Friday, February 21, 2020
#PayUpHollywood Reveals The Industry's Lack of Diversity
The Mary Sue: Anything worth having doesn’t come easy. It’s an age old adage that is often true: if you want to succeed in competitive fields, you have to bust your ass to get there. Whether you want to have a good career, a healthy life, a functioning relationship, you have to put in the effort to achieve these goals. As the sage philosopher Britney Spears once said, “You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti? You want a Maserati? You better work bitch.”
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3 comments:
It is really unfortunate young artists are told they have to endure mistreatment, disrespect, and professional (and in some cases, personal) abuse from the rich and famous in order to have a chance at their dreams. I understand you can’t really just walk into Hollywood and become an A-lister, and one should have to prove their work ethic, skills, and devotion in order to get a position. This being said, hearing stories of assistants and interns trying to get their foot in the industry and having to put up with terrible treatment, it's really unfortunate. Furthermore, like this article brings up, there is an unfair advantage to those already born and brought up into wealth, who don’t have to go through the struggles of working their way up and worrying about putting a roof over their head. This is one of the reasons the entertainment industry has such a lack of diversity. It is so difficult for those coming from less privileged backgrounds to get the supports and resources to get that first step up.
It's heartbreaking as well as infuriating to think of an artist being told that they must "endure heaps of abuse and mistreatment" in order to reach their goals. Yes, I do believe that your goals can be as big as you want, but if you don't put in the hard work and effort to reach them, nothing will happen. However, no one should have to be treated poorly and unfairly, personally as well as financially, in order to reach their goals. I really like how the article said that "Hollywood is an industry built on nepotism," because that is so ridiculously true. It's easy to rise to the top when you come from wealth and fortune. And I completely agree that the nepotism Hollywood is built on is was keeps the exclusivity of Hollywood alive. It is so much hard for women or people of color to be able to follow their dreams when women and people of color are way more likely to be treated poorly and not taken seriously. There are even people in Hollywood, people who are successful, who often comment on Hollywood's lack of diversity and inclusivity, but words don't mean a thing if they're not backed up by action. And if you have a strong platform to stand on, as many people in Hollywood do, then they need to be acting.
There was one point in my life where I thought it would be really cool to be an assistant in Hollywood, but then I found out more and more about the craziness that often comes along with being a Hollywood assistant and how it effects people so much. There is often the stereotype that a Hollywood assistant will be treated very poorly, but it is a stereotype that should be broken. People should not have to put themselves in the position of a degraded personal assistant just to have a potential for an in at an audition or in an agency. Like the article mentions, there is a large amount of nepotism that permeates, not just Hollywood but, the entire entertainment industry, and forces out diverse populations from having a voice at the table. The last two sentences in this article is really what gets me because of the truth behind it. We frequently talk about the importance of diversity, but no real change will happen until marginalized populations are given power- and it’s on us, the future of the entertainment industry, to pave a way for this to happen.
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