Listen up y'all. I’m a young, lesbian woman midway through a masters of fine art in Screenwriting as I prepare for a career in film and television. And this is the fucking truth.
About a month ago I met with a (young straight white male) professor about a script I was working on. The protagonist is an LGBT female struggling with a depression severe enough to have ended her last relationship. She is medicated for her depression and the medication itself plays a role in the script. This isn’t the plot of the film, just an aspect of the protagonist’s character.
The entire duration of the meeting with this professor was marked by his extreme disinterest in my script. Which, fine- you can’t please everyone, and honestly there were some major problems with the script that I’ll have to tackle during the rewrite. But the real highlight of the meeting was when, after being asked what he felt the biggest issue with my protagonist was, my professor responded: “Well nobody’s that sad. It’s just unrealistic.”
Three other scripts in my class feature protagonists struggling severely with depression. Two of those three are written by men. When I checked in with them afterwards, I was told by the other female writer that she’d received a similar comment from our professor. Both male writers, however, had been praised for their “sensitive and thoroughly human characters.”
Of the faculty in my program, only two professors (of close to 20) are female. The majority of the program is taught, run and managed by white, straight, cis males.
My point is this;; it’s not just Hollywood. As far down the career step totem pole in Screenwriting as formal education, men genuinely don’t believe that women are allowed to be emotive, expressive beings. If you say too little, you’re a bitch- if you say too much, you’re melodramatic and pathetic to boot.
Men don’t want women, men want female bodies on camera, and that is the single biggest crock of horse shit in this entire garbage industry.
vaporwave
blakekathryn
jbbartram-illu
areudirty
