Celebrating Women in Hollywood

In light of the fact that I will be graduating soon and entering the workforce in Hollywood, not to mention that I ultimately hope to become a studio executive, I thought I'd use this post to celebrate the accomplishments of 10 of the top female executives in Hollywood. Considering the appalling lack of women working behind the scenes or running studios and TV networks, these ladies' achievements in the entertainment industry are truly remarkable.

1. Megan Ellison

Megan Ellison is my role model in life. She dropped out of USC film school and founded renowned production company Annapurna Pictures at the young age of 25. Since then, her production company has become known for partnering with the greatest auteurs working today to produce some of the most critically acclaimed films of the past few years, including True Grit, The Master, Zero Dark Thirty, Spring Breakers, Her, American Hustle, and Foxcatcher. She already has an impressive 3 Oscar nominations for Best Picture and should be expecting her fourth this year.

2. Amy Pascal

Amy Pascal is Co-Chairman of Sony and leads all of Sony's lines of business, including production, development, marketing, distribution, and acquisitions. As one of two female studio heads, she has been responsible for Sony hits including American Hustle, Captain Phillips, the Spider-Man franchise, James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty, The Social Network, Moneyball, and 21 & 22 Jump Street.

3. Donna Langley

Donna Langley is the Chairman of Universal Pictures. As chairman, she has overseen hit films such as The Fast and the Furious franchise, Despicable Me, Ted, Inglourious Basterds, Bridesmaids, and Les Miserables. She is one of only three women who has greenlight power at a major studio. Langley was also recently honored at Variety's Power of Women awards for her commitment to helping women achieve leadership positions in the entertainment industry. She recently joined the organization Vital Voices, in which she travels around the world providing mentorship and coaching to women leaders and speaking out against global issues of female inequality and underrepresentation.

4. Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes is a television screenwriter, director, and producer who is responsible for hit programming Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder. She recently founded her production company, ShondaLand, which develops and produces all of her hit network shows. She is lauded for her show's diverse casts and strong female roles, as well as for being such an accomplished woman of color in the white male-dominated television industry. Her programming has successfully and single-handedly saved ABC's ratings; in particular, her new series How to Get Away with Murder is the highest rated new network show this fall. She was also recently appointed by President Obama to the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.

5. Dana Walden

Dana Walden is the Co-Chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox Television as well as FOX. In her position, she is responsible for programming such as American Horror Story, Gotham, Glee, Modern Family, The Mindy Project, New Girl, American Idol, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Her recent promotion makes her the first ever Chairman of both a TV studio and network and gives her unprecedented power.

7. Nina Tassler

Nina Tassler is the President and Chairman of CBS Entertainment. As the president of the leading television network (CBS beats all other networks by a mile), she has overseen hit shows such as NCIS, The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, Two and a Half Men, Survivor, and The Amazing Race. 

8. Stacey Snider

In a huge move, Stacey Snider recently left DreamWorks Studios as Co-Chairman and CEO to become the Co-Chairman of 20th Century Fox. This move makes her the third female studio chief of one of the 5 major studios. Snider will be overseeing production and development for 20th Century Fox, Fox Animation, Fox International, and Fox Searchlight. At DreamWorks, she oversaw titles such as Lincoln, Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd, War Horse, Transformers, and The Help.  

9. Nancy Utley

Nancy Utley is Co-President of Fox Searchlight and responsible for overseeing the development, acquisition, production, distribution, and marketing of many of the world's greatest independent films. She has been responsible for films such as (500) Days of Summer, Crazy Heart, 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Tree of Life, The Descendants, Shame, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Stoker, 12 Years a Slave, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman, and the upcoming Wild. She is one of my greatest heroes, as she is the only President of one of the indie labels of a major studio (i.e. Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Sony Classics), and I hope to have a position just like hers one day.

10. Hylda Queally

Hylda Queally is one of the toughest and most revered female talent agents at renowned agency CAA. She represents incredible female clients such as Jessica Chastain, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Martion Cotillard, Hilary Swank, Penelope Cruz, and Michelle Williams, and is known for getting these fabulous female actresses strong roles as well as numerous Oscar nominations and wins. She is consistently ranked on Elle and Hollywood's lists of the most powerful women in Hollywood.

All of these women inspire me beyond words and are living proof that it is possible for me to achieve all of my career goals.

FEMINIST FILM/TV RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK: FROZEN

Never underestimate the power of a feel-good Disney Princess movie with an empowering message for young girls. :)

Sexism in "Survivor"

This week, I am going to be writing about a very nerdy obsession of mine: SURVIVOR. Now, I know many of you are probably thinking, "Wow, people still watch that show?" Yes. They do. And yes, the castaways really aren't eating much food or showering or using toilets, to answer the typical questions I get about the show. What makes Survivor so compelling is the way that it has evolved into a show about strategy and game theory. While the focus in Season 1 was on people complaining about being hungry, the later seasons have focused more on the manipulation, strategy, alliance forming, idol play, and more that goes into winning the game. It's not a show about living on an island; it's a social experiment and brilliant mental game.

Unfortunately, however, many female fans of the show (including myself) are disappointed by the lack of female winners--or as many compelling, smart female contestants for that matter.

