contact me you will find in the ABOUT ME-section.

Working as an actress and of course at the same time being part of the audience I regularly notice the imbalance between female and male characters, both in quantity and in quality. In plays, movies, television productions, both international and German.

That is strange, because these things are about stories from life, true, possible or fantastic stories. From this world or another. For the past and the present I can safely say that there always have been women and men. At the moment in Germany we have a population of 41,6 million women and 40 million men, the ratio is nearly balanced. In every age group (as you can see in the figure above, data from Dec. 2011) there are men and women, as well as in all parts of the population, in all professions, in all areas of society. Not exactly evenly represented, not exactly having equal rights and not exactly equally paid. But that is another matter.

Despite these simple facts plays, drama series on TV or movies tend to tell stories of men. And if it is a story about women and men, or even a story just centered around a female lead, that is no guarantee of there being an equal amount of female and male characters, and of them being equally important to the plot. This has been my impression these last years and also sometimes my experience in talking to casting people (“no, sorry, at the moment there’s just male characters to be cast“).

Is this just my perception or could there be something to it? And if so, what might be the reasons, and what could bring about a change?

Voilà! SchspIN: my blog focussing on the situation of actresses in German and international film, TV and theatre.