2018 was declared the “Year of the Woman” by the Hollywood feminist horde, yet once again studies have shown that such progressive grandstanding amounted to, well, grandstanding. On January 3, Variety took another look under Hollywood’s diversity hood and found that women suffered “Radical Underrepresentation” in the industry during 2018
This is the third report that MRC Culture has written concerning Hollywood 2018’s actual lack of diversity. It appears that last year’s prevailing mantra was less “Year of the Woman,” and more “all talk, no action.”
Variety reported that, although “Hollywood women have made incremental gains in below-the-line jobs like producing and editing, they backslid as feature film directors and continue on a path of ‘radical underrepresentation.’”
The study cited by the outlet was completed by Dr. Martha Lauzen’s “Celluloid Ceiling,” a San Diego State University “comprehensive report of women’s behind-the-scenes employment in film.” After consulting the findings, “Celluloid Ceiling” slammed Hollywood, claiming that its “value shift is only lip service until the industry commits to transparency.”
Imagine that.
But really, what gives? In 2018, everyone was made well aware of important Hollywood women, What about all that hype over director Ava Duvernay for her over-diversified A Wrinkle in Time film. Well, apparently it was all manufactured hype, as Duvernay, and other awards hopefuls like Karyn Kusama represented a meager 8% of women in Hollywood. Such exceptions were pushed to the front of showbiz propaganda, while women actually “fared the worst” in terms of film representation.
Dr. Lauzen found that out of 2018’s top 250 films, “92% had no women directors, 73% had no women writers, 42% had no women exec. producers, 27% had no women producers, 74% had no women editors, and 96% had no women cinematographers.” Lauzen claimed:
The study provides no evidence that the mainstream film industry has experienced the profound positive shift predicted by so many industry observers over the last year. This radical underrepresentation is unlikely to be remedied by the voluntary efforts of a few individuals or a single studio.
According to Lauzen, what Hollywood needs in order to not seem like a group of pharisees, is “ownership of the issue,” involving a “large-scale effort mounted by the major players - studios talent agencies, guilds, and associations.” For the rest of us, this may come as a surprise, because they sure made it sound like it was the most important and universal issue on the planet.
Now, bean counting and arbitrary diversity quotas are stupid and counterproductive. The point is that, despite all the condescending showbiz lectures, the industry won’t even put it’s money where its mouth is. Maybe next year, their ideals will swing into practical application, but in the meantime it seems all the more that they are just a bunch of fakers.
