I’m watching Tidying Up, and why did no one tell me that this sweet, delightful woman so pointedly drags straight men for complaining about the mess while not really helping their wives with like anything??? The small cock of her head when she looks them in the eye and asks “you don’t help?” in the sweet voice and you see the fear of god behind their eyes. It fuels me.
Thought of the day (while reading a “gender marketing” translation with painfully outdated views): I am really, really sick of us only talking about “gender” when women are involved.
A surprising number of important realizations could be made if we develop the habit of talking about gender dynamics even – perhaps especially – in the context of all-male or mostly-male groups.
How does it affect productivity, public image, collaboration, negotiating, client acquisition, etc. to have any group of people involved be entirely men? What effects does this drastic gender imbalance cause in its environment?
LET’S TALK ABOUT GENDER AND MEN, PEOPLE. Gender is not an exclusively female domain.
Me, interviewing the director of basically any film ever: “So let’s talk about the extreme gender imbalance in the casting of this film. What was the thinking behind that? Was there a particular statement you were trying to make, a satirical observation on the politics of society, perhaps? That kind of came out of left field, when we watched the film and all the parts but one were men. Can you tell us a little about the background of that?”
Director: “Um… I didn’t actually consciously think that much abou–”
Me, interrupting: “Come now, don’t be modest! That was a fascinating artistic decision! The drastic disparity between the number of men and the number of women in the film makes it clear to even the most casual viewer that gender is a central theme in this story. Can we delve into that a little bit further?”
Director: “…”
This would be a fun tack to take in regard to race, too.
“I noticed something very interesting about your film, which is that every single one of the leading roles is played by a white actor. Clearly there’s some conceptual message you want to communicate with this creative choice. Could you talk about that?”