I'm going to break down just HOW Survivor is unfairly rigged against female players so that they often do not win or are portrayed very poorly in comparison to the male castaways:

1.) Casting: Men are cast as types such as the "strong athlete" or "brilliant nerd," all of which possess qualities that make you likely to win Survivor. On the other hand, females are cast as eye candy for viewers at home--basically, they are "mac-tors" (model actors) who have been recruited, despite having no knowledge of the show, to look good in a bikini. It's no coincidence that fan favorites are always males because they are the brilliant, manipulative contestants, while the women are voted out early and lack a basic understanding of the game. (See: quitter Purple Kelly or abysmal player Morgan of Survivor: Cagayan, pictured below)

2.) Challenges: During the first half of the season, when players are divided into two tribes, most challenges are based on strength and agility. As a result, whenever a tribe loses a challenge and is forced to go to tribal council, that tribe strategically vote out their weakest player in an attempt to keep their tribe strong and go to the merge (the point at which the two tribes merge into a single tribe) with more "numbers" so that they can pick off the other tribe. As a result, women are disproportionately voted out early in the game since it is a simple fact that most women are not as physically strong or fast as men. So, when we get to the merge with 10 players, typically 6-8 of these players are men, giving male players a 60-80% chance of winning the game at the merge depending on the season.

3.) Producers: Put simply, the producers don't spend time highlighting female players' strategic acumen. Strong male players are shown scheming in their confessionals, while women are typically shown crying, cooking rice (or complaining about how it should be cooked), getting involved in a "showmance" (a flirtation or romance that takes place on the show), arguing with their mom, quitting the game, or having emotional breakdowns. Also, the female players who are portrayed as strategic still get way less air time than their male counterparts and thus are never edited to seem like the masterminds of that season. (Pictured below: geeky mastermind Cochran breaking down his plans to the viewer, something females are rarely shown doing.)

4.) Jeff Probst: The worst element of Survivor is Jeff Probst's overt sexism. He blatantly favors male jocks who play the game, always referring to them by their last name as a sign of respect and praising them for their challenge dominance. It is clear that Jeff values game play from an athletic standpoint as opposed to a strategic standpoint. In recent seasons, as Jeff becomes more overly confident in his hosting abilities, he even inputs his often problematic commentary into game play. For instance, at tribal councils, he often hints at his favorite male players to vote a certain way in order to help them win, and he also unfairly showers praise on them during challenges, which can bias viewers. Perhaps worst of all, there was a very problematic exchange during the first season of Survivor: Blood vs. Water in which Candace Cody rightfully accuses Brad Culpepper of sexism. Brad's wife Monica ends up getting a clue to a hidden immunity idol, but Brad demands that she throw it in the fire, and she does. Later, when Candace's husband John gets a clue, Candace also tells John to throw it in the fire, and Jeff proceeds to make fun of him for being "whipped" by his wife. Such is the double standard of Survivor thanks to Jeff Probst.

Fortunately, there are female players who have broken away from the tiresome tradition of male strategic dominance on Survivor.

The first is none other than Parvati Shallow, winner of Survivor: Micronesia and runner-up of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Parvati is infamous for creating an all-female alliance and picking the boys off one by one to win her season, and she often flirted with the men in order to make them think they were safe and want to align with her. Parvati showed that you don't need a "strong guy" to get you to the end, and that the women can often out-manipulate the men. Parvati also revolutionized idol play, constantly finding hidden immunity idols, giving them to key allies, and tricking her opponents in order to take down majority alliances with her idols when she was in the minority. Parvati is especially memorable because she is able to control and manipulate everyone, but she is so sassy, charismatic, and charming that everyone still wants to be her best friend and doesn't want to vote her out.

The second is my personal favorite player, Kim Spradlin. Kim played the most flawless Survivor game of all time in Survivor: One World, as she was able to successfully control every vote and straddle multiple alliances while she picked every male player off one by one. However, despite the fact that she ruled her camp with an iron fist, she was so subtle about her dominance that everyone still delusionally thought they could beat her at the end and never turned on her. Kim was also an incredibly dominant athlete who won challenge after challenge, and she smartly never got angry with others, lost her cool, or showed any emotion. She's basically a Survivor game-bot. Kim is also a great female role model to Survivor viewers because she never played up her sexuality or acted dramatic on camera to get more air time. By refusing to play to the audience, Kim went out there and did what most players should do: Ignore the cameras, forget about TV ratings, and go win a million dollars.

And the third is Denise Stapley, the winner of Survivor: Philippines. Denise is an incredibly strong and powerful woman who was on a losing tribe that did not win a single immunity challenge. Despite the fact that her entire time essentially got picked off before the merge, she always survived the vote because she was so much stronger and more athletic than the other men on her tribe and was thus more integral to winning challenges. Then, once she made it to the merge, although she was Target #1 and vastly outnumbered on her new tribe, she managed to find cracks in the majority alliance and get everyone to turn on each other one by one until she was the only one left. Denise cleverly used her psychology background to convince people of her viewpoint or position on each vote, and she was charismatic and agreeable and worked hard at camp so that she was well-liked by everyone and no one wanted to vote her out.

