Trufax re: Espenson. She and Doris Egan were at a Q&A at a convention talking about the difference between the UK and US show-writing cultures (when contributing to the Starz edition of "Torchwood"). Boy, did they give good panel. They're going to be back at the next con. I'd love to see what they have to say on the topic of women in showrunning in general.
Jane Espenson is awesome. (I would love to hear more about US/UK showrunning differences. UK television is just done so differently--I mean, what, 6 episodes is a normal season length?--it'd be interesting to hear about what effects that has behind the scenes, including on the diversity of the writing staff.)
Re: I'm sorry butroseofjulySeptember 10 2011, 16:39:33 UTC
I don't see how that response is any less valid than a longer one. That phrase bothered me too - even a lot of the women and supportive men quoted in the article said a lot of stereotypical things, things that made me raise an eyebrow even as I was agreeing with them. It goes to show how internalized misogyny (or just plain old misogyny in the case of the men) operates on a subtle level. I mean, "they tend to smell good"? Why would anyone think that was an appropriate comment to make about the virtues of women writers, particularly when you know you're getting interviewed for an article about how there's a dearth of them?
Highlighting something doesn't mean "getting hung up on it." And no one's required to make a deep and holistic comment to address an entire article. Sometimes it's the little things that jump out at you.
Re: I'm sorry butchreeskoSeptember 10 2011, 23:04:50 UTC
The comment about women smelling good sounded to me like an attempt at humor that didn't come across well in print. I just can't imagine someone saying that seriously in any context, unless they're discussing why they ate the cupcakes instead of the broccoli. I was more bothered by the "women are ~nurturing~" tone of some of the comments that I thought were made seriously.
I think it's mostly because female is seen as somewhat dehumanizing. "Female" can refer to just about any species that has a female sex (for example, there are female trees). Woman only refers to adult humans, and doesn't have that connotation.
There's also the issue that female is often used to refer to biological sex, which may not always match up with someone's gender. (Plus, I suspect that biological sex has little to do with one's ability to write television shows, while someone's experience going through life being identified as woman would.)
"I've been on staffs, not recently, where I remember at the beginning of one season, the boss just called in all the men and didn't want the women, and was so happy not having the women around," Sarnoff recalled. "When I asked later why he did that, he said, 'Well, you know, it was just the upper-level people.' I said, 'Do you understand how wrong that is on every level?'"
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Highlighting something doesn't mean "getting hung up on it." And no one's required to make a deep and holistic comment to address an entire article. Sometimes it's the little things that jump out at you.
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(The comment has been removed)
There's also the issue that female is often used to refer to biological sex, which may not always match up with someone's gender. (Plus, I suspect that biological sex has little to do with one's ability to write television shows, while someone's experience going through life being identified as woman would.)
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WHAT. THE. FUCK.
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