www.wakingthefeminists.org: Have any of the following things ever happened to you at work?
You pull up to a venue for the load-in in the long wheel-based Transit van you’ve driven there and you’ve been laughed at when you get out of the cab (because they weren’t expecting “that” to be driving)
Somebody has forcibly grabbed a powered speaker out of your hands and said “you shouldn’t be carrying that”
12 comments:
This was a very insightful article. As a male technician I can’t imagine what it is like to be a female technician but I can see that, unfortunately, a lot of what this article says is true and I’ve seen happen. There was a time when female med students and doctors were thought of to be incompetent but people have come to terms with the fact that women can be just as smart and smarter than men, it appears we are still struggling with the idea that they can be fit and skilled with their hands as men. Now, it is biologically true that on average men are simply bigger and can develop more muscle easier, but I know many females who are stronger than many males so that fact is not always relevant. With that said, I do not think that females are inherently worse at any physical activity. But I also have to admit that I do fall victim to preconceived stereotypes but I think that I try to fight them as well. For example, Kim and Monica are two female TDs my year and I am the only male TD. I never for a second think that I am better than them because I am male and they are female. They can lift what I can lift, they can load weight as well as I can and they are better than me at a lot (both physical and academic/non-physical). We all have things we are good at and things we are not as good at and that is true for a group of 3 guys, 3 girls or any mix therein. Now, I do not want to make this comment seem as though I am bragging about how much of a feminist I am, because as I said before, I have fallen victim to these generalizations and for that I am sorry. I think this article is important for everyone to read so women who may not have had these experiences can see that others have and so that men can realize that these comments, both verbal and non verbal, are wrong and misplaced.
I remember hearing Emma talk about this article earlier today and I figured that it would be the typical feminist article. Such articles are often seen on this blog, and while I always read them, I rarely comment simply because I feel I don't have anything to add to what is said by the other students on this blog. But today is different. Firstly, may I say that being a female technician at this school is almost always wonderful. I have almost never felt disrespected for my gender, I have never felt limited, and there is an overwhelming acceptance of women in theater. I cannot even describe how happy I was at the beginning of last semester to see the plethora of feminist articles on this blog and to know that my professors would never discriminate against me. One of the main reasons I choose to come to this school was because it was so openly accepting. I visited last spring and I met Monica and Kim and I was so excited to have finally found a TD program with women in it, since every other school I looked at had entirely male professors and students. I just couldn't see myself being able to go to those schools. I had already gone through entirely male engineering and drafting classes for the years before. I just couldn't do that again. It is exhausting to always be defensive and waiting for the snide remark that you have to smile and apologize and be a nice young lady through even as it tears your soul apart. A part of me dreads going into the industry just in case articles like this tell the reality.
Some of the things on this list feel like obvious insults that come from a place of ingrained sexism. But then there are the moments that fall into that weird, gray area where you can’t be sure if they are trying to be helpful or condescending. Because, frankly, no I simply can’t lift as much as some of the men I work with. But I think that as a man, the simple solution to not getting into the tricky area of making a woman you are working with feel discriminated against or talked down to is to just trust her to know her own limits. Believe me, I know how much I can handle and when I need to ask for help. I do not need someone who thinks they know better to make that call for me. I’m very grateful that there are more and more women joining the TD department here at CMU because it will normalize the idea of strong, capable, female TDs for all the students here and they will carry that perspective out into the industry as a whole, and maybe someday the notion of female technicians being good at what they were trained to do will just be a given and not something we have to fight an uphill battle to prove on every new job.
All of the anecdotes mentioned in this article are not that surprising to me, because I've heard things similar to them before. One thing that I think is pretty unique that was included was the sexism disguised as complements. Example of that include them being impressed that she could even do her job at all. This kind of language can be even more toxic because people thing it's acceptable. The best way to change this is to call it out when we see it, and normalize women being in these roles. It seems like we're on our way, at least in our department. This is echoing what had already been said, but I think it's so cool that more and more women seem to be declaring technical direction here at CMU. As of right now it's looks like our class will be an even split between men and women, which is so great to see.
I like this list. Its real, like super real, I've experienced some of them. In most articles about women in a technical theater position, it shares stories that aren't all that relatable. This list of small things it where sexism stems from, its not the fact that women don't work as much as men in these fields, its that these little things happen, and we allow them to happen, which all grow into something more. The one that really stands out the most to me, "You've been told your "bossy"" that has happened to me on many occasions, and most of the time I take it as a compliment, because I was in a position of being the 'boss' so that was good. However, I have never heard anyone tell that to any man I have worked with. Its one of those things that you don't really think about but the sex of the individual effects it. As much as I hate reading an article every week on sexism in the theater world, I do because what I hate much much more is the actual sexism that occurs.
It’s scary how similar many of these anecdotes are to my experiences and those of my female peers. I can remember many times when I was working on a crew with men who I didn’t know who saw me waiting for a second hand to lift something only for them to wait for one of the other guys to help them instead. I’ve lost track of the number of times I or another female has suggested a solution to the problem only to be ignored, and then for that same/ a worse suggestion to be given and followed through with by a guy minutes later. One of my most infuriating memories was packing a set i’d built into a u-haul with a few older male volunteers who hadn’t been involved in theater carpentry or load-in, and who made their own decisions about what needed to go where despite what I asked them to do and scoffed when me and my female friend lifted a heavy table up into the truck saying that there was no way it would fit (when it did), and being surprised when we were able to lift a heavy platform ourselves. I appreciate this article for it’s obvious relatability and it’s raw-ness; oftentimes, I think that people (particularly males) are able to distance themselves from the societal realities of sexism because it feels far away; not at this school or not in this theater or not in this country, but the truth is that I can guarantee that every single female in this school has a list just like this one of times they’ve been told, subtly or directly that they couldn’t do something because of their gender. Theater, despite its identity as an art form, is far from achieving gender equality.
