What’s in a number? William Shakespeare’s legacy analysed
24th April 2016
The Guardian reveals – I’m shocked, shocked I tell you — that Shakespeare was a sexist racist bigot homophobe who probably voted Republican.
Only 17% of speeches in Shakespeare’s plays are by women
Shakespeare may have been widely championed as a visionary, but this description can’t be applied to his record on gender equality. On average men are given 81% of speeches, while 17% go to women and the rest are made up of unknowns or mixed groups, according to Open Source Shakespeare. Women tend to come off worst in his tragedies: Timon of Athens features just nine speeches by women, compared with 725 by men. And yet the population of Shakespeare’s England was roughly 53.5% male and 46.5% female. “It’s been rough on women actors with a passion for Shakespeare these 400 years,” says Tina Packer, the actor and artistic director at Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts.
Somehow I can’t help but feel that this sort of misses the point. But I feel that way a lot these days.
April 25th, 2016 at 10:16
In Shakespeare’s day, women did not work as actors. Men played the women’s parts. So Bill was ahead of the transgender curve.