0:00:00.422,0:00:02.952 You know, my favorite part of being a dad 0:00:02.952,0:00:06.211 is the movies I get to watch. 0:00:06.211,0:00:08.092 I love sharing my favorite movies with my kids, 0:00:08.092,0:00:10.688 and when my daughter was four, 0:00:10.688,0:00:13.578 we got to watch "The Wizard of Oz" together. 0:00:13.578,0:00:16.977 It totally dominated her imagination for months. 0:00:16.977,0:00:20.195 Her favorite character was Glinda, of course. 0:00:20.195,0:00:22.255 It gave her a great excuse to wear a sparkly dress 0:00:22.255,0:00:23.909 and carry a wand. 0:00:23.909,0:00:26.318 But you watch that movie enough times, 0:00:26.318,0:00:27.751 and you start to realize how unusual it is. 0:00:27.751,0:00:30.603 Now we live today, and are raising our children, 0:00:30.603,0:00:36.953 in a kind of children's-fantasy-spectacular-industrial complex. 0:00:36.953,0:00:38.698 But "The Wizard of Oz" stood alone. 0:00:38.698,0:00:40.885 It did not start that trend. 0:00:40.885,0:00:44.307 Forty years later was when the trend really caught on, 0:00:44.307,0:00:46.656 with, interestingly, another movie 0:00:46.656,0:00:48.791 that featured a metal guy 0:00:48.791,0:00:50.175 and a furry guy 0:00:50.175,0:00:55.386 rescuing a girl by dressing up as the enemy's guards. 0:00:55.386,0:00:57.827 Do you know what I'm talking about? (Laughter) 0:00:57.827,0:00:59.302 Yeah. 0:00:59.302,0:01:03.025 Now, there's a big difference between these two movies, 0:01:03.025,0:01:05.062 a couple of really big differences between "The Wizard of Oz" 0:01:05.062,0:01:05.995 and all the movies we watch today. 0:01:05.995,0:01:09.300 One is there's very little violence in "The Wizard of Oz." 0:01:09.300,0:01:14.545 The monkeys are rather aggressive, as are the apple trees. 0:01:14.545,0:01:18.152 But I think if "The Wizard of Oz" were made today, 0:01:18.152,0:01:22.578 the wizard would say, "Dorothy, you are the savior of Oz 0:01:22.578,0:01:24.340 that the prophecy foretold. 0:01:24.340,0:01:26.414 Use your magic slippers to defeat 0:01:26.414,0:01:30.027 the computer-generated armies of the Wicked Witch." 0:01:30.027,0:01:31.679 But that's not how it happens. 0:01:31.679,0:01:34.081 Another thing that's really unique about "The Wizard of Oz" 0:01:34.081,0:01:37.384 to me is that all of the most heroic 0:01:37.384,0:01:40.714 and wise and even villainous characters 0:01:40.714,0:01:44.226 are female. 0:01:44.226,0:01:46.340 Now I started to notice this 0:01:46.340,0:01:49.485 when I actually showed "Star Wars" to my daughter, 0:01:49.485,0:01:52.021 which was years later, and the situation was different. 0:01:52.021,0:01:55.160 At that point I also had a son. 0:01:55.160,0:01:56.887 He was only three at the time. 0:01:56.887,0:02:01.033 He was not invited to the screening. He was too young for that. 0:02:01.033,0:02:02.354 But he was the second child, 0:02:02.354,0:02:06.127 and the level of supervision had plummeted. (Laughter) 0:02:06.127,0:02:09.741 So he wandered in, 0:02:09.741,0:02:13.770 and it imprinted on him 0:02:13.770,0:02:19.412 like a mommy duck does to its duckling, 0:02:19.412,0:02:23.191 and I don't think he understands what's going on, 0:02:23.191,0:02:26.718 but he is sure soaking in it. 0:02:26.718,0:02:28.087 And I wonder what he's soaking in. 0:02:28.087,0:02:30.565 Is he picking up on the themes of courage 0:02:30.565,0:02:32.682 and perseverance and loyalty? 0:02:32.682,0:02:35.662 Is he picking up on the fact that Luke 0:02:35.662,0:02:40.556 joins an army to overthrow the government? 0:02:40.556,0:02:42.212 Is he picking up on the fact that 0:02:42.212,0:02:45.315 there are only boys in the universe 0:02:45.315,0:02:48.504 except for Aunt Beru, and of course this princess, 0:02:48.504,0:02:52.954 who's really cool, but who kind of waits around through most of the movie 0:02:52.954,0:02:56.183 so that she can award the hero with a medal and a wink 0:02:56.183,0:02:58.736 to thank him for saving the universe, which he does 0:02:58.736,0:03:01.962 by the magic that he was born with? 0:03:01.962,0:03:04.928 Compare this to 1939 with "The Wizard of Oz." 0:03:04.928,0:03:07.557 How does Dorothy win her movie? 