jezebel articles

[insaneneko]

"Fuck Them": Times Critic On Hollywood, Women, & Why Romantic Comedies Suck is an infuriating yet hilarious interview by the NYT film critic Manohla Dargis by Jezebel. The comments are awesome as well. Some excerpts:

On why so many romantic comedies are so terrible: One, the people making them have no fucking taste, two, they're morons, three they're insulting panderers who think they're making movies for the great unwashed and that's what they want. I love romantic movies. I absolutely do. But I literally don't know what's happening. I think it's depressing that Judd Apatow makes the best romantic comedies and they're about men. All power to Apatow, but he's taken and repurposed one of the few genres historically made for women. ….We had so few [genres] that were made specifically for the female audience and now the best of them are being made by Judd Apatow. But what are his movies supposed to be about? Nominally about the relationship between a man and a woman, but they're really buddy flicks. Funny People was supposed to have an important role for a woman, but she was uninteresting and an afterthought.

On this quote* from a box office analyst for Hollywood.com, in The Washington Post: Fuck him. What an asshole. Yes, that's what I want! That's exactly what I want. If Angelina Jolie had been cast in a movie as a good as The Bourne Identity with a filmmaker like Paul Greengrass, I would have gone out to see it, and I'm sure I wouldn't be alone. That is absurd. That's blaming female audiences – you get what you deserve? Is that what he's saying?

I also clicked on an article called "It Is Mostly Women's Fault:" Helpful And Unhelpful Advice For Women At Work and got to read about some jackass named Shaun Rein who writes crap like the following:

In my career, I have tended to promote more men than women. I have even generally given men higher salaries. Why? Am I sexist? Do men do a better job? The answer is a resounding no to both.

Actually, it is mostly women's fault. They simply don't ask for raises or promotions as often as men do.

Ugh.



*The quote (I think): "And what what women like, at least for now, Dergarabedian says, are traditional narratives. 'There's no 'Bourne Identity' with a woman starring in it right now,' he says. 'It's almost as if in real life, women want to be empowered and in control, but on-screen they seem to like the old-fashioned damsel-in-distress, love-struck female.'"

Comments

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, that douche might be a douche (he is), but this is what the women's association at my business school told us as well - female guest lecturer who wrote a book on the subject. It's like compound interest, if a woman asks for a couple less raises early on in her career, the gap just gets bigger as time goes by. What is problematic is saying that this is "women's fault," because there are many reasons why this is/could be, but much of the same-industry salary gap is caused by this.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Oh and, I loved that commenters were repping for GitS and Angelina Jolie action movies, ahaha.

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no denying the sad fact about how the gap compounds over the years. But it's obvious that women aren't helped by assholes like that dude.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough this was the topic of the HBR podcast this week - the author of this blog piece was interviewed: Can "Nice Girls" Negotiate? (http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/12/can_nice_girls_negotiate.html)

Unsurprisingly, the conclusion seems to be "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

[silverthunder]

... No, we want to be empowered and in control on-screen as well. Men just keep making movies where we're damsel-in-distress types because they can't get it through their thick skulls that THAT'S NOT WHAT WE WANT.

Or, they're making the movie primarily for men and couldn't give two shits what any women who might watch the movie will want. And men LOVE damsel-in-distress women.

Idiots.

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

I know, it's so depressing how clear things seem to us but not to the industry.

[madamada-chan.livejournal.com]

In my career, I have tended to promote more men than women. I have even generally given men higher salaries. Why? Am I sexist? Do men do a better job? The answer is a resounding no to both.

Actually, it is mostly women's fault. They simply don't ask for raises or promotions as often as men do.

... *bangs head on the wall*

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

*laughs*
Not true. I ask for a raise all the time! XD