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Tuesday, September 03, 2019
Only One Woman Of Color Made Forbes' 2019 Highest-Paid Actresses List—What Does This Say About Hollywood's Pay Gap?
www.forbes.com: Black Women’s Equal Pay Day 2019, on August 22, shined a light on the significant pay gap plaguing women of color across all industries. Native-American Women’s and Latinas’ Equal Pay Days fall even later this year. Writer, producer and director Ava DuVernay took to Twitter to express that the pay gap "is true in every industry. Hollywood included.”
It is no secret that for ages women have been paid and represented in media less than men. The wage gap between men and women has come to light in recent years as equality has grown traction and media coverage. This article brings up valid points regarding women of color versus non women of color wage gap. It also shows that a lot of this gap is due to the roles cast of women of color. There is one simple solution to this problem: cast more women of color in major roles. Now it sounds simple, but many times there will be casting calls for white women. Some women of color, such as Zendaya, have been public about going to an audition for a role for a white woman and see if she changes their mind. This wouldn’t work 100 percent of the time due to race being a vital role in the plot of some performances, but when a director wants a specific ‘look’ they might not actually and are just being racist. This article highlights how even when a woman of color holds a main character role with a man of color, such as in Blackish, there is still a wage gap. I cannot comprehend how this is tolerated around the world.
The information that is being presented in the article does not actually surprise me. What actually surprises me is that in this day and age we are still on an ongoing fight for equity between men and women especially women of color in Hollywood. Hollywood is supposed to be an industry that changes the tide and be the forerunner of all things good but unfortunately we are still stuck in the past. The change that needs to occur for equality in pay is something very drastic and even with that it is still going to take some time. It is very important that we hold people in power to task and request that certain things be done and have white allies speak up when they notice the disparity. Just like the author mentioned in the article about Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, there needs to be more people demanding for equity in pay.
2 comments:
It is no secret that for ages women have been paid and represented in media less than men. The wage gap between men and women has come to light in recent years as equality has grown traction and media coverage. This article brings up valid points regarding women of color versus non women of color wage gap. It also shows that a lot of this gap is due to the roles cast of women of color. There is one simple solution to this problem: cast more women of color in major roles. Now it sounds simple, but many times there will be casting calls for white women. Some women of color, such as Zendaya, have been public about going to an audition for a role for a white woman and see if she changes their mind. This wouldn’t work 100 percent of the time due to race being a vital role in the plot of some performances, but when a director wants a specific ‘look’ they might not actually and are just being racist. This article highlights how even when a woman of color holds a main character role with a man of color, such as in Blackish, there is still a wage gap. I cannot comprehend how this is tolerated around the world.
The information that is being presented in the article does not actually surprise me. What actually surprises me is that in this day and age we are still on an ongoing fight for equity between men and women especially women of color in Hollywood. Hollywood is supposed to be an industry that changes the tide and be the forerunner of all things good but unfortunately we are still stuck in the past. The change that needs to occur for equality in pay is something very drastic and even with that it is still going to take some time. It is very important that we hold people in power to task and request that certain things be done and have white allies speak up when they notice the disparity. Just like the author mentioned in the article about Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, there needs to be more people demanding for equity in pay.
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