0:03:07.557,0:03:10.507 By making friends with everybody 0:03:10.507,0:03:12.284 and being a leader. 0:03:12.284,0:03:15.590 That's kind of the world I'd rather raise my kids in -- 0:03:15.590,0:03:19.480 Oz, right? -- and not the world of dudes fighting, 0:03:19.480,0:03:21.383 which is where we kind of have to be. 0:03:21.383,0:03:25.163 Why is there so much Force -- capital F, Force -- 0:03:25.163,0:03:26.850 in the movies we have for our kids, 0:03:26.850,0:03:29.295 and so little yellow brick road? 0:03:29.295,0:03:32.712 There is a lot of great writing about the impact 0:03:32.712,0:03:36.959 that the boy-violent movie has on girls, 0:03:36.959,0:03:39.577 and you should do that reading. It's very good. 0:03:39.577,0:03:44.451 I haven't read as much on how boys are picking up on this vibe. 0:03:44.451,0:03:47.001 I know from my own experience that 0:03:47.001,0:03:52.626 Princess Leia did not provide the adequate context 0:03:52.626,0:03:56.755 that I could have used in navigating the adult world 0:03:56.755,0:04:01.356 that is co-ed. (Laughter) 0:04:01.356,0:04:04.546 I think there was a first-kiss moment 0:04:04.546,0:04:07.877 when I really expected the credits to start rolling 0:04:07.877,0:04:10.680 because that's the end of the movie, right? 0:04:10.680,0:04:12.977 I finished my quest, I got the girl. 0:04:12.977,0:04:16.108 Why are you still standing there? 0:04:16.108,0:04:17.553 I don't know what I'm supposed to do. 0:04:17.553,0:04:20.741 The movies are very, very focused on defeating the villain 0:04:20.741,0:04:23.329 and getting your reward, and there's not a lot of room 0:04:23.329,0:04:26.220 for other relationships and other journeys. 0:04:26.220,0:04:28.459 It's almost as though if you're a boy, 0:04:28.459,0:04:30.540 you are a dopey animal, 0:04:30.540,0:04:35.014 and if you are a girl, you should bring your warrior costume. 0:04:35.014,0:04:37.202 There are plenty of exceptions, 0:04:37.202,0:04:42.499 and I will defend the Disney princesses in front of any you. 0:04:42.499,0:04:45.551 But they do send a message to boys, 0:04:45.551,0:04:48.057 that they are not, the boys are not really the target audience. 0:04:48.057,0:04:50.499 They are doing a phenomenal job of teaching girls 0:04:50.499,0:04:53.871 how to defend against the patriarchy, 0:04:53.871,0:04:55.836 but they are not necessarily showing boys 0:04:55.836,0:04:58.670 how they're supposed to defend against the patriarchy. 0:04:58.670,0:05:00.810 There's no models for them. 0:05:00.810,0:05:04.083 And we also have some terrific women 0:05:04.083,0:05:06.220 who are writing new stories for our kids, 0:05:06.220,0:05:10.962 and as three-dimensional and delightful as Hermione and Katniss are, 0:05:10.962,0:05:13.088 these are still war movies. 0:05:13.088,0:05:17.196 And, of course, the most successful studio of all time 0:05:17.196,0:05:21.326 continues to crank out classic after classic, 0:05:21.326,0:05:24.070 every single one of them about 0:05:24.070,0:05:27.840 the journey of a boy, or a man, 0:05:27.840,0:05:31.484 or two men who are friends, or a man and his son, 0:05:31.484,0:05:35.079 or two men who are raising a little girl. 0:05:35.079,0:05:38.819 Until, as many of you are thinking, this year, 0:05:38.819,0:05:40.545 when they finally came out with "Brave." 0:05:40.545,0:05:44.552 I recommend it to all of you. It's on demand now. 0:05:44.552,0:05:48.446 Do you remember what the critics said when "Brave" came out? 0:05:48.446,0:05:52.854 "Aw, I can't believe Pixar made a princess movie." 