Unfortunately, strategic ladies like these are nowhere to be found in recent seasons of Survivor, which seem to have regressed to Season 1 Survivor. There have been male winners for the past 4 seasons in a row, and it appears that the winner of this current season will also be a male. (There are NO strong female players at all--just models and beauty queens.) Let's hope that some Survivor producer magically finds this blog post and decides to stop casting female models and start casting FEMALE SUPERFANS OF THE GAME so that women have just as good of a chance to win as men. Oh, and while the producers are at it, they can make the challenges during the first half of the season less strength-based so that women aren't the obvious targets early on.

Until then, I'll be watching Survivor on my couch, sadly rooting for male players who are the only ones showing any strategic prowess.

FEMINIST FILM/TV RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK: THELMA AND LOUISE

Check out this classic film about the power of female friendship in which Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis embark on a dangerous road trip after deciding they've had enough of the controlling and abusive men in their lives. You're guaranteed to shed a few tears during the ending.

Voice Post

This week, I examined the passionate, sassy, and opinionated blogger Get Down Liberty, found on http://getdownliberty.tumblr.com, due to her strong individual voice which provides the blog with its own sense of personality. Get Down Liberty is a noted feminist teen-girl-issues blogger, and her blog examines the teenage-oriented television series Degrassi from a feminist lens by exploring teen girl issues and how the media portrays them in an insightful way. Get Down Liberty also guest posts some of her Degrassi essays onto sister blog http://feministfilm.tumblr.com and then re-blogs them onto her own blog as well. Feminist Film is a similar blog that explores film and television from a feminist lens by examining the misogyny, racism, imperialism, and other agendas and biases found in the mainstream media. I LOVE Get Down Liberty's posts because they are so well-written and have such a unique voice. Her writing is fiery, passionate, loud, angry, funny, sassy, and even sarcastic at times, all of which helps her get across what she is trying to say.

Frankly, Get Down Liberty's posts are hilarious and stand out due to their distinct voice. The first post of hers that I am going to examine is one that she initially posted on Feminist Film in which she analyzes the Degrassi: The Next Generation episode where Emma gets her period.

First, Get Down Liberty's diction (essentially, her word choice) allows her to establish a casual, conversational tone; it feels like she is discussing Degrassi with a close friend. She starts the blog with a direct question addressing the reader, "Can we talk about the Degrassi episode with Emma's period?" which already makes the post seem casual, as though she is having an intimate conversation with her readers. Then, she writes, "No, no, let me try that again, without masking the fully glory of the moment - can we start out with the episode with Emma's period blood?" By using the words "we" and "me" in this opening paragraph, Get Down Liberty wisely starts off her blog in first person and also includes the reader with the term "we" in order to make it seem more intimate and personal. Also, through her clever phrasing, in which she stops herself and then repeats the question, albeit slightly differently, she is able to re-emphasize what she is saying and bring some light-heartedness to her opening paragraph while directly involving the reader in what she has to say. Also, when she repeats the question the second time, she changes the phrase "episode with Emma's period" to "episode with Emma's period blood," thereby emphasizing the word blood. 

In case it wasn't clear enough that she's discussing period blood already, Get Down Liberty continues, "The big dirty red stain on her khaki skirt?" Cleverly, this question does not contain any verbs and thus is not a complete sentence. As a result, this fragment jumps out at the reader and, by lacking any verbs, forces readers to pay close attention to the adjectives in the sentence ("big," "dirty" and "red") which describe Emma's stain. By emphasizing the word blood in the earlier sentence, and now emphasizing the words big, dirty, and red, Get Down Liberty refuses to shy away from the allegedly gross, uncomfortable topic of women getting their periods. These descriptive words help illustrate a girl getting her period clearly and vividly. Thus, she fearlessly embraces this taboo topic by describing and emphasizing Emma's period in all of its glory. By emphasizing this, she communicates to her readers just how important it is that Degrassi, too, did not chicken out or avoid confronting this uncomfortable subject matter. Instead, Degrassi tackled this topic head-on and depicted Emma's period in surprisingly graphic detail with refreshing candor.

There are other great uses of diction throughout the blog as well. The writer continually uses first person to make the blog seem like an intimate conversation, employing phrases such as "I mean," "let's talk about," "in all my life," and "for my part" frequently. She also uses slang or conversational discourse throughout the blog in order to puncture her writing with sass and humor. For instance, she uses the term "BFF," as well as words like "corny," "butt," and "crush" which certainly do not belong in an academic journal. These slang words help give her writing a young, hip vibe.

Get Down Liberty also infuses her writing with her own personality and opinions thanks to the content of her post. She doesn't just strictly analyze the Degrassi episode she's talking about, but often deviates from the episode to share her own personal views or stories. For instance, goes into a deeply personal anecdote about the awkward time she got her period at Princeton, jokingly refers to her life as being "made up of TV and movies and stuff I do while thinking about TV and movies," and also infuses many sentences with her own subtle commentary or opinions. For instance, she describes the character Paige as "reaching into her cool see-through box purse." By infusing this description with the word "cool," the writer manages to incorporate her own opinion on Paige's fashion into the sentence. While seemingly irrelevant to the blog, little personal touches like these only heighten the post's deeply personal vibe and make the post often feel more like a diary entry rather than a blog. Plus, adding the word "cool" only adds another layer of humor to her writing, as it is clear that Get Down Liberty is being sarcastic and facetious, since there is nothing cool about see-through box purses.

