Monday, January 5, 2015

An Important Essay On Women In Film

Writer/Director/Producer Lexi Alexander wrote an essay that was reprinted by Indiewire for their Women in Hollywood series on why women are so underrepresented behind the camera. Read the full essay here.

10 comments:

  1. um she didnt want to take the Wonder women project because she said it was too much pressure. if she fails then they will blame it on her. I get it but she wouldn't also prove them wrong if she took it.

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  2. Thanks for this Outtie. Will read when I've had my morning coffee!

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  3. There is a great book by Rachel Abramowitz (former writer of Premiere) called Is That a Gun In Your Pocket? about women executives in the film industry and how they are more likely to support female talent behind the scenes rather than male executives. It's well worth a read.

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    1. Because maybe the female execs are less interested in banging female talent than the male executives?

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    2. Plus, whenever a woman was given a directing job, her budget was very tiny. Katheryn Bigelow was one of the first women to make a big budget movie with Strange Days.

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  4. Thanks Jason. I shall add that to my list.

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  5. I guess it's an opportunity to talk about how much the tone of CDAN evolved over the years, concerning women.
    I totally believe that original Enty is actually a man. The tone of the first posts was basically one of a guy venting out to other guys about the weirdos he had crossed path with. He was an equal opportunity offender.

    Then, the blog started to target women more specifically as readers, with the random photos section that commented on dresses and haircuts. A straight man wouldn't do such a thing, as we ("Angela" is an alias I've chosen as a pun) would mostly think about whether we'd like to have sex with the girl in the picture, and that's about it. So, these mentions are typically something added (most likely by a female ghostwriter) to appeal to the female readers.

    And finally, there's the most obvious change, in the tone and the phrasing. Current Enty focuses mostly on the female part of the blind items, with some heavy misogyny implied. When people have an affair, it's always the woman who's the home wrecker. When a teenage actress is supposed to have sex with a much older producer, we're supposed to guess the actress' name, not the male producer. If a guy cheats on an actress, it's because the woman is a shrew, not because the guy is unfaithful (unless it's Ben Affleck, Liv Schreiber or Daniel Craig, people Enty hates for some reason).
    The blinds have drifted into what's supposed to appeal the female readership of the blog (as women outnumber men there by a wide margin). And, unfortunately, some women still prefer to treat their own gender as a lesser one, that's prone to sin and deception, especially celebrities, which are regarded by some as role models (positive or negative). I've been quite appalled at how much the blinds have turned sour or judgmental about women over the years. For me, it's a cynical attempt to appeal to the reactionary tendencies of some of his female readers, to confort them into a behavior of slut-shaming or peer judgment.
    Anyway, that's definitely one of the biggest turnoffs there, and the one that looks the most like a cynical cash grab to boost traffic.

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    1. Very apt and eloquent Angela. High five. You have my complete agreement. I shall never darken CDAN's proverbial doors again.

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