Spotlight on Gender Bias

Krish S -

Hello! My name is Krish Shah, and I am currently a senior at BASIS Peoria. For my research project, I will be looking at gender bias in the film industry. More specifically, I will be exploring how major film critics’ reviews differ in their portrayal of male versus female actors. My research is focused on the time frame before the Oscar awards, an important time when critics’ evaluations can shape public perception of performances. My goal is to see whether there are any noticeable differences in the tone of reviews for the best male and female actors (before awards are announced), and how those differences have evolved over time. 

The film industry has always been in discussions surrounding gender bias. However, much of the existing research focuses on the underrepresentation of women in more prominent roles or the disparity in pay. My study seeks to look at gender bias from a different lens and address a more specific gap with the sample and time frame which I’m using. Additionally, my study will incorporate a sentiment analysis to quantify the overall tone of reviews and determine if gender bias exists (from the perspective of film reviews) during a given year, which hasn’t been used when comparing bias specifically towards the best male versus the best female film actors. 

My interest in researching gender bias in film criticism stems from my passion for cinema and the art of filmmaking. Thus, I want to be able to better understand how subtle biases can influence the way we perceive film actors based on gender. Also, with AI playing a prominent role in our world today, I think it is essential to consider how these biases are reflected in tools like sentiment analysis, which is a big reason why I’m using it in the first place. By examining the critical perception of male and female actors through an AI model, I hope to uncover patterns of gender bias that have gone unnoticed. I am very excited to delve into this project and look forward to sharing my findings with you! 

 

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    arnav_k
    How do you think the influence of major critics compares to that of social media and audience reviews in shaping public perception of actors? Do you anticipate that sentiment analysis will reveal subtle biases that traditional methods might overlook?
    March 1, 2025 at 2:07 pm - Reply
    krish_s
    Great questions! I think major critics and social media reviews both influence public perception but in different ways. Major film critic reviews are seen as more authoritative because of their potential influence on Oscar campaigns, career trajectories, and even box office performance. However, social media reviews play a bigger role in fan-driven discourse, which allows for a lot of personal bias to be invoked. Because major film critics are regarded as professionals, their evaluations are taken way more seriously, which is why I have chosen to use their use of language in film reviews as a way to evaluate the existence of gender bias. As for your second question, I do anticipate that sentiment analysis will reveal subtle biases that traditional methods would over look because of its ability to detect patterns in tone, word choice, and emotional weight. However, it might not capture biases related to how often male versus female actors are discussed within a review. For instance, if a review praises a film but primarily attributes its success to a male director while only briefly mentioning the female lead, sentiment analysis might miss this imbalance in focus. I'll probably have to use frequency analysis to complement sentiment analysis, so that I can get a bigger picture of potential gender biases.
    March 1, 2025 at 4:05 pm - Reply

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