Movies with the widest gap between ranks given by women and men. : justpost

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 40 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Just about all the movies in the women's list feature either a female protagonist or prominent female characters. Quite a few of the movies on the men's list have no major female characters.

There's also virtually zero overlap in genre. The men's list is full of war movies and westerns, the women's list is predominantly kid's / family / young adult stuff, with some historical drama. (Brokeback Mountain is about cowboys, but I don't think it would be considered a western in the traditional sense)

The women's list is almost all relatively modern, the men's list is mostly from the previous century.

The women's list is entirely American (I think) and exclusively in English. The men's list has a fair number of movies from other countries and in other languages.

A third of the women's list is Harry Potter. I feel like that's gotta skew the data a bit. The closest to that kind of trend we see in the men's list is that there are two Kurosawa movies and a remake of a Kurosawa movie.

The deltas are higher on the women's list than on the men's list. At a glance it looks like the women's list represents movies that are closer to number 1 than the men's list, but I'm not getting to deep into analyzing the numbers here.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

There’s also virtually zero overlap in genre. The men’s list is full of war movies and westerns, the women’s list is predominantly kid’s / family / young adult stuff, with some historical drama. (Brokeback Mountain is about cowboys, but I don’t think it would be considered a western in the traditional sense)

This is a solid observation and I think that the women's rankings favor movies where the main focus is on overcoming conflicts within close relationships (family/romantic) and mostly lean towards a happy ending to the resolution that will lead to further positive interactions and the men's ranking favor the main focus being on violent conflict against outside groups or opponents. The men's movies will have some camaraderie and some shallow romance too, but the main focus is on the conflict itself.

Brokeback doesn't stand out on the women's list to me because it is focused on a relationship, which seems to have more impact than female leads even though the latter is certainly a factor. The Harry Potter series main conflict is family based (loss of Harry's parents) and there are tons of interactions with friends of the family and the connections the family has.

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think it's fair to say that the women's list has a lot of focus on relationships, but I don’t think that difference in the nature of conflicts is quite as clear between the two lists.

Harry Potter has the loss of family as a part of his motivation, but the actual conflict in the series is with the external threat that he and his friends need to overcome, generally starting as a conflict between students and faculty and ending in a forceful struggle between our heroes and actual villains. That plus Wonder Woman and Hunger Games makes a fairly sizable portion of the list where the conflict is a more direct fight.

On the other side of the equation Rashomon is a murder investigation that's about conflicting stories rather than a direct conflict between characters. Seven Samurai is far more focused on the tension between the samurai and the villagers than the fight with the bandits. Rocky isn't about the conflict with his opponent, it's about struggling to follow a dream, finding self worth, and living up to your potential with a romantic relationship in there for good measure. Casino isn't about an external conflict, it's more of a "rise and fall of" story, where the authorities aren't really characters at all, just an inevitable consequence of the choices the main characters made, and the fallout from their relationships with each other crumbling. Lawrence of Arabia is set during a war but is about Lawrence and the relationship he forges with his Arab allies. The Great Escape has conflict that is all about avoiding violence, I don't think there is even a single instance of the heroes solving a problem through violence. And that's just the ones I know off the top of my head.

I'm not saying there's nothing to the observation, just that I don't think it's clear cut at all.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Harry Potter films are very much British, not American, so the women’s list isn’t entirely American.

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Obviously they are very British in nature, but it was produced by Warner Bros. which would classify it as an American production.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Heyday Films, which also produced them, is British. And they were filmed in the UK with British producers and predominantly British actors and crew.

They’re definitely not 100% British but I‘d argue, they’re more British than American.

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My point wasn't how American they are, just that they aren't the kind of thing that would get thrown into a foreign films section. The cultural barriers between these movies and American audiences are almost nonexistent. Basically no one who consumes movies coming out of Hollywood is going to turn their nose up at Harry Potter the way a lot would for something like Seven Samurai, Rashomon, or Taare Zameen Par.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Oh yea, absolutely. Not arguing with that. I‘m just being pedantic for the sake of it. (After all, you did add „I think“ after saying they’re all American)

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 3 points 4 weeks ago

Didn't they deny Robin Williams a role because he's not British? I vaguely recall reading that somewhere.

[–] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

I think the lists are less what women and men like, it's more like what they don't like.

We aren't seeing the crossover of what both like, so this just demonstrates trends away from certain films by gender.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'd like to see the list of movies with the smallest difference

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

I was curious and found some more info on five thirty eight.

These are supposed to be the closest to 50/50:

Also, wow. I guess it's not surprising, but men seem to be much louder about their opinions. Movie ratings in general are skewed heavily toward what men think of them due to this:

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most Writers are Male.

I have hereby ruined the rest of your day's productivity by once again linking to TV Tropes. Sorry about that.

