'Headless Women' poster project calls time on Hollywood sexism

Turns out these sleazy artworks are pretty common

Words by Anna Clarke

A movie poster project that shines a light on Hollywood’s continued and blatant sexism is going viral. Headless Women of Hollywood catalogues all the heinous posters from across the tv, film and advertising industries that include women’s headless anatomy as their main selling point. NEWSFLASH: women are sentient beings with both brains and complex inner characters, even though they’re often not given such roles in movies.

Headless Women of Hollywood founder, the stand up comedian Marcia Belsky, shared the main offending posters on a Tumblr page dedicated to the cause, proving to her followers why Hollywood needs to change its ways sharpish.

The project first caught the public’s eye in 2016 and now on its anniversary, Marcia is making sure that the crucial issue of female objectification is still first on everyone’s agenda. She tweeted a shout-out to the initiative — which then proceeded to go viral — by selecting the most ‘impressive example’ of the sleazy artworks. The winner being:

And Marcia refused to stop just there, continuing her tweet with a series of facepalm posters that were very close runners-up:

Depressingly but unsurprisingly there were lots to choose from.

‘To constantly take women’s heads out of sexualised images of our bodies does so many things,' Marcia explained. 'It signifies to us that not only are our desires not important, they don’t even exist.'

She continued: ‘It teaches us to strive for an ideal body whose reward, if achieved, is becoming interchangeable.’

There’s a selection of film posters from both then and now, including The Graduate and Kingsman: The Secret Service, to show how consistent and long-standing the movie industry’s objectification of women has been.

The comedian needs your help continuing the fight though, guys. If you spot a questionable film poster fronted by a dehumanised lady then call it out and let Marcia know. This way she can expand her headless women army online and take a stand for all of us.