IT’S NOT 1970 FOR WOMEN ANYMORE
‘Good Girls Revolt’ is an antidote to Trump, Ailes and the 2016 campaign
One Monday morning in March 1970, 46 young women at Newsweek held a news conference to denounce the magazine for keeping them from becoming reporters or editors.
Newsweek management called the men-only rule “tradition.” The women called it illegal. Their attorney, the ACLU’s Eleanor Holmes Norton, saw a perfect test case of federal law — because when privileged white women are angry with the system, then something really must be wrong, and she knew their complaint would garner press.
Ultimately, the magazine admitted it was in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The women were promoted to reporters, editors and managers, and the landmark case sparked similar complaints across newsrooms of New York City that year.
All of this from one researcher at one magazine asking, “Why can’t I be a reporter, too?” These events inspired Good
Girls Revolt, the show I created, which premieres Friday on Amazon Prime. And yet, nothing could have prepared me for telling a female story alongside other women in an industry that is still predominantly male.
In casting, we read hundreds of talented, classically trained actresses. Many of them brought purses stuffed with changes of clothes that they would shrug on in the bathroom. They were prepared to read for all three of the female leads, determined to land a role with dimensions and flaws, not the nameless “GIRLFRIEND” or “HOTTIE” roles that so often are thrown their way. In hiring our crew and our cast, I and my executive producer partner, Darlene Hunt (creator of
The Big C on Showtime) sometimes looked no further than school carpools to tap into a network of qualified women. A DIFFERENT KIND OF SET The group crowded around the monitor at “video village” on our set was different from most. It was, more often than not, all women: director, first assistant director, cinematographer, writer, executive producer and production designer. When we were on location, the monitors were protected by a sun shelter, and I came to think of it as a tent, big enough for women of all ages, with different backgrounds and different dreams. There was some knitting. And talk of summer camps. There was always at least one woman, sometimes two, “shadowing ” the director. These apt pupils were spending weeks, even months, as unpaid apprentices in the hopes that they could learn a craft that is 85% male and has proved excruciatingly challenging for women to break into. NO JOKES, NO SCOFFING With each episode, we refused to back down on telling honest stories about the female experience — such as sexual assault. We insisted that female characters were not “unlikable” if we were honest and authentic about their journeys. We wanted to pull back the curtain on a culture of sexual entitlement and abuse, well before a leaked Access Hollywood video amplified it.
We are storytellers, and we wanted to present a world from the female gaze.
One night, while shooting a love scene on a closed set, director Scott Winant smiled at me and said, “Tell us how you want this to go.” I will never forget looking around the dark hotel room at the female first assistant director, the two women shadowing Scott, the female head of the hair department, the female head of makeup and the female head of costumes nodding wordlessly as I described a sex scene from the experience of a woman. Our cameramen listened encouragingly. No jokes. No scoffing.
Courage, I thought so many times this year, breeds courage.
I have a 12-year-old daughter who, thanks to this presidential campaign, has heard more derogatory things said about women than I ever hoped she would.
I have friends who shake their heads when we discuss my show because they are so disheartened by how little has changed in the workplace since 1970. They point to former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes or comments from Donald Trump Jr. about women who can’t “handle” sexual harassment.
But I can’t stifle my optimism, even in these cynical and sometimes toxic times. Because I believe so strongly that there is no prerequisite, no magical set of skills, to join the countless revolutions around the world for girls’ and women’s rights.
Take a step as small and yet as significant as asking a follow-up question to something that doesn’t sound right to you. Ask it. And then ask another. And then another. Until it makes sense to you, or until you can change the answer to make sense.
Anyone who is agitated by injustice can take that first step, without knowing where it will lead. And that’s a beautiful thing.