The source for this diagram are the full lists of the 100 top favorite movies on Letterboxd, which you can read here: https://letterboxd.com/crew/list/most-fans-on-letterboxd-2022/

These lists were compiled in September 2022, so partially reflect the popularity of movies at the time. The top movies in each of these lists are:

On Letterboxd accounts are referred to by the pronouns They/their by default. In the settings people can opt to change it to He/his, He/their, She/her, She/their, Xe/xyr, Ze/hir, Ze/zir or It/its. It's assumed that each of these lists covers all the options that include She, He and Xe/Ze. They and It users aren't covered in these lists. The diagram shows only the overlapping presence of movies in the top 100 for each pronoun set.

This project has been sitting open on my computer for 5 months now, and has gone through a lot of revision. I was initially sucked in by the Letterboxd logo and style that seemed to beg to be turned into a Venn diagram, but I never got to the point where I thought it was perfect, so I hope people think it's at least interesting.

I made this using google sheets and the graphics program GIMP.

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As a guy, apparently my movie tastes are significantly more she than he or xe.

Edit: typo

Interesting how most of the movies in the she category have female protagonists or showcase a female in a more prominent role. Similar sentiment on the He category with the exception of Halloween 1978.

What was the methodology used to determine which circle a movie would fall into?

Shout out to Scarface, Synecdoche, Persona, and Shrek 2 enjoyers. Easily my favourite gender.

Where TF is LOTR? WHAT AM I?

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Was thinking the same thing. Really interesting breakdown between the genders

Fellowship was on all 3 lists, Return of the King was on He and Xe/Ze. They were ranked highest on the He list.

So we all agree that Brad Pitt movies are cool, I see 3 in the white circle at first glance.

See my main comment for more of a breakdown, but it's a venn diagram of the top 100 movies for users with each set of pronouns. Jaws was just on the He list so it goes in the blue section, Moonlight was on the He and She lists so it goes in the purple, and Her was on all three so it goes in the white.

I looked at this for 5 minutes before going wtf is Xe/Ze (no offence)

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Shutter island and howls moving castle are in my top 5 movies and I’m also a she/neo pronouns lol

Yeah I'm wondering the same, is it some new shorthand for they/them?

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Correlation does not immediately offer a proof for causation

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No it's not. Singular they has been in the english language for hundreds of years, even Shakespeare used it.

Singular they isn't incorrect.

It's not technically incorrect, it just 'feels' like it is because it's uncommon. It's been used as a gender-exempt singular pronoun for well over a century, although the non-binary adoption is relatively new.

So essentially Xe/Ze are dudes in spirit?

(Please translate "dudes" or "in spirit" into whatever gender gets you to not hate me, I'm highlighting the overlap, idc about whatever debate is going on)

It seems nobody has said Terminator 2 (or I can't see it). Clearly a flawed dataset unless I am going blind.

Can anyone explain about these new pronouns? Xe and Ze… I never heard about it!

I don't believe only one category chose Shrek 2 as their favourite movie.

Where is They Live. Seems it should be in the diagram.

For people curious about a missing movie, you can see how many users have selected it by going to the page for the movie on the website and looking on the right side above the bar graph of the ratings.

https://letterboxd.com/film/terminator-2-judgment-day/

You'll see here that Terminator 2 has 8.1k "fans", which are people that have chosen it. It's hard to tell how many users overall you'd need to make it onto one of these lists, but the movie with the fewest, The Worst Person in the World (ranked 100 on She), has 11k total fans.

That's interesting. Thanks for commenting, guess people these days just have no taste regardless of pronoun choice :)

Princess Mononoke is so good that everyone likes it.

Also, Why the Xer pronouns and not just they/them? I don't know anybody that goes by Xer, but I know many people who prefer "they". Just curious.

That's because the movies in the "he" section were basically all made with 8 year old boys in mind. Take it as a good thing that your taste doesn't completely align with that lol

I personally prefer they/them or he/they so it's not like I'm completely confused by choosing your own pronouns,,,,,, but xe/ze does just feel kinda pointless to me. "They/them" is perfectly fine and doesn't make you sound like an alien, but idk maybe I'm missing something

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Xe and Ze are two examples of gender pronouns commonly called neopronouns. So if you followed somebody on this site that had one of those options selected in the settings, you might get a notification like "Exampleperson added Puss in Boots: The Last Wish to zir watchlist."

Neopronouns are sets of pronouns like He/him/his, She/her/her or They/them/their that people have coined recently and that aren't used historically. They are used primarily by nonbinary people, though some surveys indicate only a minority of nonbinary people use them, and often they will also be okay with people using non-neopronouns as well.

