it's more like 52% women and 48% males.
I was pretty sure that the difference is lower than that, somewhere in the decimals of 50%, but can't be bothered to look it up. On to the main point:
Lightknight said:
But the point is that I think it only really shows a sign of progress when it reflect society rather than being exploitative of groups to turn a profit.
Sorry, now I see you have meant "whart if society as a whole really isn't that diverse" as in "What if society as a whole is more oppressive than portrayed".
On it's own, diversity doesn't even have to be about utopian gender role portrayal. The problem with the averge movie made in the 1950s was not just that it portrayed women as housewives, and black people as segregated, but that it largely forgot their EXISTENCE, and instead focused on the white man. And to a lesser degree, the same problem is true nowadays. OK, there are more men in the army, so why make so many army movies?
Even if it's made out of a desire to pander to a female side of the audience, the very attempt to pander to that audience would be a progress compared to ignoring them, and if men are willing to watch the same movies, that's even better progress, it shows that we are starting to see each other as human beings first, to be identiied with as characters.