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HowlRound: This summer, my company Maiden Phoenix Theatre Company produced an all- female version of The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare. The production was free to all and produced in a local city park. And after that experience I know one thing for sure: I am never producing another outdoor all-female show again. Ever. And neither should you.
So clearly the fact that someone had to write this article is disgusting. I’m not really a small dude (not too big either, 5’11” 180lbs), and I am male, and even I would definitely have felt really uncomfortable in that situation. Dealing with high homeless people in an outdoor setting on a regular basis when the priority should be doing work as an artistic director is not an acceptable situation. Clearly this is indicative of the level of sexism and gender inequality that exists in our country. But I don’t know if it’s entirely fair to use these homeless and intoxicated men as the example of sexism.
There is a problem with our culture that leads to biases such as racism and sexism, and to be more vague, bias and inequality as blanket terms. These issues with the culture are, in my opinion, stemming from the fact that we often times have a hard time disassociating different from good or bad.
The men that were creating the issues in this production, they aren’t even at the level of thought to consider that women are different. To them, this artistic director was probable just some cute chick that in their warped and altered states they thought they had a chance with, or at least enough to be swayed by her flirtations. They don’t even exist in the culture that should be having the conversation
I by no means am trying to excuse their actions. I am saying that in order to correct their behaviors, there’s a whole other mess of cultural issues that need to be sorted out before they are brought up to speed on this one. But that doesn’t mean that sexism (and the other biased isms) aren’t an issue that the majority of cognizant culture should be talking about and correcting. I think that this artistic director has more courage than me for being able to repeatedly handle a situation that I would have just dialed the cops to handle (creating more of a disturbance to rehearsal, and still likely not solving the situation). I hope to see a day where the plethora of societal problems that lead to situations like this are able to be solved.
It is sad but true that being a woman, even in 2015, comes with a number of considerations that men simply don’t have to think about. Having a certain wariness of strangers in public is one of them. The thing that really disgusted me the most about this article is the fact that once this woman’s boyfriend was on-site the men’s behavior improved. In other words, these intoxicated men had more respect for this one male, who wasn’t even a part of the work at hand, then for the entire female company combined. I am not a small woman (standing at 5’8” and weighing 155 pounds) nor do I fit a lot of our society’s stereotypes for being a “hot female”. So fortunately I have not had to deal with a lot of harassment in my life. However, even I, just by virtue of being young and having a vagina, have learned to be afraid when walking along at night, or being approached by strange men in public. What these woman experienced brings what some woman just have to accept as a commonplace fact of life into a shocking light. It saddens me so much that this kind of discrimination is so ingrained in our culture that we call dealing with it “common sense.”
This is disgusting. Men need to grow up and realize women are not fucking sex objects. Objectifying women is not fun, and should be illegal. Whenever someone comes up to me I explain to them the very little known fact that sexual harassment is a very real and very annoying crime. I have no tolerance for strange men coming up to me in the middle of the night telling me that I have a “great rack.” I don’t care if you think I’m physically attractive. Keep it to your damn self. Rape culture is very real and it is being kept alive by vile people who think that objectifying women is fine because everyone does it. It is not fine, and making professional theater artists uncomfortable is not okay either. These women were trying to be revolutionary in their art and the way that people responded to such is disgusting.
I keep reading this article again and again and each time I reread it, I identify with it more. Leering is one of the parts of being a woman that I absolutely loathe. Please stop looking at me like I'm a piece of meat. It also makes me angry that the only way that they could get rid of these disgusting men was to have another man there. This is what I don't get. I can tell a man that I'm not interested, and yet he will still pursue me. But, if I tell him I have a boyfriend, the problem goes away. Why is this the case? Why do I have to define myself by the company I keep to protect myself. If I was in this situation, I would also be scared to say anything to the men directly. With all of the recent attacks on women from turning down men, rejecting someone in this day and age can be a scary thought. I applaud the author of the article for remaining professional throughout this whole endeavor, but it makes me angry that she had to do this in the first place. It's these kinds of situations that turn people off from theater for good instead of pursuing a successful career in theater.
Dear men: women are scared of you. And for good reason. Stop. Leering. At. Us. I am not here for your personal entertainment.
I had never ever thought about the fact that this could be a problem before, and like the writer I definitely would not have been prepared for such a disgusting display of the unacceptable behavior that society-wide gender inequality breeds.
