Good news! Journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman have discovered the underlying cause of sexism. Women, they’ve determined, get paid and promoted less than men for one simple reason: we suffer from “an acute lack of confidence.” Their book, The Confidence Code, draws on studies showing that women ask for raises less often, assess themselves more negatively, and seek out fewer opportunities than men to argue that if women would just adopt lower voices and more expansive body language and be more willing to take risks and less willing to take the blame, we would advance at the same rate…
Author: Holly L. Derr
Holly L. Derr
Holly L. Derr is a feminist, director, and professor of theater who writes about theater, film, television, video games, and comics. She holds an MFA in theater directing from Columbia University and has taught at Smith College, the ART-MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training, Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium, The California Institute of the Arts, and the University of California at Riverside. Holly has been published by Ms. Magazine, Bitch Media, Women and Hollywood, XX Factor/Slate, and The Atlantic Holly’s favorite pieces include “Gender Flipping in Hollywood, “What Really Makes a Film Feminist?” and “A Feminist Guide to Horror Movies Parts 1-6.” Follow her @hld6oddblend and check out her tumblr, Feminist Fandom.
It’s staffing season for television, and many of us are playing close attention to gender and race of writers getting hired. A report from the Writer’s Guild of America revealed that in the 2011-2012 season, female writers made up only 30.5% of TV staffs. Racial minorities fared even worse, comprising only 15.6%. (A UCLA study based on publicly available data put the number for women at 32.8% in broadcast television and 27.1% in cable. That study found that only 7.4% of cable writers are minorities while only 10% of broadcast writers are.) A number of causes collude to keep staffs primarily…
Christmas in Hollywood has come and gone. Yes, I’m talking about the Academy Awards. Advent = awards season. In Los Angles, we worship at the altar of a golden idol named Oscar. I really loved what Kevin Spacey said on the red carpet this year – that when you work in Hollywood you’re too busy to see anybody that’s not involved your current project. As artists, we form these intimate relationships while making art together, sharing truths that people don’t normally share with other people, and then we go our separate ways. Awards galas, then, are reunions for friends and…
Got your B or MFA from a theater program? Congratulations! Looking at 30 years of consolidated loan payments even as you get further and further away from the training you’re still paying for? Take heart! Your training matters, even in Hollywood. Just ask Winona Ryder, Felicity Huffman, Alison Brie, Holly Hunter, and Laura Linney — all of whom have theater degrees. In many ways, the worlds of film, television, and web series seem like water to theater’s oil – they only mix when you really shake things up. But even though you may never have to call upon your ability…
When Beyoncé’s latest album dropped, feminists went nuts. This is not the first time they’ve gone nuts over Beyoncé: When Ms. Magazine put her on its cover earlier this year, its readers erupted in outrage that a woman who “writhes around,” scantily clad “for the benefit of men” could be considered a feminist. Millions of other women came to her defense, arguing that feminism is about allowing women to be whoever they want to be. The editors of Ms. stood by their choice, but the disagreement hasn’t faded, and the new album has only added fuel to the fire. The…
Last summer I went to my first San Diego Comic Con. After taking in a panel on gender in comics (and one called “Most Dangerous Women of Comic Con”), visiting the Wired Cafe, and meeting Stephanie Thorpe and Kristen Nedopak I thought, “I’ve found my tribe.” I first encountered Helenna Santos-Levy when she appeared at the Con on the All Shapes and Sizes Welcome panel, which I covered for Women and Hollywood. More recently I wrote about Ms. in the Biz’s first public event, “Navigating Hollywood’s Cutthroat Corners.” Now I’m thrilled to be writing a monthly column for one of the…