Perhaps most notably, the writing in this post stands out due to its beautiful, illustrative descriptions which allow scenes from the episode to come alive in the reader's mind. Phrases mentioned earlier like "the big dirty red stain on her khaki skirt" achieve this, as well as phrases like "gawky, awkward preteen" to describe Emma, "Paige's hand, chubby with babyfat" to describe teenage character Paige's hand, or descriptions of Emma "walking slowly, bowleggedly, to the nearest bathroom while her BFF, Manny, follows dutifully with a folder pressed up against her butt," which perfectly capture the awkwardness of the scene in which Emma gets her period at school for the first time. All of these vidid details make the reader feel like he or she is actually watching the episode first-hand.

Finally, the blog soars thanks to Get Down Liberty's savvy use of humor and sass, which clearly comes across in her writing. She manages to poke fun at Degrassi's melodramatic writing, with sentences such as, "For the uninitiated, Degrassi is a Canadian show that regularly mixes tropes from after-school specials and soap operas to showcase the full glorious horror of adolescence." She also makes fun of character names, such as the character of Spike, by adding that Spike is "called Spike... because she was a child of the 80s in a way that only fictional characters can be," and makes fun of Degrassi's bad writing in general, with asides like, "Degrassi writers like to give you the key to their plots on silver platters like that." Get Down Liberty also uses exaggeration to comic effect, like when she writes about Emma "standing in stained clothing, sighing over the loss of a perfectly good skirt and undies, her first sacrifices to 'Womanhood'" or Emma "worrying about her future breasts like they were an invading force." Both of these uses of humorous exaggeration help capture the monumentous, epic experience of a young girl going through puberty in a profound yet humorous, laugh-out-loud funny way.

Additionally, Get Down Liberty wrote a fabulous piece on her own blog about the sex scene between Clare and Eli. 

Once again, Get Down Liberty uses casual, conversational diction in order to spice up her blog with humor and personality as well as an intimate vibe that allows the reader to feel like a close friend of hers when reading her posts. For instance, she sassily starts her post by summing up her thoughts on the sex scene with the single word, "Whatever." As a result, she manages to channel the teen girl speak of Degrassi in a somewhat facetious way in order to convey her ambivalence regarding the problematic scene in a witty manner. As always, Get Down Liberty also peppers her writing with lots of "likes" to channel her teen girl speak and also make her posts feel like stream-of-consciousness rants which capture the way she would casually discuss these subjects aloud with a close friend.

Get Down Liberty also uses casual diction to make her blog seem effortlessly conversational, employing slang like "wingman," as well as words like "ahem," "bleh," and "oooo!" These words all allow her to bring various emotions/personalities (sass, annoyance, and feigned surprise, respectively) to her writing and liven up her posts with dramatic emphasis. 

In addition, Get Down Liberty employs lots of humorous figures of speech like euphemism and irony to give her blog her the distinctive brand of "funny commentary on serious issues" that she is known for. For instance, she employs euphemism with the phrase that Jimmy "can't, ahem, rise to the occasion" in order to humorously refer to inability to get an erection during sex. She also uses irony in her phrasing, such as when she ironically exclaims, "Oooo, little candles!" in order to sarcastically convey feigned excitement as her response to the sex scene, although she clearly actually had a negative reaction to the scene and did not feel that way at all. 

She also effectively uses punctuation to get her points across. For instance, she smartly uses the tilda symbol (~) in the ironic sentence, "~This is so romantic~" when she is sarcastically feigning excitement as her reaction to the sex scene. Essentially, the tilda serves as a facetious way of expressing how the average teenage girl would write about the scene online, and she thus effectively mimics the way teen girls type on the Internet. As a result, she manages to not only makes fun of teen girl speak but also the sex scene itself. Get Down Liberty also uses other forms of punctuation as well; for instance, she uses lots of question marks to include the reader in her posts and make her blog feel like a dialogue by turning what could merely be definitive statements into rhetorical questions. She also uses exclamation points for dramatic effect, such as in the sentence, "Oooo, little candles!" discussed earlier, in which the exclamation point adds excitement, energy, and emphasis to an already funny sentence. 

Finally, Get Down Liberty's paragraph flow wisely draws the reader's attention to certain key sentences. For example, in the third paragraph, she starts with an incredibly long sentence, but, as she grows angrier during her rant and wants to emphasize certain points, her sentences get shorter, culminating with, "Like getting upset that she could ever possibly rite about loving someone else in her own diary. Bleh." Her second-to-last sentence, while grammatically incorrect, smartly begins with "like," as she is continuing to list examples of ways that Eli mistreated Clare. By dividing this last example into its own sentence, and beginning it with the word "like," Get Down Liberty draws more attention to this key example of Eli's mistreatment of Clare and convey's Get Down Liberty's anger. Finally, by ending the paragraph with the one-word sentence, "Bleh," Get Down Liberty brings her rant to a screeching halt in order to convey her frustration with a concise word that effectively conveys her annoyance and sass. By contrast, in her last paragraph, as opposed to using short, choppy sentences like before to illustrate her anger, Get Down Liberty writes incredibly long run-on sentences filled with clauses and personal asides in order to make her writing feel like a spoken rant and stream-of-consciousness as opposed to a professionally written article. The "rant-like" quality of her blog is what makes it feel so distinct and personal to its readers.