I thought about this quite a bit, and I disagree with the writer's call for other companies to refrain from putting on projects like this one. I completely understand what an unpleasant experience that was for them all, and I'm sure that after going through that and seeing my work disrespected in such a crude way, I too would want to warn others about it. It's great that she wrote this article, but if anything it should be an encouragement to make this more prominent by calling attention to this issue. It's easy from my comfy seat in front of my laptop to say that we should keep fighting the good fight, but I really do believe it.
Clearly, they ran through the end of the scheduled run so they didn't quit. And I think that in her anger and hurt, the artistic director forgot about why she stuck through in the first place.
Obviously, anyone who chooses to do this should go into it as prepared and ready for these types of circumstances as they can be, which is why articles like this one are important - they prepare others. Now if there's physical safety at risk, it's a different issue. But if all involved know the risks, and are willing to go for it, then productions like these should absolutely be put on!
This is a disgusting display of how, even in 2015, women cannot hold the same level of respect and lack of objectification that men do on a daily, regular basis. The fact that the Artistic Director of the productions had to 'flirt' with these drunken, high, homeless men to even get them to walk away from harassing her actors is atrocious to me. As a feminist, I want to say, "No! Keep on producing all female work in outdoor spaces! If we keep on doing it, they'll learn to go away!" but I know that this isn't the case, and I understand exactly why the woman who wrote this article says she will never do it again. It also angers me that the police said they could do 'nothing' about these homeless men harassing the performers and crew members of this show because it was a public space. I call, excuse me, bullshit. There are a number of things that you could do -- perhaps not arresting these homeless men, but stationing patrols, having a free officer come to every other one of the performances, anything that increases the security of the space so that everyone feels safe performing and watching the show. You don't have to shove these drunk men into the ground and arrest them; simply keep them from disrupting the peace. I wish I lived in a world where this didn't happen anymore -- that I could dismiss the fact that it is extremely difficult, even in the North East, to produce an all female play fair without men leering, flirting, or harassing me and my team members -- but I know that, for now, is not possible.
There was a Buzzfeed video that circulated some time ago that asked a group of men what they would do if they were women for a day. One response in particular stood out. Rather than going shopping, or seeking out men to see what sex would be like, this participant said that he would stay inside all day. He recognized that as a woman, the world is a dangerous place. If it was only for a day, he said, he could deal with not leaving the house. Seeing this cemented for me just how much women need to think about just to step out for the day. There is a fine line between wanting to look nice for yourself and having that be interpreted by others as something done for their personal benefit. These women were trying to enrich the artistic culture of their town by putting on a show, and that was willingly misinterpreted by those men as something done for their personal entertainment. Huge props to the artistic director for standing up to them, but she shouldn't have needed to in the first place. As she said, men know that this behavior is unacceptable yet do it anyways because they can get away with it. I hope she doesn't give up doing all-female shows, and finds a way to work around this problem as all women have to do.
I hate that this is a situation that is still occurring. It’s disgusting that so many men still feel that they have the right to do this, to speak to women in such a way. I identify with the author of this article in so many ways. At the same time, I feel like it is a giving in of sorts to discontinue productions similar to these. I see her fear and it is valid, but we must consider that if even one young boy is in that park and see’s those female actors portraying those positions of power, then maybe he will know, he will see through the societal gender roles. Those men at the park, there is no educating them. But for the youth that share that park, enlightening them could change futures. So take this knowledge, and run with it, maybe combat it in the shows you’re performing, but please do not give in.
I feel like this article should be from fifty years ago. The fact that this is still an actual issue is so ridiculous. Why are people still so disgusting? Why can people not provide basic respect and acknowledge basic boundaries? It is 2015, and a large group of women cannot work together without being harassed and "leered" at by a bunch of gross men. I personally don't have a lot of problems with leering or catcalling, but I know a lot of people that have had issues with it. Women should not have to walk down the street at night and be nervous about any guy that they see. Women should be able to work in a public place without having to deal with creepy men coming backstage and just sitting there.
How frustrating. There is this "pick your poison" mentality about functioning as a woman in the world, and our collective societal inability to advance in how we perceive and treat women is appalling. I remember talking with a friend last year, and him saying that even though I should be able to walk through life however I "damn well please", I would likely either have to deal with some kind of consequences of putting myself out there in such a "bold" fashion, or I would just have to act in such a manner that "obeyed" the lines that were put there and enforced by people other than myself.
It is more than tiresome being constantly reminded about an ideal that is so far from the reality I live in. It is withering to the bone. Stories like this one illustrate the problematic conundrum women navigate everyday: the people who pay the most attention to this problem, this inequality are the ones who suffer as a consequence of it.
