Women in Hollywood

By John Pearson on December 8, 2015

DISCLAIMER: As my biology apparently affects my thoughts on the issue, it is perhaps relevant to include the detail that I am a straight, white, man. Also, as this is an article containing a mixture of fact and opinion, please ensure that what you have read is indeed a statement intended as fact before angrily projecting your 140-character outrage. Thank you.

Recently, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story featuring the women of Hollywood speaking out about their experiences of breaking into a business that seems to have the odds slanted against them (I only say “seems” to avoid making claims without showing numerical proof (which can be found in the NYTM)).

The story made the case that film-women are capable of accomplishing and contributing as well as film-men, that both are entirely capable of delivering identical results if given identical opportunity. Hollywood, in its infinite struggle to maintain a P.C. P.R., has advanced on the issue in recent years, adding to the repertoire female-included and -respecting films. Not that what once was black is now white, but the scale has shifted to a lighter gray.

The story intended to be a powerful statement about the continuing issue and a defense as to why women can and should be included. I personally found the story wanting. Bear in mind, I question the path, not the destination.

http://topmensmagazine.com/

First, I do not find that women’s lives in Hollywood have been, as a whole, improved. Certainly, there are more stilettos striding the red carpet, but the real issue requires more women to fill the boots in the dirt, sneakers in the studio, slippers under the writing desk.

There is no problem when actresses read lines on-screen. There is when those lines have been written and approved by a team of men, for a film envisioned and directed by a man, with the financial support of a man, and a man looking into the camera to verify that the actress indeed looks pretty and in focus.

The NYTM article’s thesis was that any of these jobs could have been equally executed by a woman. I wish it not so. I hope beyond hope that women have, in fact, their own perspective, their own fashion of telling a story. The mission for their equality should not be a comparison between themselves and a man. It should be a revelation of their individuality, whatever they have that men do not.

The top five grossing Hollywood films this year, so far, are four sequels and a Pixar animated film. Pixar’s singular niche excepted, the ideas for which the largest audiences have paid money have all been milked additions to previous cash cows.

I believe that women have their own talents. I believe that they have something to contribute to our nation’s collective storytelling culture, in all genres, that will advance our entertainment back into another prime age, where dinosaurs and galaxies far, far, away can rest in their eternal glory and new franchises can breathe and grow.

My second point of umbrage with the article is its lack of solutions. In theater, directors are taught to instruct their actors on what they should physically do, rather than telling them how they should feel. So it goes with problem solving. Those who will have an impact on changing this situation already know of its existence. At this point, anything seeking to “raise awareness” borders on self-serving attention-seeking rather than epiphanic journalism.

The collective powers that be, whether by opinion or action, must lay out a solution to the problem that does not simply describe an ideal outcome if they desire to be taken seriously and accomplish their aim. Those of us with a desire to help lack direction from those calling for our assistance. A much more effective article would have included some plan of action. As painful as the accounts were, they serve only a dwindling purpose as the issue is recognized. The popularity of an issue does not guarantee its resolution.

I certainly hope that more women achieve Hollywood’s upper ranks, and soon, to make their singular, special contribution. But, their task needs to be met, not explained further without a plan. Anyone can demand Utopia. The heroes are those who build it.

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