Clearly, Get Down Liberty is a fabulous writer whose individual voice comes through remarkably in her short but sweet posts which pack tons of personality and punch. 

FEMINIST FILM/TV RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK: REPULSION

Check out Roman Polanski's horror classic, starring the great Catherine Deneuve, about a rape victim whose trauma and fear of men completely destroy her life and cause her to start going insane...

Blogger Profile

Today, I want to focus on another like-minded blogger who examines pop culture from a feminist lens. This blogger is Haley Winters, a feminist, writer, comedian, and recent USC grad who writes about film, television, music, and other forms of popular culture often with a feminist point-of-view. Her blog, which is adorably entitled Winters Winters, is exceptionally witty and hilarious (often peppered with sarcasm or subtle, dry humor) as she goes on hilarious rants about the latest news and trends in pop culture. As a result, her blog has a very lighthearted tone, yet she always sounds incredibly passionate and strong-willed when blogging about important, serious subject matter like sexism. Her writing is also very conversational and she incorporates lots of memes and gifs into her blog. Thus, the blog feels very hip and contemporary as it appeals to a younger generation of readers.

Haley blogs about twice a month (although it varies) and has been blogging for about 2 years, although she recently stopped blogging in 2014--and I hope she decides to pick it back up. Her blog has a really simple layout so that her text (and the images in each post) are what draw the reader's eye. Haley encourages readers to comment on each post. She receives anywhere from 3-5 comments per blog and always engages with her readers in the comments section, which likely helps her retain readers by making her blog so interactive.

While her blogs cover lots of things--one week, she may analyze Miley Cyrus' latest music video, and in the next, she might analyze trailers for upcoming summer blockbusters--I want to particularly focus on her blogs concerning film/TV and feminism.

The first entry that really spoke to me was her excellent piece on Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's breakout film at Sundance.

In her blog, she sassily analyzes Don Jon's "false feminism," in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt claims that his film thoughtfully analyzes how men objectify women and treat them like things, not people. However, according to Haley, it actually promotes the false, misogynistic message that women do not want to have casual sex (only men do) and that men need to learn to give up porn and kinky sex in favor of missionary in order to please women.

When I first saw Don Jon, I had a few problems with his depiction of women (namely, the objectification of Scarlett Johanasson and her one-dimensional character of the nagging girlfriend). However, overall, I thought it was a cute and entertaining film that did a good job promoting discussion about how men use porn as a substitute for sex and, as a result of watching porn, develop unrealistic expectations about what it truly means to be intimate with a woman.

Haley's blog really got me thinking. In fact, after reading her blog, I completely reversed my stance on Gordon-Levitt's film. Haley completely hit the nail on the head, and, after reading her blog, I completely see where she's coming from regarding its problematic depiction of female sexuality. As a sex-positive feminist, I am very upset with how the film portrays "falling in love" as a man basically learning how to have boring sex to please a woman.

Another piece of Haley's that really spoke to me was her praise-worthy analysis of Orange is the New Black.  

OITNB is such a groundbreaking television show, and I often have trouble finding just the right words to explain just how meaningful and wonderful it is when recommending it to friends. Haley's piece does a fantastic job breaking down OITNB to explain why it is so progressive as well as why it's worth watching.

She beautifully articulates how this is one of the first female-centric show that actually shows REAL, multi-dimensional women, as opposed to the cookie-cutter women found on female-driven shows with harmful, regressive depictions of femininity like Pretty Little Liars or Desperate Housewives. She also does a great job explaining how hilarious the show is, and how refreshing it is to see females completely carrying a comedy series and getting laughs. In particular, she  highlights the show's unapologetic look at sexuality, including the fact that the main protagonist is bisexual, another one of the leads is trans, and many of the main characters are lesbians. She explains how the show thoughtfully uses their sexuality as a platform to discuss how many of the women face homophobia and extreme misogyny from the prison guards on a daily basis.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Haley praises the show for featuring women from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, and how creator Jenji Kohan does such a smart job of transcending stereotypes when writing these complex, nuanced characters. No one in the cast feels like a "token," and it is refreshing to see so many talented actress of color be given such challenging roles; after all, these are women who audiences are not used to seeing on their television screens. She also breaks down how the series uses its diverse cast in order to bring up issues of socioeconomic inequality that many women of color face.

The impactful intro alone does a great job illustrating how the show depicts women who are not typically given a spotlight on TV.

So, in short, thank you Haley for your fabulous blog and your insight on feminism as it relates to film and television!

FEMINIST FILM/TV RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK: KILL BILL, VOL. 1 & 2

These films do not need much introduction. Watch Uma Thurman (as well as Lucy Liu, Darryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, and many more) kick ass in this feminist revenge fantasy and two of Tarantino's all-time best films. It's so refreshing to see a female lead given so much agency and the main narrative arc of the story, and it's even better to see her enact bloody revenge on her controlling, manipulative ex who tried to have her killed for leaving him.

