Investing in Women: Why Hollywood Won't Do It

Maybe I was doing something to deserve men’s disrespect. Or maybe it was part of some kind of industry “hazing,” maybe I was being tested. It makes you wonder. And it’s undeniably awkward to try to recover with the guy who just stopped your conversation to watch, mouth-agape, as Bai Ling walked down the hall, pointing out that he'd like to suck on parts of her anatomy. 

Luckily, I finally found a niche where I don’t feel like such an outsider. But I’m still frustrated. The work I put in every day to help set up projects that don’t even have a formal feminist agenda, but just happen to portray mildly empowered, mature women in ways that mainstream movie audiences may not be accustomed to has led me to one conclusion: Women need a better rap.

I’ve heard more than once that this revolution has to start with actresses. And I admit, the argument seems to make sense: If the women who can open a movie would just get it together to stand up and refuse to play any character whom they feel is a one-dimensional farce, or fight to be directed, photographed and written by other women, studios will be forced to cower in their shapely shadows and deliver what they demand. 

The reality is that, yes, celebrity actresses are in a position to influence creative elements of the movies they attach themselves to. The reality, though, is also much more complicated. 
 
In my experience, the opportunities offered women for anything other than eye candy are limited at best, and self-defeating at worst. If an actress wants a superior role, she often has to bring it to the table herself. So they create production companies in order to exercise more control over the material they get to star in. A step in the right direction, but there’s still lots of red tape to contend with. 

For one thing, as any one who has every worked her way up in the industry knows, it takes years to earn the kind of clout necessary to be able to call your own shots (I’m still not there), let alone dictate what someone else should do with their money. A top-earning actress who has put in her time and worked her butt off to earn her place in movie hierarchy is understandably reluctant to flush that down the tubes, and her representation stands to gain more from making it seem that taking a pay cut for the sake of changing her image is more career suicide than career opportunity.

I heard a male agent once say that if the heroine of a script didn’t face higher stakes, he couldn’t see how someone would emotionally invest in her.

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