Equality in Media Quotes

Occasionally, some sitcoms still stereotype women - the old dragon or the dolly bird - but on the whole we've moved away from that.

What I'm mainly interested in is not having women characters that have to be perfect, obviously. That's something I feel strongly about and have that in every single thing I've ever done.

I think you should have some more lesbian women out here on the British TV!

You know, it shouldn't just be about women as heroic figures overcoming things, it just needs to be about women in general getting the opportunity to play a multitude of roles, telling a multitude of stories - just to express human experience from a woman's perspective. I hope, someday, we can get to that point. I'm all about representation.

It's only recently women got to be action heroes on TV. Progress is slow, and often non-existent. There's plenty of cool comics with female characters... But all it takes is one Catwoman to set the cause back a decade.

Very good female characters, that's all we want. It's happening, slow and steady, which I love. Hopefully, it gets a little quicker. Fast and steady, how about that? Either way, we want more good females.

You know, there are not only - all of the networks, and I mean every television news operation and print and radio and magazines, newspapers, all of them, are remiss in the diversity area. I mean, none of these organizations have reached a level of parity.

When we say there's a dearth of women directors, it's not that there's a lack of women who direct: it's a lack of opportunities and access for women to direct and be supported in that.

Yeah, it’s really great. I mean, the clonesbians—you know, I have to say, I feel sometimes that fiction can reflect reality and sometimes even affect it. And I’m really proud to play a gay character whose main problem is not that she’s gay, which it shouldn’t be for anyone. So, I’m really proud of that.

Most important, in portraying gay people... it's just like portraying anybody else.

Every year there's five cop shows, five medical shows and five 'Law & Orders,' but when it's a show about women, they want to pit everyone against each other. I don't think they'd do that if it was a guy show. I think there's room for all of us.

I think empowerment of women is exactly what's happening now, with women being portrayed as human beings, and not just black and white. Men can be the anti-hero all the time, and it's cool, but when women are, they're twisted or messed up or something is wrong with them. I think it's just about portraying women in the world as equals to men, and vice versa.

Before, gay portrayals in the media were so limiting, like a caricature of a homo. A parody almost.

American television, for all its faults, still has a black presence in shows and even in commercials. You'll see black people in automobile ads, black women starring on their own television shows. We don't see that on British television.

I think always what happens when you ask men questions on the red carpet, it's always based on what projects they're working on, whatever they're about, rather than this, 'Give us little tips for all of us women'... because we're all the same. Questions should just be more individual.

It used to be that you had to make female TV characters perfect so no one would be offended by your 'portrayal' of women. Even when I started out on 'The Office' eight years ago, we could write our male characters funny and flawed, but not the women. And now, thankfully, it's completely different.

We need women in cinema to know first that they have a safe space to open up about their struggles without being judged and marginalised.

I didn't see a lot of women who looked like me on TV when I was growing up.

I'm not sure why it's taken so long, but I think people are relating to strong female leads.

Women should be portrayed as they are, authentically and truthfully.

I hope we can see African American characters as the diva, as the villain, and also as the praying mother. We are all of those things. We tended to only be the best friend or the neighbor in everybody's sitcom.

We'd be happy to have more fair treatment in the media, but I'm not going to find unicorns on my doorstep tomorrow.

I don't see female characters as different or inferior to male characters.

I think it's great that you have inspirational female roles, that it's not just the pretty girl on the arm of a man.

I looked out into the audience, saw dozens of faces I knew well - LGBTQ folks, mostly - all avid comics readers and superhero fans and DC supporters, and it just hit me: Why was this so impossible? Why in the world can we not do a better job of representation of not just humanity, but also our own loyal audience?