There’s a problem that needs to be solved. You have the solution and you say it out loud. Nobody hears you. A few minutes later somebody else says the same thing and everyone agrees.
Did you mean every day? I think part of my personal experience with this also comes with being a YOUNG woman in a room of older men - men who obviously know much much more than me about lifting things, I guess. Obviously I'm going to listen to a guy who is a professional lighting technician about how to hang lights or whatever, but when guys my own age (and often in high school - YOUNGER and more inexperienced than me) tell me what to do I simply shake my head. I've often been in charge of a crew of guys and simply had to ignore them or report to my TD that they won't do their work, and once he went over and said exactly what I said, they would do it. My very smart nameless friend said it best: "As a man, you get immediate respect when you enter a room. As a woman, I have to earn it. I have to prove myself." That's just really sucky, and what's worse is that guys I know still won't believe me.
Like other commenters have said, I have also experienced very similar situations. Whenever there is something heavy to be lifted or someone has I question that I know the answer too, being ignored or pushed aside for someone else is unfortunately fairly common. In addition to being a female I also have an mild case of Baby Face (thank you genetics), meaning that a lot of people think I'm younger and more inexperienced than I really am (even at 18 I occasionally get mistaken for a 12 or 14 year old). Where I'm going with this is that besides the excellent points about the importance of feminism in the technical theater world that both the article and the commenters are making, there's also a lesson to be learned here about not judging people by appearances at all. Regardless of gender, age, and anything you think you know about someone by looking at them, I personally think you should always make sure you truly know the capacity of a person's abilities before assuming. Women can be just as physically strong as men, older people can be less experienced than younger people, and so on. This will lead to mutual respect in the workplace and a greater appreciation for each others' abilities.
This is a subject I was a little unaware of until I got to Carnegie Mellon. At my high school I never had any problem with people listening to me, or discounting me, because I was a woman, but at CMU it happens every day. This is not a fault of one person, and it's not something that I necessarily blame the men of purnell for, because all that most of them know is that they are superior to me. It is the way that they were taught to live by their culture. The women in my class have talked a lot about the inequality in technical theater, and how we were going to approach that inequality for the next four years, and for the rest of our careers. When I walk into a theater during load in our load out, I have to be on my game the entire time, because I not just representing me, I am representing every woman in the room, and men just don't think that way, because they already have all the respect they are going to get, and they got it just by being alive. Honestly, I have no idea what the best thing to do is, but one day at a time, one person at a time, I am going to prove that I am just as capable as my male counterparts, and hope that one day someone else doesn't have to.
This article is too true, and that’s what makes it so terrible. Reading through the previous comments really shows just how widespread the problem of sexism in theatre is. I think that it is terrible how ingrained sexism is, and that is why feminism is so important in this industry that has historically been populated by men. I know that people ignoring your idea, only to have it be said by a man a few minutes later and thus listened to has happened to me many times over, not just in theatre. I think that this is a huge issue that everyone has to pay attention to, even at CMU, even in Purnell. I sometimes worry that i play into these stereotypes, as I am physically not strong. So I worry when I am unable to lift something, that I only confirm a man’s stereotype of women, even though there are many strong women in the field. We all just need to respect each others abilities more.
I luckily haven’t had to witness many offensive things in my experience working in theatre and events, but it is definitely a current problem that women are demeaned in these spaces even when they are just-as, or more competent than their male counterparts. I have been present when people have said not-so-cool- thinks off-hand, and handling that situation is tricky. Luckily, I think that our up-coming generation of theatre technicians will be much more open-minded than the current one, although pushing out stereotypes and offensive commonalities may be still be tricky. I know that when I go to do event work, or even theatre load-ins, I often wonder if I’m strong enough for certain lifts. This obviously makes me feel a bit self-conscious, but you gotta watch out for your back. I can only imagine what it would feel like for a woman who has this same uncertainty (or who know’s she can make the lift, but it unsure if the “guys” will believe her). If I can’t make the lift, I’m might be called some derogatory feminine term. If a woman can’t make the lift, she’s “typical.” This shows how ingrained this sexism is and how we need to be conscious of how sexism hurts everyone and how you’re offending women too if you’re calling a man a p***y, etc. I definitely try to “call it as I see it” when people say offensive things in work environments, but it no doubt can be tricky. I think the men in these spaces need to speak up for their female coworkers and support them when they voice concern.
This article brings many daily sexist occurrences to the forefront. Like all of the females in this thread, I have definitely experienced these situations. To agree with them even further, it is sometimes difficult to tell if actions by men in the scene shop, while lighting, almost anything, is sexist, trying to be helpful, or if it is plainly egotistical and this individual likes to brag or step in to prove their worth at any opportunity they get, not just with women. The thing is, the fact that it is hard to tell makes matters even worse. Whenever something happens to me that is most likely due to sexism, I feel like it is not a big deal, that I am over reacting or crazy for thinking that, and that I should lay off. This is a huge issue. This is a big part of the reason why sexism is still so rampant, women are being gaslighted.
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