0:05:52.854,0:05:54.975 It's very good. Don't let that stop you. 0:05:54.975,0:05:58.867 Now, almost none of these movies pass the Bechdel Test. 0:05:58.867,0:06:00.053 I don't know if you've heard of this. 0:06:00.053,0:06:02.875 It has not yet caught on and caught fire, 0:06:02.875,0:06:04.956 but maybe today we will start a movement. 0:06:04.956,0:06:07.738 Alison Bechdel is a comic book artist, 0:06:07.738,0:06:12.844 and back in the mid-'80s, she recorded this conversation 0:06:12.844,0:06:16.418 she'd had with a friend about assessing the movies that they saw. 0:06:16.418,0:06:19.404 And it's very simple. There's just three questions you should ask: 0:06:19.404,0:06:21.914 Is there more than one character in the movie 0:06:21.914,0:06:25.515 that is female who has lines? 0:06:25.515,0:06:28.095 So try to meet that bar. 0:06:28.095,0:06:33.755 And do these women talk to each other at any point in the movie? 0:06:33.755,0:06:37.208 And is their conversation about something other than 0:06:37.208,0:06:40.524 the guy that they both like? (Laughter) 0:06:40.524,0:06:44.856 Right? Thank you. (Applause) 0:06:44.856,0:06:46.681 Thank you very much. 0:06:46.681,0:06:54.284 Two women who exist and talk to each other about stuff. 0:06:54.284,0:06:59.414 It does happen. I've seen it, 0:06:59.414,0:07:02.362 and yet I very rarely see it in the movies 0:07:02.362,0:07:03.529 that we know and love. 0:07:03.529,0:07:05.689 In fact, this week I went to see 0:07:05.689,0:07:09.303 a very high-quality movie, "Argo." 0:07:09.303,0:07:12.962 Right? Oscar buzz, doing great at the box office, 0:07:12.962,0:07:17.246 a consensus idea of what a quality Hollywood film is. 0:07:17.246,0:07:19.930 It pretty much flunks the Bechdel test. 0:07:19.930,0:07:23.737 And I don't think it should, because a lot of the movie, 0:07:23.737,0:07:25.318 I don't know if you've seen it, but a lot of the movie 0:07:25.318,0:07:28.776 takes place in this embassy where men and women 0:07:28.776,0:07:31.453 are hiding out during the hostage crisis. 0:07:31.453,0:07:33.342 We've got quite a few scenes of the men 0:07:33.342,0:07:37.503 having deep, angst-ridden conversations in this hideout, 0:07:37.503,0:07:41.519 and the great moment for one of the actresses is 0:07:41.519,0:07:46.641 to peek through the door and say, "Are you coming to bed, honey?" 0:07:46.641,0:07:48.642 That's Hollywood for you. 0:07:48.642,0:07:51.087 So let's look at the numbers. 0:07:51.087,0:07:54.649 2011, of the 100 most popular movies, 0:07:54.649,0:07:58.894 how many of them do you think actually have female protagonists? 0:07:58.894,0:08:02.188 Eleven. It's not bad. 0:08:02.188,0:08:05.883 It's not as many percent as the number of women 0:08:05.883,0:08:09.009 we've just elected to Congress, so that's good. 0:08:09.009,0:08:12.013 But there is a number that is greater than this 0:08:12.013,0:08:14.670 that's going to bring this room down. 0:08:14.670,0:08:18.332 Last year, The New York Times published a study 0:08:18.332,0:08:19.991 that the government had done. 0:08:19.991,0:08:21.379 Here's what it said. 0:08:21.379,0:08:25.595 One out of five women in America 0:08:25.595,0:08:31.848 say that they have been sexually assaulted some time in their life. 0:08:31.848,0:08:35.632 Now, I don't think that's the fault of popular entertainment. 0:08:35.632,0:08:39.915 I don't think kids' movies have anything to do with that. 0:08:39.915,0:08:41.693 I don't even think that 0:08:41.693,0:08:45.248 music videos or pornography are really directly related to that, 0:08:45.248,0:08:48.013 but something is going wrong, 0:08:48.013,0:08:51.064 and when I hear that statistic, 0:08:51.064,0:08:53.569 one of the things I think of is 0:08:53.569,0:08:57.694 that's a lot of sexual assailants. 0:08:57.694,0:09:01.054 Who are these guys? What are they learning? 0:09:01.054,0:09:02.770 What are they failing to learn? 