Over 16,000 people have signed a petition to get Katniss Everdeen, Jennifer Lawrence's character from The Hunger Games, nominated for the Best Hero award at The MTV Movie Awards. It was started by Sophie Azran, who was annoyed that not one single woman was nominated in the Best Hero category, which is decided by MTV executives.
'There is not a single woman in the Hero Category. Don't let a strong woman like Katniss be overlooked!' reads the blurb on Sophie's e-petition. 'Young women already have too few female heroes represented in film and television. We're constantly shown by the entertainment industry that men are brave, powerful, or successful, while women are often given supporting roles and weak characters.'
In previous years, Kristen Stewart was nominated for her role in Snow White And The Huntsman, Anne Hathaway for her turn in* The Dark Knight Rises*, and Jennifer was nominated in 2012 for the first instalment of _The Hunger Game_s, missing out to Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter for the actual award.
Some mean recesses of the internet we won't link to are running articles saying that this year's snub from MTV could be part of the supposed Jennifer Lawrence backlash we're meant to be feeling. (Interjection: isn't all this talk of a backlash ridiculous – what has Jennifer actually done wrong apart from be liked by too many people?)
Maybe the real reason no women have been nominated is more sinister – because Hollywood has so few opportunities for women to play heroes. New research shows that just 30 per cent of speaking roles belonged to women in 2013's films, that only 15 per cent of protagonists were women. Why does this seem to be? Well, Time points out another study, which shows that only 16 per cent of the people in director, writer, producer and editor roles are women.
Sheesh. With statistics like that, it's a wonder Katniss, a no-bullshit female character who's brave, clever, talented and physically strong, even made it to the big screen.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.