What We Learnt From The Women Who Kick Ass Panel At Comic-Con 2014

The likes of Natalie Dormer and Nicole Beharie took part in the Women Who Kick Ass panel discussion.

The Women Who Kick Ass panel, made up of American Horror Story's Sarah Paulson, Sleepy Hollow's Nicole Beharie, Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer and Maisie Williams, Sons of Anarchy's Katey Sagal, and Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany, weren't shy when it came to talking about what the realities of working in a male-dominated industry were like at this year's Comic-Con.

The actresses all spoke candidly about the difficulties they face as women and let rip about what really riles them in Hollywood.

Here are some of the most interesting insights from this year's Women Who Kick Ass panel:

1. Natalie Dormer thinks Hollywood has a long way to go to catch up with the way women are represented on TV: 'Where television is fantastic and is way ahead of film is it doesn’t feel the need to polarize women so much… Male writers, and I say this with all love and respect, often want to make a woman either the angel or the whore - make her the witch, or put her on the pedestal. When people ask me about Margaery, I say they’re not mutually exclusive. You don’t have to be practical and politically savvy and not be a good person. You can be a good human being and just be shrewd. I think all these women play similar characters.'

2. Katey Sagal is fed up with the way ageing is portrayed for women: 'It's OK to get older. Ageism has played a factor in casting for far too long in America and there needs to be a realistic view, and send a realistic message. It seems that in Europe, you can get older.'

3. Natalie Dormer also took issue with the affect the representation of women in movies has on young girls: 'I don't think that it's healthy for young girls to be looking at these beauty magazines and watching TV and these shows and thinking [that's the standard]... there's more European attitude — you look at French film, Spanish film, they're a little more open to quirks and human nature. That we're not all symmetrical, not all the same shape... we need more of that.'

4. Nicole Beharie said being the female lead is empowering: 'A lot of different men will come on as day players or guest parts, and I recognize that there’s a certain strength that I have now, or a certain command that I have being one of the leads on the show that I hadn’t had before. Just owning that space and not being expected, as a woman, to shrink, or curtsy, or any of those sort of things.'

Keep up the good work, ladies.