It’s time to give women more to wear

From virtually every actress in Game of Thrones and films ranging from Alice Eve in Star Trek to Eva Green in Sin City, women just don’t have enough clothes to wear.

Actress Geena Davis arrives for the Gala screening of the film "Suffragette" (Reuters)

I’ve loved Geena Davis ever since Thelma and Louise. It’s not just her acting, it’s the consistent integrity with which she behaves as a female star in the decidedly male world of Hollywood. Last week, she delivered a passionate speech about gender equality at the London Film Festival. She contended that true gender equality in the movie industry was “700 years away”. But that wasn’t all.

If it was not possible to “give female characters more to do, more to say, greater aspirations …” said Davis (pictured), then at least “give them more clothes”. Give them more clothes? Yes! From virtually every actress in Game of Thrones and films ranging from Alice Eve in Star Trek to Eva Green in Sin City, women just don’t have enough clothes to wear.

Caroline Herrera, the designer, said as much at this spring’s Costume Institute gala in New York, the biggest night in the fashion calendar: “Some designers think it’s so modern to be naked or almost naked … No!”

Actresses such as GoT’s Emilia Clarke have had enough. She said she “can’t stand sex scenes” and that most TV nudity is “gratuitous”. The stripped male can get in the way of the story too. The hysterical hype around Poldark turned Aidan Turner into this decade’s Colin Firth. I’d like to see a lot less of Justin Bieber’s anatomy, even David Beckham’s. But I digress.

There is another way. Look at Doctor Foster, the BBC’s recent drama about an affair and its consequences. There were merely a couple of significant sex scenes over the five episodes, despite the husband’s affair and the Fosters’ attempt to regain their spark. The key to its success was exactly what Davis called for: a complex, flawed central female character. It could have been, but wasn’t, all about Suranne Jones’s body, which was mostly fully clothed. And we must be careful here not to make this all the actress or pop star’s fault. The call should not be the judgemental “put some clothes on”, but the more apposite “give her some clothes to wear”.

Stefano Hatfield is editor in chief of High50