Why Hollywood Needs to Pull its Finger Out its Arse and Accept That There are More Katherine Bigelow's Out There and Women Need Equal Opportunities!

So I was discussing the topic of the hardships that women face in the film industry with someone whom I have just recently made realise, that it's an actual real issue...and this individual STUDIED filmmaking!!   When he said that "surely women in horror isn't that much of a niche area", and I asked him, what should have been a really easy question to answer...name me ANY female film directors....to which I got Sofia Coppola and "that chick that did The Hurt Locker"....he kind of started to realise that he was actually pretty clueless.  Anyhoo, this conversation was continued last night so I thought I'd dig out a bunch of articles that highlight EXACTLY how bad the situation actually is.  His point was that, least things are changing, and that at least we should see it fully change within our lifetime.  Well....I would just like to point out that Hollywood admitted that there was a problem...IN 1978, and agreed to implement change!!  1978!!!  That was a year before I was born for fucks sake!  So in 35 years, yay....look how far we've come!

I think the biggest kick in the teeth came from the co-chair of Sony Entertainment, when she was quoted in an interview with Forbes Magazine last year saying THIS...

"For a woman to direct a movie in Hollywood, she has to go through so many layers of rejection by the powers that be—I suppose including myself—that it is harder to get to that point," said Pascal. "So you can't just create something. And I think there is a whole unconscious mountain… I think that the whole system is geared for them to fail."

The biggest advancement was of course in 2010, the year that Katherine Bigelow became the first woman to ever win the Oscar for Best Director!  Prior to her win, only THREE other women had ever been nominated...in 82 fucking years! 

When we look at how much technology has changed, and the way we make films in general....that's the kind of shit that when I was a kid, I thought I'd never see in my lifetime...and yet here we are today...we live in an age where technology rules all.  But yet we STILL don't have fucking equality for women working in the industry.  WHAT. THE. FLYING. FUCK!?!  How is that even fucking possible!?!  Like seriously!! 

What makes Bigelow's win all the more entertaining, is that she beat ex-husband James Cameron for Avatar.  The Hurt Locker was independently produced, on a budget of around $11 million...which is considered low budget for Hollywood.  Especially when you consider that Avatar had a budget of $425 million!  That alone should serve as enough of a statement.  

With The Hurt Locker, not only did it nab Bigelow the Oscar for Best Director, it also FINALLY got people paying attention to my beloved Jeremy Renner (who I've been in love with since 1995), and got him his first Oscar nomination too.  Yay!  

Just think...in 1984, James Cameron made the original Terminator, followed by Aliens in 1986 and then one of my all time favourite movies, Terminator 2, in 1991!  And then in 2010 he gives us Avatar!  That man alone has helped advance filmmaking technology to levels I never thought I would see in my lifetime.  

He is also an absolute lover of strong women...can we say, Sarah fucking Connor!?!  He has so much command in Hollywood, but yet STILL....no real advancement when you compare it to what he has done technologically.  And this is something that just frazzles my brain even thinking about it! 

When we think of 1978 and horror, it was of course the year that Halloween was released...and Jamie Lee Curtis became our beloved scream queen.  The daughter of original scream queen Janet Leigh.  In 1998, Jamie Lee Curtis returned to the role that made her famous, and just to add a total nerdfest for horror geeks, Janet Leigh also had a small part in the film.  One of my absolute favourite scenes is this one you see here.  I went to see H2O in the cinema on my own and actually squeee'ed out loud with delight when this played.  Talk about a Psycho nerdgasm! :)

Anyhoo, that was 20 years after the original Halloween.  Look how different everything is.  And also consider that this was Josh Hartnett's first film...followed by one of my all time favourites, The Faculty!  Look how far Josh Hartnett has come in the time since playing Michael Myers (way too fucking hot for his own good) nephew!  Yes Michelle Williams has also come into her own since then as well, and is a 3 time Oscar nominated actress...but even actresses don't get fair treatment in Hollywood...just look at the salary differences! 

Fuck, actually...look how far Joseph Gordon Levitt has come in that time!  He is now a a well respected director in his own right!  

The scary thing is...is that when H2O was released, how much had things really even changed from that moment in 1960 where Janet Leigh gave people a fear of taking a shower??

Green Street director Lexi Alexander summed it up perfectly when she wrote this superb piece, and I believe EVERYONE should read it!

If you read only one thing, please read this report from 1978, when the EEOC investigated equal-employment practices in the motion picture industry.

Okay, so we know that people have seriously acknowledged that there is a problem back in 1978, thirty-five years ago. Promises were made even back then to "work diligently" to fix the imbalance.

The fact that there has been no improvement in thirty-five years can only really mean two things:

1) Those who have promised to bring about change were insincere.
or
2) Those who have promised to bring about change were not very smart.

You choose.

And last but not least....listen to Olivia Wilde...girl speaks the truth! :)