View Editor's Note: |
| There is no editors note for this article... |
|
|
IF WOMEN RAN HOLLYWOOD...2007
Approximately 15 years ago, Entertainment Weekly took stock of women's status in Hollywood when it published a humorous yet pointed article articulating how the film and television industries might change if women took over. Entitled "If Women Ran Hollywood," the article included a list of gender-bending realities including, "Thelma and Louise would live at the end, and get away with it" and "Reporters would waste less ink describing actresses' outfits and interior decorating, and words like leggy and voluptuous would be banished from their lexicon." Lest we think that the items contained in this wish list have actually come to pass, consider that television critics obsessed over Geena Davis' "glam lips" and "high cheekbones and striking hair" in reviews of ABC's Commander-in-Chief.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The following list revisits the question of how things might change if women outnumbered men in executive suites, and on film and television sets . . .
- On sitcoms, average-looking female characters would be paired with much more attractive males and no one would ask, "could this happen?"
- Women would direct the majority of films produced by the film studios. (In 2006, women comprised just 7% of all directors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films.) When their films generated middling box office grosses, they would be given a larger budget film to direct.
- Jane Bond would be an elegant over-40 action heroine at the center of a profitable film franchise. A TV series, action figure, and cereal would soon follow.
- People working in the business would name six men working in high-profile positions at the studios and networks and assume that men had achieved equality.
- Cybill Shepherd and Roseanne would join Candice Bergen as talented over-40 actresses enjoying permanent employment in prime time.
- Ocean's Thirteen would feature 12 female leads and just one male.
- Executives would assume that both female and male viewers watch TV programs and films with female leads but that only men watch programs and films with male leads. Subsequently, action films would be relabeled as "dick flicks" and derided for their propensity toward action.
- Ellen DeGeneres would be recognized as the new Johnny Carson and ascend to Johnny's former throne on The Tonight Show.
- The industry group "Women in Film" would be replaced by "Men in Film." Their film-finishing fund would help male filmmakers complete male-empowerment stories unable to find funding through other sources.
- Most writers' rooms for prime-time television programs would fail to include even a token male. (In the 2006-07 season, women comprised 35% of writers. 65% of the programs had no women writers.)"
- Films and TV programs featuring romances between older men and younger women would revolve around how the younger women could possibly find the older men attractive.
- Film and television executives would assume that men writers and directors were only qualified to work on action-oriented fare due to their narrow life experiences and personal preferences. Men would subsequently feel that they were pigeon holed by decision makers.
- "Ebert and Roeper" and "Shoot Out" would feature at least one female host . . . maybe two.
- Male executives would come up with many brilliant ideas in meetings. Female executives would offer the same ideas moments later and receive the credit.
Dr. Lauzen is a professor in the School of Communication at San Diego State University and conducts annual studies of women working in film ("The Celluloid Ceiling") and television ("Boxed In"). The statistics cited in this article were culled from these studies.