If you want to read more about neopronouns you can read this article:

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/neopronouns-they-them-pronoun-alternative-1190069/

Or this survey on how nonbinary people use language like pronouns:

https://www.gendercensus.com/results/2022-worldwide/#pronouns

... so, from statistical point of view - xe/ze is actually a he. xe/ze has huge overlap with he, but very limited overlap with she, while at the same time there is a large amount of "she-only" flicks.

Yep and nobody is disagreeing with you there

You can see my main comment for more details, but the website default is They/their, so they didn't release a summary because it would be less indicative of gendered preference.

Not to mention there’s like twice as much movies in the two other sectors lol

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Great illustration of how men and boys are not taught to care about women-focused stories, while women are taught to be interested in leads of all genders. Just looking at the sheer number of movies that only she/her folks like.

I don’t know if the xe/ze data tells us much, I can’t imagine the n was very high. Interesting about the studying overlap with he/him though! They/them would have been interesting!

Same, why not just use the singular they? It already exists why make something up?

It would be nice to have different words for the singular they and plural they, but I don't think xe/ze is it, nor do I think it's a big issue since context usually makes it clear, but not always.

Nah, you will never convince me that there is a person out there that has Come and See as their favourite movie.

I enjoyed this graphic! I think you have to read it with the methodology clear in mind but its interesting to see. This is the link in the post, which links to the three lists OP pulled from.

I went to make a profile to see how this works, and some context. As OP notes, when you make a profile, you can add up to four favorite films -- the lists are based on counting up people's favorite films. Also OP explain in a another comment the website never asks for your gender -- if you go to your profile, its default they/their -- as in "u/baydew listed Spirited Away as their favorite film" -- which is usually how websites refer to their users in automated messages. You can change this to another pronoun set in your profile if you choose to ('her', 'his', 'xe', 'ze'. also 'it' is on the list?..)

Most people probably don't touch this setting at all, but as you can see of people who do change their pronouns, those who pick 'she' do watch a different set of films from 'he'. I think its hard to interpret 'ze/xe' -- for example, I dont think its unreasonable to believe that a good chunk of 'ze/xe' are boys being silly, especially since they/their is already the default and usually the most popular choice for non-binary pronouns in most surveys by far.

Finally, I'll note that based on the lists, two movies with very large gender gaps between 'He' and 'She' are:

• "The Empire Strikes Back", skewed to men (#9 in He, not in top 100 for 'She', #23 on 'Ze/Xe')
• "Little Women", skewed towards women (#2 in She, not in to 100 for He or Ze/Xe)

Xe and zir are barely used by anyone though. Like 100 theys for every one Xe

Woman dont like star wars!? Its treason then!

They is not a plural pronoun its an ambiguous pronoun that can be used for plurality

The main takeaway I’m getting from this is that everyone has terrible taste, regardless of gender.

Looks like I need to change my pronouns to Xe based on these film choices!

How come he and xe have so many in common but nobody else?

I'm not sure it's a great illustration of that; I'm fairly certain that there are a higher percentage of major movie releases that have male leads (which is a problem in itself).

To make up some numbers as an example, since I haven't counted from the diagram, if 70% of major movies had male leads, and 70% of the movies in the he/him category were male leads, it would show no bias in that group for their preferred lead. In the same scenario, if 50% of movies in the she/her has female leads, it would actually show a bias, as it differs from the general ratio. And if he/him were 80 male and she/her were 40% female it'd show a somewhat similar bias on both sides.

Again, I'm not saying that any of those numbers are real, nor that your conclusion that he/him have more bias in preferred leads than she/her is false. I'm just saying that this graph and underlying "study" don't necessarily illustrate that.

I’m sorry, what the hell does ze and xe mean?

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Yeah, the sizes of the overlapping regions are very interesting. I would have thought the neopronoun group would evenly overlap with he and she groups. But they're significantly more overlapping with the he group. The he group even has more in common with the she group than the xe/zes.

I wouldn't read into this result though. It's probably more of a result of app usage demographics than gendered tastes.

I’m calling BS on this. There’s no way that any Evangelion movie would be anyone’s favorite movie.

I've never seen the movie or any part of the Evangelion franchise, but it's really highly regarded. The End of Evangelion has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews, and is regularly listed as one of the best anime movies of all time. A lot of movie-adjacent people like it. Wes Anderson, for example, considered it one of the 10 best animated movies ever. On Letterboxd it's the 22nd highest rated movie and 6% of people that have watched it call it one of their favourite movies.

Oh thank God, I was beginning to suspect i was a he

The internet is skewed towards introverts, and anime skews introverted.

What's interesting is that introverts from Western nations prefer even live action Japanese films. Why do Western introverts like Japan, not just anime, but food, culture, language, live action film, music, clothing, history, and social values?

Both are true. There are more male-focused stories, and boys are not taught to care about female-focused stories, and this goes beyond film and television and into books. JK Rowling famously went by "JK" instead of her first name (when she didn't actually have a K middle name) because publishers knew boys were less likely to read a book by a woman.

