io9.gizmodo.com: All forms of gender-based workplace discrimination are absolute bullshit. But there’s a particular kind of noxiousness to the wage gap between male and female actors, because unlike with many other professions, actors’ pay is often public knowledge. Thankfully, we can report the BBC’s Doctor Who is paying Jodie Whittaker the same as her predecessor, Peter Capaldi. She made sure of it.
2 comments:
This is a brief article, but it is publishing a very important news story. Doctor Who is one of the world’s largest TV franchises in history and I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with someone who has not seen at least one episode of this historic show. I remember when Jodie Whittaker was announced as the new doctor and people were losing their minds all over the Internet saying how crazy and weird it will be to have a woman playing the very established role. I thought that was weird, but to be fair, people also lost their minds over Capauldi doing it since he’s so old, even with him being a very established and well-recognized British actor. This move by BBC is probably the most intelligent one they’ve made in a long time concerning equality for their actors and I’m happy to see the big names making the same amounts, however this issue will be greatly impactful if they can make it happen in the smaller leagues, too.
In the midst of stuff that is going on in Hollywood, it makes me really happy to see one bright spot of change. Instances like this give me hope that slowly but surely the culture is changing. That even though its painful, the attention to how Hollywood treats women is resulting in actual effects. We can talk all want about why the film industry culture needs to change, but ultimately we as the average Americans have very little power and ultimately the change will come from within the industry itself. As the article said media pressure from another instance made the higher ups more conscious about paying Jodie Whittaker. As a fan of Doctor Who I am also really interested to see what they choose to do with a female Doctor and how they handle her story going forward. That in and of itself that is breaking new ground and I hope it goes well.
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