Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Don't know what to do...

...with all this vitriol aimed against women. Read the comments to the article.


This whole subject is soooo loaded and complex.

The facts are that only 1 out of 10 films made feature a female protagonist, and that only 5% of the Writer's Guild is female.

For whatever reason, Hollywood does not want to tell women's stories, and does not want women telling any stories. Period.

No, there are not less female screenwriters. No, there are not less women consuming entertainment. That's all simplistic bullshit said by simplistic people who want things to stay the way they are. Like that UCLA professor who once dressed me down in class for an hour because it was such an unimportant topic that didn't matter to the heartland ticket buyers...

Should we blame these female screenwriters for promoting their sexuality and coming up with a PR angle that Hollywood and people want? Blame the female reporter who spun them like the vacuous Sex and the City girls? The NYT editor who chose to run the article in the style section instead of the arts? The anonymous internet commenters who call anyone with an opinion a feminazi?

Should empowered men and women circumscribe Hollywood and go build their own internet distribution empires, eliminating the barrier between artist and audience and the need to play Hollywood's reindeer games?

I don't know. I feel tired. I've tried to focus on partnering with men, empowering everyone, ignoring the negative, simply deleting the comments I get here from misogynists.

I don't know. My soul is tired.

You all take over for a day. This Watchman wants to retire.

On the 75th birthday of Gloria Steinem. How apropos.

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