I just meant like, they’re all a horrible retelling of the last couple episodes. Like why?

Again, I'm not saying contrary, just that this post is not evidence for which group is biased. It only shows that at least one of them differs from a hypothetical baseline.

I would be interested in a study or evidence for it. The JK Rowling example is interesting, but is only definitive insofar as it shows the publisher's belief in the statement, but isn't by itself strong evidence that it is true.

I guess it’s just like

An opinion thing, man

Hey! Children of men is a fantastic movie!

Looks like pronouns aside we can all agree on one thing: Killin nazis (if you didn’t read that in brad pitts voice read it again)

One, why not show data from those who use they/them? Two, how many people who use xe/ze use that site? If that data is from like 8 people, it shouldn’t really be used.

Reservoir Dogs in the Xe category but not Moonlight? Haha I’m not buying it.

I noticed that as well. Xe/ze definitely shares a lot more commonality with he than with she.

I’ll save you some time. None is this makes sense, even the detailed explanation. It’s all bullshit. Looks like shit too.

Edit: none of it!!!

Because it also refers to multiple people, which can be confusing if the subject hasn't been clearly defined each time.

As opposed to movies like Scarface (Ze) and Princess Bride (She) that are super adult oriented.

neopronouns are a fucking joke made to make the trans community look stupid.

Statistically men have shit taste

Also I’ve always wanted to see synecdoche NY

I recently had a stupid interaction about a they/them pronoun, I asked the person I was talking something about 'them' and they misinterpreted who I was talking about since we were discussing a professional whose gender was unknown in addition to a coworker (who I did not know used they/them pronouns and was irrelevant to the question I asked). But my coworker got offended at me on the they/them coworkers behalf for no reason.

You know what would solve this? Literally any other pronoun for non-binary people.

So in short it's some bullshit made up for use by a tiny minority within a minority, that nobody here understands or cares for. Just use they/them.

Aw are you insulted? All the other sections have like 3 times more movies listed than in the he section so your rebuttal kinda sucks ass

Adult Men being tasteless idiots is a completely normal and justified stereotype that you don’t need to fight against

And I say this as an adult male

All pronouns that aren’t He or She are just dumb

Not really necessary or related to the conversation at hand.

Being a self-hating guy on Reddit isn’t getting you any pussy + NFT avatar

Nah but my OF is really taking off

No, these are called neopronouns and are something different, but similar concept

I’m so surprised Joker isn’t the favorite film of more women hahah just kidding could u imagine

Neopronouns are usually used by neurodivergent (more specifically autistic) people, and they help them identify themselves in their own way that they often can’t with the already established pronouns.

It’s harmless and it helps people to be themselves.

Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, but I don’t see the original Shrek, which makes Shrek 2 being included so much weirder

Its harmful to NB people. Pronouns are not a way to identify your personality or mental disorders, they are a part of english. They make trans people look like fools.

Neopronouns are often used by neurodivergent (mainly autistic) people. It helps them define their own sense of identity that they can’t with already established pronouns.

Neurodivergent people are constantly feeling boxed in by things and different social constructs that can be difficult for them to recognize or sometimes understand. Many neurodivergent people feel they don’t quite fit in either category, especially not within neurotypical spaces, neopronouns are just a way to help them break free a little bit, establish their own identity and their own rules, rather then feeling boxed in

They don’t,

you’re just being unnecessarily hateful;

-Signed, a NB person

Nah. You are actively trying to make NBs look like a joke.

I’m glad you are telling me I’m wrong on this, clearly you would know more then me

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>You know what would solve this? Literally any other pronoun for non-binary people.

Yep, and then they get upset for all being grouped together. The winning move is to not play this game at all.

That doesn't really make sense. It's a very dismissive thing to say. you probably use "they" a few times a day at least.

Do you know about sexual dimorphism in humans? Do you know that gender isn't biological? Do you know that preferred pronouns can also be isolated from the idea of gender? Yea idk. Open your mind and do some research

And then there was freedoms of opinions! Ain’t it beautiful? 😁

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Clearly we should just bring back thee and thy

I actually unironically support this

More relevant is that the xe/ze crowd are going to be younger on the whole, what with insisting on a neologism for a basic part of speech to refer to them.

Is it your experience that folks who use they/them pronouns, or who don’t identify as cis, are largely neurodivergent anyway? At least that’s been my assumption…

I mean yeah, there is that aspect of being queer that is going against societal and social norms and that falls in line with being neurodivergent and being less likely to adapt to said norms, and more likely to think outside the box, be themselves without worrying about judgement.

Pretty sure there’s a statistic that’s something like 70% of people with autism identify as “non-heterosexual”.

Yet and still you’ve acknowledged me I must be saying something! You mad lol

Xe/Ze? Nevermind, I’m probably to old to get it