Today I listened to NPR On Point on the ride home. The topic was “A big year for Hollywood women?”, with film critics Manohla Dargis and Nicole LaPorte discussing (and deflating) recent buzz about the “Year of the Woman” in movies.
If you listen to the show online, you’ll be struck by how much the conversation about women in film mirrors that of common conversation about women in games: women not getting the same treatment as filmmakers as men; industry assuming that movies are mostly for guys; the expectation that women filmmakers make “chick flicks” like romantic comedies; that women’s roles in films are generally the same as ever; and on and on.
Perhaps my favorite one-liner was Dargis’s proposal that women would be equals in Hollywood when a woman directs a picture like Transformers 3. The best caller question asked when we might see a woman create a Judd Apatow-style “raunchy comedy,” that might demonstrate “what women are really like.”
Then again, my least favorite was the one mention of videogames as distractions for 13-year olds. No matter, the entire discussion ought to dampen considerably any ideas we videogame folk have about other media having accomplished considerably greater audience and creator equity, even if it may seem so on the surface.
Comments
JennaMcWilliams
I kinda hate to belabor the point, but…the Year of the Woman hasn’t started out well, at least for women in the sphere of media studies. We still (or again!) live in a culture where prominent theorists feel it’s appropriate to use their platform to “rant about women” and explain how much better it would be if they would behave more like men.
There was uproar, granted. But it wasn’t enough of an uproar. We saw the online equivalent of “amen, brother” coming from both men and women, and–to make things worse–so far, no response from the prominent theorist in question. That’s how 2010 started.
Admittedly, this is only one episode, involving only a slice of the “women in tech” contingent. I didn’t hear Dargis’ commentary, but she has previously exhibited great anger at the gender inequities of Hollywood (as in, for example, this piece at Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5426065/fuck-them-times-critic-on-hollywood-women–why-romantic-comedies-suck) Her rage is justified, in my view, and it’s refreshing to see a public figure like Dargis (yes, sure, she’s a NEWSPAPER JOURNALIST, but still) using her position to speak for social change.
Here’s hoping for less of the same and more of the outrage.
MargaretWeigel
First, Hi, Jenna! (see comment above).
Second, I’m curious as to how any progress in gender equality is to be made when some insist on amen/women dialectic versus using another defining strategy such as digital creators or storytellers or technical vs. non-technical, etc. As long as we are yoked to this definition, women will never be equals to men (and vice versa).
Third, a true women-centric mediasphere would look very different from the one we have now; in essence, women are currently required to excel within an existing (male-centric) framework. Jaron Lanier talks about developmental “lock-in” prohibiting meaningful or radical change in technological innovations. So what’s needed, really, is for an entirely new, and more level, playing field.
Four, I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t cite inserting oneself into the Transformers franchise as something that a thoughtful woman (person?) would aspire to. But that’s my personal bias. : )
Ian Bogost
Thanks Jenna. That was definitely the point Dargis tried to drive home in the segment: the “year of the woman” is a trope to which Hollywood likes to return, but which is rarely if ever taking place in earnest.
As for media studies, I assume you’re referring to Clay Shirky’s blog rant, which I’ll admit that I haven’t yet read, although I have followed some of the fallout.
While it might seem inappropriate to meditate on this, I was really struck by the ease with which Dargis and LaPorte relegated videogames to a single audience (teenage boys) in the same breath that they were complaining about a much more “mature” form being subject to precisely the same violence.
Ian Bogost
Margaret, in the context of the longer conversation (you should listen if you have the time; it’s quite good), the Transformers idea was quite persuasive, even if provocative. Dargis makes the really excellent point that women’s involvement in film need not signal a change in taste, but might simply act as a change in status. It was one among many ideas, so I don’t want to make it seem as though her idea of equality is “Michaela Bay.”
I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at with your second point. Can you try again for my benefit?
Hunty
Man, Transformers 3? Judd Apatow? What terrible examples to use. They might as well say “women will have come into their own when we start seeing women waving their dicks around!”
Honestly, I think the female equivalent of the adolescent dick-waving that they’re citing is things like the cowboy slash fic of Brokeback Mountain and the sparkly vampire escapism of Twilight.
As for women in gaming… perhaps Emily Short is a good example? I don’t like text adventures, so I wouldn’t know. It seems like there was a game recently where I was surprised to learn that the lead was a Japanese woman, but now I can’t remember what it was. Maybe it was “Napple Tale”, which apparently had an all-female dev team.
Jesper Juul
There appears to be an assumption going around that the film industry is not serving or targeting women (which has certainly been true for the video game industry), but I have been unable to find any documentation for it.
Is there a source, or is it just an assumption?
The only audience breakdown by gender I could find is from the UK, which suggest a 51%-49% split.
http://www.cinemauk.org.uk/ukcinemasector/ukcinema-audienceanalysis/ukcinemaaudiencebyageandgender/
Ian Bogost
Jesper, Dargis made some reference to actual data, but of course she couldn’t do much more than that on a radio talk show. I’m not sure where it comes from either, I’m afraid.