After Woody Allen received the Cecil B. DeMille award, the debate in mainstream media went like this: Can you honor a man’s art when you don’t like the man?
What the fuck? Giving Woody Allen a lifetime achievement award, having Diane Keaton accept it for him in a speech where she talks about how great he’s been for women is like being in an insane hall of mirrors. Her inane song. “Make new friends but keep the old,” implying we should be loyal to Allen literally makes me sick. This is exactly what abuse survivors go though. Kids (and this includes adult survivors) are told: Your experience isn’t real, never happened, and doesn’t matter. The award/ ceremony goes way beyond the man vs his art, confirming that in Hollywood, women’s experiences just don’t matter. Women’s stories are not worth telling. In fact, they didn’t happen. Women’s lives are invisible.
How does Hollywood promote that lie, make it seem real, confirm that women’s narratives don’t exist? Women, who are half of the population, except for a rare exception, get to be on the sidelines in the film industry, shoved to the margins, in sexualized and supporting roles, if they get to exist at all.
The Celluloid report just released these stats (from Women and Hollywood)
- Women accounted for 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors. This represents a decrease of two percentage points since 2012 and a decrease of one percentage point from 1998.
- Women comprised 6% of all directors working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents a decrease of 3 percentage points from 2012 and 1998.
- Women accounted for 10% of writers working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents a decrease of 5 percentage points from 2012 and a decrease of 3 percentage points from 1998.
- Women comprised 15% of all executive producers working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents a decrease of 2 percentage points from 2012 and three percentage points from 1998.
- Women accounted for 25% of all producers working on the top 250 films of 2013. This figure is even with 2012 and represents an increase of 1 percentage point from 1998.
- Women comprised 17% of all editors working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents a decrease of 3 percentage points from 2012 and 1998.
- Women accounted for 3% of all cinematographers working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents an increase of one percentage point from 2012 and a decrease of one percentage point from 1998.
- Women comprised 2% of all composers working on the top 250 films of 2013.
- Women accounted for 23% of all production designers working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents an increase of 3 percentage points from 2008.
- Women comprised 4% of all sound designers working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents a decrease of 1 percentage point from 2008.
- Women accounted for 9% of all supervising sound editors working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents an increase of 4 percentage points from 2008.
- Women comprised 2% of all special effects supervisors working on the top 250 films of 2013.
- Women accounted for 5% of all visual effects supervisors working on the top 250 films of 2013.
Director Lexi Alexander writes about sexism in the film industry. Before her post, Women and Hollywood founder Melissa Silverstein writes:
Editor’s Note: The post below is very important. This is a woman director standing up for herself and other women directors. She does this at great peril, but it is so important that women directors stand up and share their experiences because the more women that stand up the less chance there is for one women to be held responsible for speaking truth to power.
Alexander writes:
There is no lack of female directors. Repeat after me: THERE IS NO LACK OF FEMALE DIRECTORS. But there is a huge lack of people willing to give female directors opportunities. I swear, if anyone near me even so much as whispers the sentence “Women probably don’t want to direct,” my fist will fly as a reflex action…Women in Hollywood have no male allies. There are some who pretend to be on our side, but yeah, not really. They may say the right thing because, after all, they’re liberals and that’s a public image they’d like to keep up. Others may actually believe in gender equality, but are not willing to put up a fight for it that could sacrifice their own status or relationships.
Whether you are a female director who has experienced sexism or a survivor of abuse, a woman writer or artist or filmmaker, in spite of what the world tells you, your experiences matter. Keep telling your story. Tell it publicly. The world needs to hear women’s voices.
Here are some of the best posts on Woody Allen:
Margot not sure where to post this,I wanted to give you an example of how social media makes a difference.
In 2010 Stallone made the film ‘Expendables’ with many fellow veteran action stars like Jason Statham and Bruce Willis.I don’t like Stallone’s movies much but since this one includes Jet Li,one of the most iconic wuxia actors in the history of Asian cinema i wanted to watch it.In this movie Stallone’s team is all male.Jet Li’s character is the only Asian.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_x6A0K3avC8Q/TH-hVfBoKTI/AAAAAAAAAuA/fPcAuX95CZk/s1600/the-expendables-2010-r5-xvid-ac3-vision-img-873870.jpg
You all know ‘fat shaming’ in Hollywood films well in ‘Expendables’ Stallone introduce us with smth really nasty and racist.Asian shaming .Jet Li’s character is the butt of all jokes,the other guys are constantly making fun of him b/c he is Asian and ‘smaller’. ‘Expendables’ also has 2 female characters but they are the victims,their purpose in the film is to be rescued by the male characters.‘Expendables’ was a big hit but Stallone got large amounts of complaints (including mine) in the social media (Twitter,Facebook,Blogs etc) for the racism and also the sexism of his film. The thing is he DID listen to the complaints and understood his mistakes.In the sequel ‘Expendables 2’ in 2012 ,again written by Stallone,the ‘Asian shaming’ and the ‘female character as the victim’ stereotypes are gone.Not only that but in ‘Expendables 2’ Stallone introduces the first female character of his team-an Asian woman!Played by Chinese actress Yu Nan.
http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/photo/pr13/large/the_expendables_24.jpg
She’s badass, intelligent and the men respect her for her skills.She kicks serious ass and doesn’t need the guys to save her.An impressive improvement over the first film and that’s thanks to blogs and Facebook.
Just to be clear here, are you saying that we should completely ignore whatever good things Woody Allen might have done and instead see him as a monster on the same scale as Hitler?
Hi Scifimaster,
I am saying don’t honor him with a Cecil B DeMille award. Allen didnt murder 6 million people. Hitler is worse. What Allen did is bad and that Hollywood and the public looks the other way is sickening.
Margot
Yeah. I apologize if I came off as overly hostile in my previous comment. I am genuinely sympathetic to your cause, and I agree with most of what you say on this site.
In a way, Woody Allen reminds me of Michael Jackson, in that both men had abusive childhoods that made them a mess of psychological issues in their adulthood.
Thank you for sharing these articles. I thought I’d highlight this passage from the salon.com one in case everyone doesn’t read them.
And yet Allen’s major problem with women isn’t countered by his strong relationships with actresses. Allen has gotten great work out of many female stars, but many of them — particularly Johansson, recently — were either mouthpieces for his ideas and way of being or love objects for his character or for the camera. Few women in Allen’s films have agency apart from a man: They’re either acting like Allen, or romancing him. (Or, like Dianne Wiest in “Hannah and Her Sisters” or Cate Blanchett in “Blue Jasmine,” they’re simply lunatics. Both were meaty, prizewinning roles, but they also fit perfectly into a career-long story of what a woman can or cannot do or be on film.)
Hi Cat,
That is a great graph, thanks for hhighlighting. I wish I had the time to really write about this but these posts are really good.
Margot
Good points in the salon.com paragraph.
Also,TBH,I don’t even believe that Allen should get the Cecil B DeMille award for his work.I mean come on…the guy is way overrated.He’s made a bunch of classics back in the 70s , but for a man universally hailed as a comedy genius he sure has a mediocre lifetime batting average.The fact he makes so many movies can exaggerate this some, but for a few years there he put out nothing but a non-stop parade of below-average or simply insufferable films.Plus he is a terrible actor.
And I suppose that most people simply don’t believe he molested a little girl.Not that they believe it and don’t find it important.They’d go ‘No way Allen did such a terrible thing he’s a genius/artist etc” .GAG.