10 comments:
So clearly the fact that someone had to write this article is disgusting. I’m not really a small dude (not too big either, 5’11” 180lbs), and I am male, and even I would definitely have felt really uncomfortable in that situation. Dealing with high homeless people in an outdoor setting on a regular basis when the priority should be doing work as an artistic director is not an acceptable situation. Clearly this is indicative of the level of sexism and gender inequality that exists in our country. But I don’t know if it’s entirely fair to use these homeless and intoxicated men as the example of sexism.
There is a problem with our culture that leads to biases such as racism and sexism, and to be more vague, bias and inequality as blanket terms. These issues with the culture are, in my opinion, stemming from the fact that we often times have a hard time disassociating different from good or bad.
The men that were creating the issues in this production, they aren’t even at the level of thought to consider that women are different. To them, this artistic director was probable just some cute chick that in their warped and altered states they thought they had a chance with, or at least enough to be swayed by her flirtations. They don’t even exist in the culture that should be having the conversation
I by no means am trying to excuse their actions. I am saying that in order to correct their behaviors, there’s a whole other mess of cultural issues that need to be sorted out before they are brought up to speed on this one. But that doesn’t mean that sexism (and the other biased isms) aren’t an issue that the majority of cognizant culture should be talking about and correcting. I think that this artistic director has more courage than me for being able to repeatedly handle a situation that I would have just dialed the cops to handle (creating more of a disturbance to rehearsal, and still likely not solving the situation). I hope to see a day where the plethora of societal problems that lead to situations like this are able to be solved.
It is sad but true that being a woman, even in 2015, comes with a number of considerations that men simply don’t have to think about. Having a certain wariness of strangers in public is one of them. The thing that really disgusted me the most about this article is the fact that once this woman’s boyfriend was on-site the men’s behavior improved. In other words, these intoxicated men had more respect for this one male, who wasn’t even a part of the work at hand, then for the entire female company combined. I am not a small woman (standing at 5’8” and weighing 155 pounds) nor do I fit a lot of our society’s stereotypes for being a “hot female”. So fortunately I have not had to deal with a lot of harassment in my life. However, even I, just by virtue of being young and having a vagina, have learned to be afraid when walking along at night, or being approached by strange men in public. What these woman experienced brings what some woman just have to accept as a commonplace fact of life into a shocking light. It saddens me so much that this kind of discrimination is so ingrained in our culture that we call dealing with it “common sense.”
This is disgusting. Men need to grow up and realize women are not fucking sex objects. Objectifying women is not fun, and should be illegal. Whenever someone comes up to me I explain to them the very little known fact that sexual harassment is a very real and very annoying crime. I have no tolerance for strange men coming up to me in the middle of the night telling me that I have a “great rack.” I don’t care if you think I’m physically attractive. Keep it to your damn self. Rape culture is very real and it is being kept alive by vile people who think that objectifying women is fine because everyone does it. It is not fine, and making professional theater artists uncomfortable is not okay either. These women were trying to be revolutionary in their art and the way that people responded to such is disgusting.
I keep reading this article again and again and each time I reread it, I identify with it more. Leering is one of the parts of being a woman that I absolutely loathe. Please stop looking at me like I'm a piece of meat. It also makes me angry that the only way that they could get rid of these disgusting men was to have another man there. This is what I don't get. I can tell a man that I'm not interested, and yet he will still pursue me. But, if I tell him I have a boyfriend, the problem goes away. Why is this the case? Why do I have to define myself by the company I keep to protect myself. If I was in this situation, I would also be scared to say anything to the men directly. With all of the recent attacks on women from turning down men, rejecting someone in this day and age can be a scary thought. I applaud the author of the article for remaining professional throughout this whole endeavor, but it makes me angry that she had to do this in the first place. It's these kinds of situations that turn people off from theater for good instead of pursuing a successful career in theater.
Dear men: women are scared of you. And for good reason. Stop. Leering. At. Us. I am not here for your personal entertainment.
I had never ever thought about the fact that this could be a problem before, and like the writer I definitely would not have been prepared for such a disgusting display of the unacceptable behavior that society-wide gender inequality breeds.
