System working as intended.
Old news I saw being regurgitated but… I thought this was really thoughtfully written take on this.
A very thoughtful piece.
As someone who likes to camp a bit (though nothing like her level of adventure); it really resonated.
At least some in the media figured out their role in this, but I’m not liking the conclusion one bit:
I remember that Sarah Michelle Geller had a reputation as being difficult on the set of Buffy, until years later and information started surfacing about Joss Whedon, and her fellow cast started giving interviews, talking about how kind she was on set, and how she stood up for other people.
But it was Whedon who controlled the narrative.
It amazes me how often we keep falling into this cycle… the culture beats up on a famous woman, and then something like this happens, and it turns out that this was some organized campaign against her. Rinse. Repeat. Etc.
@OWYAC - a great example…
This is all that Hollywood Weinstein crap. Powerful men around the globe, who control the media and collude to abuse and ruin women’s reputations and livelihoods.
Absolutely. As long as men dominate these institutions, it’s gonna be hard to break that cycle.
The NYTimes had quite the eye-opening article* about the smear campaign - eye opening in how many different, unrelated entertainment press entities were willing (eager, even) to play a role in the campaign, even unwittingly. (Not to mention those publicists who seem, based on messages, downright gleeful in destroying someone on behalf of a client who is clearly the bad guy in the situation.)
When I think about all the actresses branded “difficult” who turned out to simply have pushed back against abuse (no matter how mildly), I start to wonder if there really are any actually “difficult” actresses in Hollywood. I assume there are at least a few (what with people being people), but male actors can get away with being branded “difficult” without it impacting their careers, whereas actresses obviously don’t have that same freedom.
*https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/business/media/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-it-ends-with-us.html
Female “difficult” means they want to be paid as much as their also-famous male leads and not get sexually harassed, raped, or demeaned on set.
Male “difficult” means they want to be paid as much as humanly possible, and do whatever to whomever whenever on set or off with no consequences to themselves.
…
It never was the same thing anyway.
One thing I want to slam my palms on the desk about: These strategies depend on our society’s ambient misogyny.
These manipulative marketing tactics–because fundamentally that’s what they are–rest on the knowledge that people want to mistrust women, scapegoat women, and knock women down a peg.
If she’s a privileged woman, she has it coming and her advantages shield her from misogyny anyway, right?
If she’s not that privileged, well, are you sure about that? Is she really being honest about her struggles?
I heard that girl was actually white, you know. She’s too eloquent.
One thing I’ve noticed is that these tactics work even on affluent, influential, famous women.
They work a lot better in insular communities, when these same strategies aree … scaled down, let’s say.
Ask me how I know.
All true.
Yeah, I assume there are some (relatively small number of) actresses who are “difficult” in the same way their male counterparts are, but since the whole (double) standard is misogynistic, it’s impossible to know.
