Why some want Kunis to turn down an award
BOSTON — A Harvard University theater group with an all-male cast is under fire from those who say it should allow women onstage — and they’re asking Mila Kunis to take up their cause.
Detractors are calling on the Hasty Pudding troupe to start casting women and to update sexist portrayals of women. Amid the debate, some are calling on Kunis to reconsider her acceptance of the group’s Woman of the Year award today to protest the exclusion.
“It would be a wonderful thing for her to not accept this award, to say this is gender inequality,” said Liz Kantor, a senior studying molecular and cellular biology, who auditioned for this year’s show. “There are women on campus who are more than willing to take advantage of these opportunities, yet they’re still being excluded.”
Hasty Pudding is known for bawdy comedic revues that feature men in drag playing female characters, a longstanding tradition in the group, which says it was formed in 1795.
But more recently, women have sought acting roles in the student-written parodies, which are shown in Massachusetts, New York and Bermuda and have helped launch careers for former students ranging from Jack Lemmon to Broadway composer Larry O’Keefe.
Women can take behindthe-scenes jobs, including writing the shows or working on the business staff or technical crew, the group says on its website.