Of the Hitchcock movies I'm familiar with, I'd say
Marnie is the worst in its treatment of women from pretty much every angle: plot, character, writing, and aesthetic.
Which brings me to a movie that over the years since its release has become unwatchable for me because of a constant stream of revelations, even up to the present, about its director:
Manhattan. The plot and how
every character treats the central premise as
normal and unremarkable is especially heinous.
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@Bodhitree
I don't think mass media has changed much in how women are described, discussed, shown, and not shown. For example, it is so common for male actors to continue to get starring roles even when they're in their 80s, it is unremarkable. But how many female actors in their
50s and beyond get to carry a movie? Meryl Streep is the exception that proves the rule, I'd say.
If you're interested, here's a YouTube series about how women are portrayed in video games. It could easily be about the movies, too...especially comic book hero movies since those are so similar to video games and are targeted to the same audience.
and a somewhat glib response to your question:
The Bechdel test is a metric used to evaluate the presence and dimensionality of women in fictional media such as films and television.
www.britannica.com
