CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

'The 4%' women in movies

Business Insider: When you think of a big-budget director ready to tackle a new Hollywood franchise, you're probably thinking of someone like J.J. Abrams or Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately, most would not think of Kathryn Bigelow or Ava DuVernay.

1 comment:

Sasha Schwartz said...

It blows my mind the amount of statistics that are out there about the gender disparity in the entertainment industry that people just refuse to open their eyes to. It’s so obvious to me, seeing almost exclusively men on/behind the screen/stage every day, that it’s become so normalized, it’s seen as “okay”. It’s crazy to me that executives continue to hire almost exclusively women because “they don’t have enough experience” when data has clearly shown that this isn’t the case; people are so accustomed to their own sexism that they don’t even need to confront it. The Anjelica Huston quote saying how “Men have objections” resonates with me every strongly. As my wise friend Sarah told me, when men walk into a room everyone is ready to listen to what they have to say, but women have to speak up and articulate to be heard, and even then, there is no expectation that what they have to say will be interesting or worthwhile. I’ve seen in my own classes how male students are allowed to drag on and on about a specific point with no clear destination, while female students are quickly moved on from as soon as they so much as stutter or speak too quietly or say one incorrect thing. I have commented on this what seems like a million times and I’ll say it again; we live in a sexist world in which it is so commonplace and everyday that women are taught to deal with it and men are taught to ignore it.