Gone Girl and "The Cool Girl"

There have been a lot of complaints that David Fincher's Gone Girl is a misogynistic film. Quite frankly, I understand that. After all, the film depicts its female lead as a mastermind who frames innocent men for rape, and one could even argue that the film suggests  all women are "fucking crazy bitches," to quote Ben Affleck's character Nick. In short, the character of Amy (Rosamund Pike) is manipulative, hysterical, and downright psychopathic.

However, I think that this surface-level analysis of the film doesn't fully capture its complicated commentary on gender politics. In fact, what makes Gone Girl so progressive and, from this humble female's perspective, so on point is the way that it completely shatters the male fantasy of The Cool Girl.

What, you might ask, is The Cool Girl? Well, to quote the original Gone Girl novel:

Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men — friends, coworkers, strangers — giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much — no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version — maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain.

While this rant is cut down to a few lines in the film version, the message is still clear. Amy had to put on this act of femininity and play the part of what men want in order to seduce Nick. And when he finally got to know the real her and Amy's act faded away, he cheated on her and planned to leave her. While this of course in no way justifies Amy's actions, every female can identify with her experiences. And thus, in a way, Amy is not just a femme fatale but a badass female hero who, through her scheming and framing of Nick, is saying a resounding "fuck you" to every man who gets bored of a woman because he only fell in love with his own idea of her.

As Gone Girl writer Gilian Flynn puts it, "I waited patiently - years - for the pendulum to swing the other way, for men to start reading Jane Austen, learn how to knit, pretend to love cosmos, organize scrapbook parties, and make out with each other while we leer. And then we'd say, Yeah, he's a Cool Guy.”

But that never happens. Instead, women continually are forced to embody the impossible double standard of the feminine, hot and sexy yet impossibly cool girl. The girl who never nags, never gets mad, and is impossibly "chill" and understanding at all times. The girl who caters to male perceptions of attractiveness but can still hang with the guys.

We see this Cool Girl image permeating pop culture. The Cool Girl is the beer-drinking, french fry eating, football-loving "one of the guys" Sabrina (Olivia Wilde) in The Change-Up, and she's the casual sex-having commitment-phobe Jamie (Mila Kunis) in Friends with Benefits. Even Jennifer Lawrence's lovable public persona is built around this false, manufactured idea of The Cool Girl--she loves to stuff her face full of Doritos and joke about her bodily functions and yet she's still sexy and fuckable... and everyone thinks, "Wow. She's not like most girls." And that misperception that she's somehow different than most girls (because most girls are so naggy and annoying, right?) is what makes her so fucking cool to men.

 Now, there is one other reason why I absolutely love Gone Girl. And it's the same reason most people have such a problem with it.

Amy is a psychopath. She's evil. She's cunning, manipulative, and devious. She's the kind of villain that is so scary, so cold, so ruthless, she will go down in movie history as one of the most infamous and chilling villains of all time. And she's a woman.

Let's face it. All of the cool villains in pop culture are male. Consider The Joker (Heath Ledger) in The Dark Knight or Kaiser Sosse (Kevin Spacey) in The Usual Suspects. The evil mastermind is always a man. In most films, women get to play the part of the damsel in distress or even the likeable protagonist, but when do women get these meaty, challenging roles where they play complex characters, psychopaths, sociopaths, or brilliant manipulators? When do women get to play superhero villains or serial killers? When does the big twist ending reveal that the woman was behind everything? Never.

Thus, I love Gone Girl because it's not even Ben Affleck's film. Of course, it's marketed as a Ben Affleck film, considering most people don't know the name Rosamund Pike. (And this is not meant as an insult to Ben's performance--he does a phenomenal job in the film.) But Gone Girl is impactful due to its big twist in which the audience realizes that Amy is actually an evil mastermind. And it's so surprising because women NEVER get these kinds of roles, so no one would ever expect it.

So, I love Gone Girl because, by the end of the film, everyone is talking about Rosamund Pike's performance. For once, a woman gets to steal the show. Finally, a female actress gets to play a twisted character. And that's ultimately what makes Gone Girl so special--Rosamund Pike's scene-stealing performance shows just how strong, devious, and powerful women can be.

Ultimately, Gone Girl is a brilliant film because it initially reinforces the idea of The Cool Girl. It suggests that Amy is the perfect housewife, and, as viewers, we all yearn to know what happened to this perfect woman and mourn her disappearance. Then, halfway through, Fincher turns this false idea of the Cool Girl on it's head--actually, he tells us, that woman never existed. Thus, the film is great because Amy gets to punish her own husband for only loving her as The Cool Girl as opposed to the real her. She gets to punish Desi (Neil Patrick Harris), too, for only loving the idea of her, but resenting her when she gains weight and is no longer sexually available to him--and for that, she slashes his throat.

Best of all, Amy is not even punished at the end of the film. Instead, she manipulates Nick into staying with her, and she will torture him for the rest of their marriage. On top of that, Nick is forced to live with the actual woman he married--not the Cool Girl he thought she was, but the real her. And it's beyond satisfying.

FEMINIST FILM/TV RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK: BEFORE SUNRISE, BEFORE SUNSET, BEFORE MIDNIGHT

Check out Richard Linklater's masterful Before Sunrise trilogy, which depicts the development of a relationship over time, as each of the films takes place over the course of a single day. Julie Delpy's character is one of the most nuanced, realistic, and strong female characters ever written, and the films do such a beautiful job depicting the highs and lows of falling in love, settling down, and growing old with your partner. 

