PAY THE BILL
Clowning around with friends the other night one guy was complaining about girls always wanting the man to pay. He said: "You guys want equal rights so pay the bill". In that moment of hype it was hard for me to explain to him why women feel the way they do. In the sentence he said himself: "want"... Just cause Obama is the president, it does not mean that the discrimination in society is over. So just cause women finally got their rights in the eyes of the law, it does not mean that men look at us as equals. I am not trying to start an argument, but maybe some guys can understand. Since I was little, I was taught and learned from society that not only I have to work harder cause of being half black but the bigger problem is that I am a woman... If I want to achieve anything in business I will have to work 10x harder than a black person who already works 10x harder than the white person to achieve the same. I not only deal with racism but also sexism every day and on top of that some people have the nerve to say that it is easier for a pretty woman... When I hear that my heart starts racing and I have to count to 32 to not go Rick James on a fool... breath... Well, if I wanted to (excuse my french) f*ck every day then yes, it would be easier but women are not wired that way. We don't live in lust. We want to achieve something and leave a legacy behind just like the big names of the past that mostly are male... And guess what: I have not gotten the jobs that I wanted as a sound engineer often times BECAUSE I have a "pretty face". I mean, I am good at what I do, I graduated as valedictorian, president of the honor society and have plenty of transcripts saying that I am detailed, fun to work with etc. But, if you are a man with a small business with other men and you all have a wife or a girlfriend, you will hire someone that does not distract your senses. You will ask your lady friends to come to events so that your clients will have some eye candy, but you will give the job to your homy, or the men that is qualified for the job, sounds chill and smells like he takes showers. I get harassed before I get hired and believe me... I am talking about plenty of experiences... But walking away from situations with my head up high looking for other opportunities is what makes me who I am. So I would like you guys to understand why women still look for an pleasant gentleman that will treat us as ladies and still pay the bill (Not my electrical bill... but definitely the dinner and the movies)... I hear of women that don't know how to cook and have all that bitchy attitude but unfortunately I have not surrounded myself with those kind of people. All women I know are hard workers, cook and may even have kids while they are going to school and doing 2 jobs earning minimum wage. So boys, if I caught your attention before your annoyance please feel free to educate your friends with this.
VENUS LEONE :)
Geena Davis Solves Hollywood Sexism in Two Easy Steps!
Bad news, sexism! Geena Davis is here to MURDER YOU WITH A BOW AND ARROW. The actress wrote a column for the Hollywood Reporter this week in which she outlined her two-step plan to fix gender inequality in Hollywood. And it's great.
Based on extensive data compiled by her Institute on Gender in Media,
Davis explains that for every female character in family films (i.e.
films informing the development of America's future adults), there are three male characters. Crowd scenes are only 17% female; one study found
that men have come to perceive that 17% ratio as 50/50. Those
disparities, Davis writes, have been the same since
nineteen-forty-fucking-six. "Throw in the hypersexualization of many of
the female characters that are there," she continues, "even in G-rated
movies, and their lack of occupations and aspirations and you get the
picture."
So what's the two-step plan? Well, it's extremely simple:
Step 1: Go through the projects you're already working on and change a bunch of the characters' first names to women's names. With one stroke you've created some colorful unstereotypical female characters that might turn out to be even more interesting now that they've had a gender switch. What if the plumber or pilot or construction foreman is a woman? What if the taxi driver or the scheming politician is a woman? What if both police officers that arrive on the scene are women — and it's not a big deal?
Step 2: When describing a crowd scene, write in the script, "A crowd gathers, which is half female." That may seem weird, but I promise you, somehow or other on the set that day the crowd will turn out to be 17 percent female otherwise. Maybe first ADs think women don't gather, I don't know.
And there you have it. You have just quickly and easily boosted the female presence in your project without changing a line of dialogue.
Changing what people see, Davis writes, has the potential to change who people vote for, hire, and aspire to be:
Yes, we can and will work to tell more women's stories, listen to more women's voices and write richer female characters and to fix the 5-to-1 ratio of men/women behind the camera. But consider this: In all of the sectors of society that still have a huge gender disparity, how long will it take to correct that? You can't snap your fingers and suddenly half of Congress is women. But there's one category where the underrepresentation of women can be fixed tomorrow: onscreen. In the time it takes to make a movie or create a television show, we can change what the future looks like.
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