The discussion of why there are so few female directors/writers/strong leads/woman-in-strong-positions-in-media-in-general have been going and continue to circulate without much result to show for it.
Someone who has decided to get real about this is Lexi Alexander, with a blog post covering some of her thoughts on the underlying issues (all in bullet points and with personal experience to back up her reasoning).
Any woman in the Media Industry should take a moment and scroll through her post. There is nothing much new or groundbreaking or new in there, really, but it puts together the key points well and bluntly and frankly it's an IMPORTANT reminder of how much we are kicking each other, ourselves, and allowing the boys to do the same.
Branded a bitch. Could it be an opinionated lady?
Yes, there's a discussion. It's politically correct and good PR to talk diversity and gender equality. Does this work? No. Is it a real thing with much effort put into it behind the scenes? Mostly nope, it's a PR trick with little thought because everyone's busy, who can be bothered, and shouldn't these girls just accept it and get used to playing hardball already. (that's all sarcasm bthw. Guess I fall in the the 'bitch' category too. Oh well!)
She does share some great background and further reading material though, well worth a scroll. And there's a reminder that if you go a bit beyond just saying the line there are companies and leaders that actually do make a real difference. For example, as Lexi points out, Etsy's (male, as often is the case) CEO Kellan took a moment to figure out his core demographic, why his equality dreams weren't working out, made some changes and bam! Increase in lady engineers was had.
Bad ass Media winning and leading ladies Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (two of far too few).
No, we don't want freebies. We don't want to be there because you need to meet your quota of race, religion, sex, sexuality and whatever else you put on those application cards. Skills are skills. If the guy has a stronger set he should get the job. But if the girl beats the remaining pile of CVs she shouldn't just be given a chance, she should be entitled to the same level of pay and, crucially, respect, as her male counterparts. Sexism, lame jokes and unequal opportunities pay and promotion wise is not politically or morally right, nor is it profitable or good business. Sort it out girls and boys!
Lexi's post can be found here.
A collection on 'Why Media Failed the Ladies in 2013' can be found here.
xo
No comments:
Post a Comment