My Social Bookmarking Soulmate

I recently stumbled upon my "social bookmarking soulmate"--that is, someone else researching and sharing articles related to women in film--on Diigo. Her name is Jenni Young.

I LOVE YOU, JENNI!

I know it might sound crazy, but I feel like Jenni and I are already friends. When trying to find other "social bookmakers" who also research women in film like I do, I naively thought it would be easy to find someone like-minded on Reddit. Boy, was I wrong. Shockingly, any search I made on Reddit with the tags "feminism" and "film" mostly lead to Men's Rights Activists posting disturbing and profoundly upsetting views regarding a woman's place in mainstream film or even pornography. While there were certainly feminists standing up to these bigots,  those feminists seemed more involved in general "/feminism" subreddits, and didn't cross over into the film subreddits much at all. Conversely, most of the posts in the film-related posts on the film subreddit had little to do with feminism.

All of this frantic searching for a like-minded person online really illustrates just how uncommon it is to find other people who are truly invested in studying and promoting progressive changes in terms of women's roles in the film industry. It's easy to get caught up in the liberal, educated bubble of my film school and think that everyone cares about or is even aware of these issues, but the truth is that most people don't seem to care.

On to Jenni, though...

I was SO relieved when I finally stumbled upon Jenni's Diigo profile and realized there is another person out there interested in sharing articles about women in film! Even better, her Diigo profile actually exposed me to some incredible articles I would never have discovered otherwise.

First, and perhaps most importantly, she shared a Washington Post article dissecting violence against women in movies that could actually work as a source in a paper I am currently writing about violence against women in Hitchcock's films. This provocative article essentially argues that recent films A Walk Among the Tombstones and The Equalizer use horrific violence against women as an excuse for their male protagonists to go on a quest for revenge; thus, the film employs this narrative device so that filmmakers can indulge in their most "luridly toxic fantasies" while pretending to abhor them. The article wonderfully breaks down the "damsel in distress" trope in a fresh and thought-provoking manner, providing me with some new food for thought on films that claim to be against violence against women but still allow the filmmaker and audience to take pleasure in watching it...

Secondly, she posted another Washington Post article that sheds new light on the Bechdel Test which I introduced a few weeks ago. To summarize, the article reports findings that the median gross for films that passed the Bechdel test was $2.68 for every dollar spent, whereas films that failed made only $2.45 for every dollar spent. Thus, the article adds a whole new dimension to the discussion on the Bechdel Test, now that there is seemingly no financial reason for Hollywood to be making films that are so exclusive towards women. In fact, recent hits like Gravity, Divergent, Lucy, and The Hunger Games illustrate that female-driven blockbusters tend to dominate at the box office. So, why isn't there a standalone female superhero movie yet? Why was only one summer blockbuster this year starring a female lead? We now know that money is not the answer behind these tough questions.

Finally, she shared a recent New York Times article interviewing the fabulous actress Viola Davis. This fascinating piece raises very interesting food for thought on how race intersects with the issues of gender I have been exploring. In particular, Viola Davis comments on how it is especially hard for her to find challenging, complex roles where she can play flawed, well-rounded women as a black woman over the age of 40. Considering women are already cast in mainstream Hollywood films as sexual objects/love interests, most female stars booking big roles are white, skinny 20somethings. Thus, Viola brings up an interesting part that it is even MORE difficult as a woman of color to play complex roles. As Viola puts it, "I'll never get cast as Bradley Cooper's love interest." Until her Oscar nominations, mot of her roles were as a maid, a "mammy," or a nameless cop/government employee. The interview is a fascinating read in which Viola very eloquently voices her concerns about the lack of compelling roles for black women, which adds an entirely new layer to the discourse on women in film.

Overall, it was a great experience searching for (and finding!) my social bookmarking soulmate, and I was able to discover some wonderful articles along the way. (Also: Jenni's Diigo profile has an amazing speech by Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, on female equality you should check out, a great article on why there hasn't been a female superhero movie yet, and so many more gems...) I strongly encourage anyone passionate about women in film to connect with like-minded individuals who can help expand our knowledge of this imporant issue.

And now, drumroll...

FEMINIST MOVIE/TV RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK: TRANSPARENT

Transparent is Amazon's hot new critically acclaimed show (available to those with Amazon Prime) about Laura Pfefferman, a father who comes out to her children about her decision to start transitioning from being a male to a female. It's a touching, unique, hilarious, and very emotionally honest show about how this dysfunctional family copes with such a shocking revelation. Most importantly, Gaby Hoffmann and Amy Landecker are absolutely extraordinary in their roles as Laura's two somewhat flawed and self-centered but loveable daughters. This show has some of the best, most complex roles for women I have ever come across and it offers such a realistic, nuanced portrait of a family living in modern day L.A. Plus, it shines a much-needed light on the struggles transgendered women face, and Jeffrey Tambor is a revelation in the lead role. Check it out!

