The Women Of Hollywood Speak Out
Glad to see women of colour represented here | The Women of Hollywood Speak Out via @nytimes https://t.co/LpUxJzu4yP pic.twitter.com/E8rBkcdDSK
- Afripop Mag (@Afripopmag) November 23, 2015
This is that exposé that Meryl Streep tweeted about. Maureen Dowd talked to more than 100 women (and men, but some of they would say shit like "call some chicks") about the pervasive sexism that keep women from directing movies and runing studios. This article is lenghty so behind the cut there will only be direct quotes and some highlights that may interest ONTD like Amazing Amy Pascal's Tragic Villain Backstory. Your good sis here would still recommend you to read it in full.
- About the Colin Trevorrow's fairy tale (he went from this indie debut 'Safety Not Guaranteed' to directing 'Jurassic World' and a future 'Star Wars' movie: "That kind of leap - from indie to blockbuster - is almost exclusively reserved for young guys in baseball caps who remind older guys in baseball caps of themselves."
- Kathry Bigelow and now Patty jekins with the upcoming 'Wonder Woman' movie are the only two females to direct live-action movies with a $100 million budget.
- Leslye Headland, director of 'Bachelorette', who premiered on Sundance at the same year than Trevorrow's debut: "Quentin Tarantino can make ‘Pulp Fiction’ for $8 million and you can slap him on any magazine. He’s the poster boy. He was for me. I want to be that guy even though he looks like a foot. God bless him, and he can do whatever he wants to my feet. But with a female director, you’re just not celebrated the same way. Without the benefit of Google, ask anybody to name more than five female filmmakers that have made more than three films. It’s shockingly hard. These dudes, man. Spielberg and Cassavetes and Woody Allen have all made some unwatchable movies. But it’s Elaine May and ‘Ishtar’ you remember. It’s not Elaine May’s fault. Poor Elaine.’’
- Anjelica Huston: ‘‘It’s kind of like the church. They don’t want us to be priests. They want us to be obedient nuns.’’
- Geena Davis, commissioned Stacy Smith, a researcher at the University of Southern California, to study the issue [of lack of female directors]. From 2007-2014, women made up only 30.2 percent of speaking or named characters in the 100 top-grossing fictional films. It's even worse behind the lens: In both 2013 and 2014, women were only 1.9 percent of the directors for the 100 top-grossing films.
- Shonda Rhimes: "The world of movies is fascinating to me because everyone has amnesia all the time. Every time a female-driven project is made and succeeds, somehow it’s a fluke. Instead of just saying ‘The Hunger Games’ is popular among young women, they say it only made money because Jennifer Lawrence was luminous and amazing. I mean, you go get yours, girl. But seriously, that’s ridiculous. There’s a very hungry audience of young women dying to see some movies. They came out for ‘Titanic’ and ‘Twilight,’ 14-year-old girls going back to see those movies every day. I find it fascinating that this audience is not being respected. In the absence of water, people drink sand. And that is sad. There’s such an interest in things being equal and such a weary acceptance that it’s not.’’
- Ariela Migdal, women's rights lawyer: "What struck me the most was how blatant and out in the open some of the discrimination was. Agents openly say, ‘I’m not putting you up for that because this guy won’t hire a woman director.’ The list for directing big films is five plausible dudes and Kathryn Bigelow. And Bigelow is not going to direct ‘Jurassic World.’ You can’t have a list with no women."
- Dee Rees, director of 'Pariah' and HBO's 'Bessie': ‘‘I look at Woody Allen’s prolific career of 30 or 40 films, and I’m watching the clock. I’d love to work at a clip of a film a year. We don’t get the benefit of the doubt, particularly black women. We’re presumed incompetent, whereas a white male is assumed competent until proven otherwise. They just think the guy in the ball hat and the T-shirt over the thermal has got it, whether he’s got it or not. For buzzy first films by a white male, the trajectory is a 90-degree angle. For us, it’s a 30-degree angle. Is it also a problem with critics, that there are not enough female or African-American critics to sound the bell that this is great work?"
- Catherine Hardwicke ('Twilight', 'Red Riding Hood') says that she was punished for crying on set: "I worked for 20 directors as a production designer, most male. I was on the set to witness firsthand a range of sometimes atrocious emotions - well-documented firings, yellings, fights between directors and actors, hookers, abusive things, budget overages, lack of preparation. A man gets a standing ovation for crying because he’s so sensitive, but a woman is shamed.’’
- Kathleen Kennedy, head of Lucasfilm: ‘‘Until I waved the flag at the Fortune women’s conference recently, I had not had one single phone call from a woman telling me that she really, really wants to direct a ‘Star Wars’ movie. They need to be the ones picking up the phone and saying, ‘Hey, let me tell you what ‘Star Wars’ means to me and how much I could do with it.’’
- Lena Dunham in a moment of light: "I feel like we do too much telling women: ‘You aren’t aggressive enough. You haven’t made yourself known enough.’ And it’s like, women shouldn’t be having to hustle twice as fast to get what men achieve just by showing up.’’
- Miranda July ('The Future'): ‘‘There’s this ickiness associated with women that I think is the real misogyny always at the edge of things. It’s certainly tied to how women can’t get older. There’s a very short time span when a woman can get into the world of power and be a delightful treat. There’s a fear, when women make things, not just that it’s going to be a flop but that it’s going to be annoying and embarrassing and somehow incriminating. You picture Spike Jonze, the Duplass brothers, Wes Anderson - can I call them my peers? They might have a flop, but they will never have that ickiness.’’
- Amy Pascal, the only fired one over the Sony Leaks (which, according to the author, helped the conversation of sexism on Hollywood after it revealed JLaw to be paid less than her male co-stars) , about how she was judged after being responsible for the making of 'Little Women', 'a League of Their Own', 'Girl Interrupted','Sense and Sensibility', and 'Charlie's Angels': ‘‘I loved those movies, but all anyone said was that I made chick flicks. And then I got co-opted because everyone made me feel ashamed. I felt like, unfortunately, I was being categorized, that I could only make this one kind of movie, and it wasn’t going to make the kind of money that people wanted. I had to prove I could do anything. [...] My goal has always been to make movies with female protagonists who change the world, movies where women have consequences to their actions, whether they are the villain or protagonist. I want to change the way girls feel about themselves. [...] All of a sudden, we’re in this era of, ‘Oh, my God, girls.’ It’ll last about as long as it always does: about five more minutes.’’
SOURCE
How do you feel about this, ONTD? Be aware that this article can be rage-inducing because rich white men ain't shit, etc. TYFYA!