0:09:02.770,0:09:04.920 Are they absorbing the story that 0:09:04.920,0:09:09.447 a male hero's job is to defeat the villain with violence 0:09:09.447,0:09:11.980 and then collect the reward, which is a woman 0:09:11.980,0:09:17.028 who has no friends and doesn't speak? 0:09:17.028,0:09:22.233 Are we soaking up that story? 0:09:22.233,0:09:24.579 You know, 0:09:24.579,0:09:27.346 as a parent with the privilege 0:09:27.346,0:09:29.990 of raising a daughter 0:09:29.990,0:09:32.859 like all of you who are doing the same thing, 0:09:32.859,0:09:36.639 we find this world and this statistic very alarming 0:09:36.639,0:09:37.776 and we want to prepare them. 0:09:37.776,0:09:42.062 We have tools at our disposal like "girl power," 0:09:42.062,0:09:44.796 and we hope that that will help, 0:09:44.796,0:09:48.405 but I gotta wonder, is girl power going to protect them 0:09:48.405,0:09:51.003 if, at the same time, actively or passively, 0:09:51.003,0:09:55.956 we are training our sons to maintain their boy power? 0:09:55.956,0:09:59.354 I mean, I think the Netflix queue 0:09:59.354,0:10:02.610 is one way that we can do something very important, 0:10:02.610,0:10:05.665 and I'm talking mainly to the dads here. 0:10:05.665,0:10:08.515 I think we have got to show our sons 0:10:08.515,0:10:10.371 a new definition of manhood. 0:10:10.371,0:10:14.891 The definition of manhood is already turning upside down. 0:10:14.891,0:10:17.022 You've read about how the new economy 0:10:17.022,0:10:20.423 is changing the roles of caregiver and wage earner. 0:10:20.423,0:10:22.077 They're throwing it up in the air. 0:10:22.077,0:10:24.695 So our sons are going to have to find some way 0:10:24.695,0:10:27.670 of adapting to this, some new relationship with each other, 0:10:27.670,0:10:31.517 and I think we really have to show them, and model for them, 0:10:31.517,0:10:35.218 how a real man 0:10:35.218,0:10:38.987 is someone who trusts his sisters 0:10:38.987,0:10:42.160 and respects them, and wants to be on their team, 0:10:42.160,0:10:45.783 and stands up against the real bad guys, 0:10:45.783,0:10:49.639 who are the men who want to abuse the women. 0:10:49.639,0:10:52.690 And I think our job in the Netflix queue 0:10:52.690,0:10:56.459 is to look out for those movies that pass the Bechdel Test, 0:10:56.459,0:11:00.740 if we can find them, and to seek out the heroines 0:11:00.740,0:11:02.326 who are there, 0:11:02.326,0:11:06.115 who show real courage, who bring people together, 0:11:06.115,0:11:09.703 and to nudge our sons to identify with those heroines 0:11:09.703,0:11:13.188 and to say, "I want to be on their team," 0:11:13.188,0:11:17.770 because they're going to be on their team. 0:11:17.770,0:11:21.464 When I asked my daughter who her favorite character was in "Star Wars," 0:11:21.464,0:11:23.493 do you know what she said? 0:11:23.493,0:11:25.996 Obi-Wan. 0:11:25.996,0:11:29.893 Obi-Wan Kenobi and Glinda. 0:11:29.893,0:11:33.360 What do these two have in common? 0:11:33.360,0:11:35.284 Maybe it's not just the sparkly dress. 0:11:35.284,0:11:38.911 I think these people are experts. 0:11:38.911,0:11:40.437 I think these are the two people in the movie 0:11:40.437,0:11:42.005 who know more than anybody else, 0:11:42.005,0:11:45.332 and they love sharing their knowledge with other people 0:11:45.332,0:11:48.436 to help them reach their potential. 0:11:48.436,0:11:50.444 Now, they are leaders. 0:11:50.444,0:11:52.662 I like that kind of quest for my daughter, 0:11:52.662,0:11:54.849 and I like that kind of quest for my son. 0:11:54.849,0:11:56.760 I want more quests like that. 0:11:56.760,0:11:59.360 I want fewer quests where my son is told, 0:11:59.360,0:12:01.571 "Go out and fight it alone," 0:12:01.571,0:12:06.776 and more quests where he sees that it's his job to join a team, 0:12:06.776,0:12:10.876 maybe a team led by women, 0:12:10.876,0:12:16.496 to help other people become better 0:12:16.496,0:12:18.888 and be better people, 0:12:18.888,0:12:21.170 like the Wizard of Oz. 0:12:21.170,0:12:34.479 Thank you.