Direct Disparity
Dumbass Chicks Ain't Good For Nothing.
m.snowe was pretty outspoken a while ago about how some production companies didn’t seem to entertain ideas for strong female heros in their movies. But upon discussion with someone who knows way more on these topics than m.snowe ever will, she’s learned that her rants might be directed somewhere else, as it were: Directors/Producers. Instead of ranting, however, m.snowe is just going to leave you to your New Year’s festivities with the links below that she found intriguing, and let you pass judgment. And just maybe, at your Oscar parties in February, you’ll be a little more cynical. Because that’s m.snowe’s goal in life, really.
Any Lady Director Oscar Winners? Ever?
Nancy Meyers and the “Chick Flick” Can’t Get a Good Table.
Chicks=No Respect. Dudes=Dissertations? (Still love the Lebowski, though).
We Watch But Don’t Direct? Is There A Female Gaze, or Are We Stuck with How Men See Us?
p.s. That last link is probably my favorite. Especially Dargis’ comments towards the end, on being a female critic reviewing and featuring women’s films:
“I wanted to get [Bigelow] on the cover of ‘Arts and Leisure’. I wanted this fantastic woman director to get her face on the front of the New York Times…[But] I am an equal opportunity critic. I will pan women as hard as men. I’ve had testy people imply that I should go easier on women’s movies. I find that incredibly insulting. Are you kidding me? I don’t want to be graded on a curve. None of us want to be a good woman writer.
I don’t want to be the woman critic. I don’t want to be the feminist critic. I don’t want to be the shrew. What I want to do is talk about the art that I love and point out, every so often, inequities….It’s a weird balancing act and I’m not saying there aren’t contradictions.”
As much as I try to point out disparities, like Dargis, all that I want for other ladies (and myself) is to be judged on merit without gender. Unfortunately, we don’t exist in a world with plain old good writers, good directors, good feminists, etc.–some of whom just happen to be women, because we haven’t gotten to a place where women (and/or minorities) start on equal footing.