Thursday, April 07, 2016
When It Comes to Gender Parity: WTF?
Clyde Fitch Report: To set up the situation: some female acquaintances of mine were discussing how pitiful the stats are in their area for plays being produced which are written by, directed by, and/or with good roles for women. The usual. So they decided to drive change and produce their own female-driven theater festival. They named it — branded it — put it out there for the world to see as “WTF: Women’s Theater Festival.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I'm really glad to see an article on the News page regarding the importance of sociolinguistics and the importance it holds in relation to men and women. I think it's an important part of understanding what is separating women from men (and I mean that in the most neutral way possible). This article touches upon on how society decides women must be more dainty and proper, and therefore is inappropriate when a woman goes against those norms. That being said, it does irk me to know that the Women's Theatre Festival (or more aptly names, WTF) added "Voices" to their name in order to appear less vulgar. I thought it would've been pretty kick ass if the festival stayed as WTF because number one, yes, it's an acronym for the Women's Theatre Festival but more importantly number two, it's a playful and clever display of frustration. It tickled me when I first read in the article that the festival was named WTF and I completely disagree with the idea that just because it alludes to a curse word, that it would deter people from going. In fact, I think because it's named WTF it would attract exactly the type of people the festival needed it to become. It's edgy and it's making a statement because that is what is needed. Like I said, I do wish the company stood its ground and kept it as WTF, but I can see the caution in adding the "Voices" in there. However, if it were up to me, I would've kept it as the original name was meant to be.
Post a Comment