INTERMISSION
A WRITER TAKES PAUSE TO CONSIDER… Her film journey to feminism
It’s hard to imagine my journey into film writing without feminism, and the reverse is also true: it’s hard to imagine my voyage into feminism without film. Movies have played a big part in my evolving understanding of gender politics and equality. But if you think I was raised on a diet of esoteric, feminist art films, you’d be wrong: tawdry erotica also played its part.
I went to the University of Leeds in the early 90s, when the erotic thriller had gone mainstream. I read English, and along with the usual courses on medieval poetry there was an option called Gender and Popular Culture. Here was a chance to analyse something more contemporary – and to do it from a perspective that really intrigued me. ‘Popular Culture’ encompassed advertisements, where we looked at the way ice was used to suggest sexual imagery in booze adverts. It also involved responding to current films. In a mission that would set the stage for my career, this 19-year-old student was sent to the cinema to watch Thelma & Louise and… Basic Instinct.
Very different films, I hear you cry. Yes, indeed. The course involved looking at female archetypes from a critical perspective as well as celebrating big strides forward for representation on screen. The kind of language I just used in that sentence wasn’t commonplace then – I don’t think my tutor even used that herself. But it was utterly fascinating to debate on the empowering nature of Catherine Tramell, or otherwise, and I felt on fire when I was writing about it.
After uni, I got jobs on music magazines where I was often the only woman. I experienced sexual harassment and prejudice, but I also became an editor. Good or bad, everything fed into my mission for gender equality. When I was at a women’s mag called Minx, I started writing the film reviews, celebrating powerful female characters like Trinity in The Matrix. Soon after I went freelance, I began contributing to Time Out, Sight and Sound and more. Eventually, I became president of the Critics’ Circle and joined the ongoing push for diversity and equality in our ranks. But sometimes, I still felt like a woman in a man’s world. Despite being a regular pundit on TV and radio, no one was interested in my idea for a TV show called Girls on Film, with women talking about film - too ‘niche’, apparently.
Then came the #MeToo movement, and I was invited to join Time’s Up UK in early 2018. I felt like I was home. All the women at meetings were involved in film, from producers to writers to A-list actors, but there was no hierarchy, just sisterhood. Later that year, the time felt right to finally launch Girls on Film as a podcast, with my co-founder Hedda Archbold, and we are now a team of four. I feel like the world has finally evolved enough for my ‘niche’ to be a big part of my career - and I love it.
‘I started writing film reviews, celebrating powerful female characters like Trinity in The Matrix’