Sexism and the MPAA

The MPAA is a dated, arguably Medieval organization that needs to be disbanded. While its intention is to keep parents informed of adult content in movies, it actually censors films and unfairly wields the power to determine a film's box office success. If a film receives an NC17 rating, most theaters will refuse to play it, and the film cannot receive enough mainstream attention to even compete for an Oscar. Plus, at the few art house theaters that will play the film, moviegoers under the age of 17 cannot be admitted (even if they are accompanied by an adult), and many adult moviegoers will not see the film due to the taboo associated with an NC17 rating, thus ensuring that the film will flop at the box office. And the worst part? The standards used to determine a film's rating are arbitrary and unfair. 

In particular, the criteria behind the MPAA's ratings is abhorrently sexist. While the MPAA is incredibly lenient when it comes to violence and gore--or even the sexualized torture of women--any depiction of female sexuality is almost guaranteed to get slapped with the kiss of death: an NC17 rating.

Here are just a few of the egregious MPAA ratings controversies of late:

1. In 2010, Blue Valentine was initially slapped with an NC17 rating because it depicted a male character (Ryan Gosling) performing oral sex on a female (Michelle Williams). Despite the fact that there was no nudity during this brief one-minute scene, the MPAA argued that the film's "explicit content... makes viewers uncomfortable," and thus claimed that the film was deserving of its NC17 rating. Fortunately, intimidating studio head Harvey Weinstein appealed the rating, and after a lengthy, highly-publicized battle with the MPAA, the rating was lowered to an R. It's bizarre and unfortunate that the MPAA seems so afraid of females being the sole recipient of pleasure during sex, since countless films depicting females perform oral sex on males receive R ratings without question.

2. In 2013, indie flick The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman also received an NC17 rating due to a scene in which a male (Shia LaBeouf) performs oral sex on a female (Evan Rachel Wood). Unfortunately, due to the film's low budget, the filmmakers could not appeal the decision, and the director ultimately had to cut the oral sex scene to receive an R rating, although scenes of gruesome, explicit violence got to remain intact. This controversy is especially upsetting because it highlights the way independent filmmakers are the real victims when it comes to the MPAA. As explored in the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, the MPAA is significantly more lenient when rating studio films, and the major film studios can afford to appeal any undesirable ratings, while indie filmmakers without Harvey Weinstein crusading on their behalf are forced to censor their films to please the narrow-minded MPAA.

At least Evan Rachel Wood took to Twitter to tell the MPAA what she really thought:

3. Perhaps most appallingly, masterpiece and recent Palme D'Or (for those who don't know, that's first prize at the Cannes Film Festival and arguably the most prestigious filmmaking award in the world) winner Blue is the Warmest Color was banned in Idaho in part due to the MPAA. It's no surprise that the film received an NC17 rating due to its lengthy scene depicting passionate lesbian sex between its two female leads. (I could probably go on a 20 page rant about the MPAA's homophobia as well, but that's for another blog.) Despite the fact that the film is one of the most moving and honest portraits of growing up and young love, it could not be shown in Iowa's only art house theater, the Flicks Theater, due to its MPAA rating. Apparently, because Flicks serves alcohol, Blue is the Warmest Color was banned since there is a law in Iowa that forbids theaters with an alcohol license to show NC17 or Not Rated films featuring "acts or simulated acts of sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation or any sexual acts which are prohibited by law" and "any person being touched, caressed or fondled on the breast, buttocks, anus or genitals." Due to outdated laws regarding the U.S.'s fear of sex, an entire state of people was deprived of the best art house film of the year, but they can see Transformers blow each other up any night of the week.

Now, let's compare these three NC17 films to recent R-rated films.

I adore Martin Scorsese, and The Wolf of Wall Street was one of my favorites films of last year. However, I think its undeniable that sexism led to Wolf receiving an R rating while Blue is the Warmest Color, a tender, gentler, and realistic portrait of female sexuality, was slapped with an NC17. Wolf features numerous explicit sexual acts, including Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) actually blowing cocaine into a stripper's ass! The film also depicts prostitutes, gang bangs, and full frontal nudity throughout, but the sex in the film always exists as a means to pleasure male characters. To Jordan Belfort and the other male investment bankers in the film, sex is not about pleasuring women but about using, objectifying, and demeaning them. And Wolf gets an R rating.

I also think the U.S.'s unhealthy obsession with and desensitization to violence is concerning. Violent slasher films where victims are tortured and butchered to death like Scream and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre easily skate by with R ratings and films meant to titillate audiences by sexualizing the torture of women like Hostel are rated R as well. In Hostel, all of the thrills are derived from watching naked, gagged women get tied up, raped, and tortured.

I think Ryan Gosling said it best when discussing the Blue Valentine NC17 scandal:

Gosling rants, "How is it possible that these movies that torture women in a sexual context can have an R rating but a husband and wife making love is inappropriate?" I think we should all be asking ourselves that very question.

FEMINIST FILM/TV RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK: OBVIOUS CHILD

Obvious Child is a moving and hilarious portrayal of a single woman working as a stand-up comedian in New York whose one-night stand leads to an accidental pregnancy. The film is progressive due to the fact that it never questions her decision to get an abortion and it offers an insightful and funny examination of contemporary dating and hookup culture. It's a refreshing romantic comedy that proves the genre is still alive and can challenge or surprise us.