I thought about this quite a bit, and I disagree with the writer's call for other companies to refrain from putting on projects like this one. I completely understand what an unpleasant experience that was for them all, and I'm sure that after going through that and seeing my work disrespected in such a crude way, I too would want to warn others about it. It's great that she wrote this article, but if anything it should be an encouragement to make this more prominent by calling attention to this issue. It's easy from my comfy seat in front of my laptop to say that we should keep fighting the good fight, but I really do believe it.
Clearly, they ran through the end of the scheduled run so they didn't quit. And I think that in her anger and hurt, the artistic director forgot about why she stuck through in the first place.
Obviously, anyone who chooses to do this should go into it as prepared and ready for these types of circumstances as they can be, which is why articles like this one are important - they prepare others. Now if there's physical safety at risk, it's a different issue. But if all involved know the risks, and are willing to go for it, then productions like these should absolutely be put on!
This is a disgusting display of how, even in 2015, women cannot hold the same level of respect and lack of objectification that men do on a daily, regular basis. The fact that the Artistic Director of the productions had to 'flirt' with these drunken, high, homeless men to even get them to walk away from harassing her actors is atrocious to me. As a feminist, I want to say, "No! Keep on producing all female work in outdoor spaces! If we keep on doing it, they'll learn to go away!" but I know that this isn't the case, and I understand exactly why the woman who wrote this article says she will never do it again. It also angers me that the police said they could do 'nothing' about these homeless men harassing the performers and crew members of this show because it was a public space. I call, excuse me, bullshit. There are a number of things that you could do -- perhaps not arresting these homeless men, but stationing patrols, having a free officer come to every other one of the performances, anything that increases the security of the space so that everyone feels safe performing and watching the show. You don't have to shove these drunk men into the ground and arrest them; simply keep them from disrupting the peace. I wish I lived in a world where this didn't happen anymore -- that I could dismiss the fact that it is extremely difficult, even in the North East, to produce an all female play fair without men leering, flirting, or harassing me and my team members -- but I know that, for now, is not possible.
There was a Buzzfeed video that circulated some time ago that asked a group of men what they would do if they were women for a day. One response in particular stood out. Rather than going shopping, or seeking out men to see what sex would be like, this participant said that he would stay inside all day. He recognized that as a woman, the world is a dangerous place. If it was only for a day, he said, he could deal with not leaving the house. Seeing this cemented for me just how much women need to think about just to step out for the day. There is a fine line between wanting to look nice for yourself and having that be interpreted by others as something done for their personal benefit. These women were trying to enrich the artistic culture of their town by putting on a show, and that was willingly misinterpreted by those men as something done for their personal entertainment. Huge props to the artistic director for standing up to them, but she shouldn't have needed to in the first place. As she said, men know that this behavior is unacceptable yet do it anyways because they can get away with it. I hope she doesn't give up doing all-female shows, and finds a way to work around this problem as all women have to do.
I hate that this is a situation that is still occurring. It’s disgusting that so many men still feel that they have the right to do this, to speak to women in such a way. I identify with the author of this article in so many ways. At the same time, I feel like it is a giving in of sorts to discontinue productions similar to these. I see her fear and it is valid, but we must consider that if even one young boy is in that park and see’s those female actors portraying those positions of power, then maybe he will know, he will see through the societal gender roles. Those men at the park, there is no educating them. But for the youth that share that park, enlightening them could change futures. So take this knowledge, and run with it, maybe combat it in the shows you’re performing, but please do not give in.
I feel like this article should be from fifty years ago. The fact that this is still an actual issue is so ridiculous. Why are people still so disgusting? Why can people not provide basic respect and acknowledge basic boundaries? It is 2015, and a large group of women cannot work together without being harassed and "leered" at by a bunch of gross men. I personally don't have a lot of problems with leering or catcalling, but I know a lot of people that have had issues with it. Women should not have to walk down the street at night and be nervous about any guy that they see. Women should be able to work in a public place without having to deal with creepy men coming backstage and just sitting there.
How frustrating. There is this "pick your poison" mentality about functioning as a woman in the world, and our collective societal inability to advance in how we perceive and treat women is appalling. I remember talking with a friend last year, and him saying that even though I should be able to walk through life however I "damn well please", I would likely either have to deal with some kind of consequences of putting myself out there in such a "bold" fashion, or I would just have to act in such a manner that "obeyed" the lines that were put there and enforced by people other than myself.
It is more than tiresome being constantly reminded about an ideal that is so far from the reality I live in. It is withering to the bone. Stories like this one illustrate the problematic conundrum women navigate everyday: the people who pay the most attention to this problem, this inequality are the ones who suffer as a consequence of it.
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