During a closing keynote speech at the New Zealand Inclusion Summit, the actress explained how the partnership will deploy a new digital tool to prevent film and television works from perpetuating underrepresentation and stereotypes — and their pernicious real-world effects.
Geena Davis, the Oscar-winning actor and a tireless advocate for female representation onscreen, touched down Thursday in New Zealand to deliver the closing keynote speech at the country's pioneeringCentral to Davis' presentation was the revelation that her Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media has partnered with Walt Disney Studios to deploy a new digital tool that uses AI technology to assess film and television scripts for gender bias.
"I'm very proud to announce we have a brand new partnership with Walt Disney Studios using Spell Check for Bias," Davis said onstage. "They are our pilot partners and we're going to collaborate with Disney over the next year using this tool to help their decision-making, identify opportunities to increase diversity and inclusion in the manuscripts that they receive.
Davis says the goal is not to "shame and blame" screen creators, but rather to reveal the unconscious bias that commonly manifests in even the most well-meaning screenwriter's work. With the data in hand, informed adjustments can be made to scripts so that they don't perpetuate stereotypes and their pernicious real-world effects.
"I've gotten to play lots of cool parts in my career, and I've had a lot of personal experience in images shaping cultural norms," said Davis, a reference to her pioneering roles in such landmark films asA Long Kiss GoodnightThe Davis Institute's mantra is "If girls see it, they can be it." The organization has commissioned numerous studies showing how screen representations influence real-world behavior of both women and men.
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