[–] BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago

goodbye world, im going in

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Fight Club? I'm surprised. That's like the ur-masculinity movie, even if it is a critique.

load more comments (4 replies)

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

I suspect part of this is that your classic "film buff" is probably significantly overrepresented here, and that that demographic skews male.

That would certainly explain a lot about the two lists. The women's list is much more modern and mainstream popular movies, while the men's list has a lot of classics that I think it's fair to say the average person today is far less likely to have seen. The type of person who watches a lot of old classic and foreign movies is probably likely to be the same kind of person who has a lower than average opinion of most mainstream movies coming out today.

[–] Eranziel@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm surprised to see Return of the King on there, tbh. Much as I like LotR, the severe lack of female characters is pretty pronounced.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Anecdotally, all the women I know love fantasy and LOTR specifically.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It appears that the movies men prefer are generally older movies as well

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] motor_spirit@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

damn blade runner 2049 is for the people. ryan don't deserve to be caught up in this

[–] hasnt_seen_goonies@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I like it too, but it is mainly our boy Ryan moodily staring and awful lot.

[–] vovo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Seems like men prefer movies that fail the Bechdel-Wallace test.

15 Movies from the lower list fail. 5 movies pass: Dangal, Unforgiven, M, Blade Runner 2049 and Double Indeminity.

From the upper list, 19 movies pass. Brokeback Mountain fails.

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

American Pie 2 passes that test, for anyone who thinks passing it actually means anything, lol.

https://bechdeltest.com/view/5560/american_pie_2/

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

Thank you for pointing this out. It's a terrible measure of anything. At least it's a conversation point I guess.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Brokeback mountain could argue for qualified immunity.

[–] h3mlocke@lemm.ee 4 points 4 weeks ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

The lower list was women preferred, though...

EDIT: No, sorry, higher number means worse lol mb

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] BigPotato@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Most of those movies on the bottom list are outside the top 100. Go look at the billboard top 200 songs and tell me if any Americans prefer songs listed at 155 or something.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Damn, I'm feeling really unusually in touch with my gender here. I count only 4.5 good movies on the top list (Pride & Prejudice, Tangled, Brokeback Mountain, Beauty and the Beast; Sound of Music gets a .5 because I don't care for it but acknowledge it's a classic).

Das Boot, Rashomon, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Thing, M, Seven Samurai, and Lawrence of Arabia on the other hand, are all indisputable classics, while Blade Runner 2049 is excellent modern cinema.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

I've seen all the Harry Potter Films, and liked them okay. I thought Wonder Woman was decent; not great, but enjoyable as far as DC movies go. I haven't seen very many overall. OTOH, I've seen about half of the films on the male list. Blade Runner 2049 was an outstanding film, a modern classic that's severely underrated. I walked out of the theater completely emotionally drained.

[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago

Funny, I’m feeling less in touch with mine. I’ve seen maybe two on the bottom list (only one fully), enjoyed one, and haven’t even heard of half of them. Although there are three that I would like to see at some point

Meanwhile on the top list, I’ve seen most of them, and enjoyed most of the ones I’ve seen. But maybe that’s because the ones on the top list were released within my lifetime.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

My thoughts too, although I do enjoy all the Harry Potter movies a lot. I don't know how highly I'd rank them compared to cinema classics though.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

Fun fact: Some apps (TikTok I think?) will let you see what the algorithm knows about you. I'm not sure if it means anything but I always find it fascinating when the algorithm thinks I'm the wrong gender.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Is lower or higher better in the ranking?

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Gender rank, I think, is how high in the list they’d put the movies with 1 being the best movie.

So, a movie that women rank 40 and men rank 400 means women liked it much more—delta of 360.

The far left Rank is the one with the biggest delta for depending on gender preference. The top list is female preferred, bottom male preferred.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Lower ranking is better, as in the best would be "rank 1"

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

That explains Pride and Prejudice numbers lol

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think higher means "The gender gap is larger"

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Did I miss where the data comes from? It's interesting to ponder some of these.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I believe the data was from IMDB

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I wonder if there's some strong self-selection bias here, then.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] poVoq 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Huh, first time I hear that women really don't like the Harry Potter movies. Is it because they think the books are better, and most men have not read the books?

Edit: ahh, wait. The rank is reverse order, so women like Harry Potter, but men to not. At least the rest of the ranking makes more sense like that.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Rankings don't say that men don't like the Harry Potter movies, it just says they rank other movies higher.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Lol I just had an urge yesterday to listen to the theme from fistful of dollars, few dollars more, and good bad ugly.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

It makes me wonder whether the age average of women ranking there was lower than the men's average.

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

The distribution seems odd, yeah. Most of the women ranked movies are from after 2000, whereas the men ones are pre-1990

Just Post