The saddest conversation of the week
by digby
I just don’t know what to say.
Fox News contributor and former actress Stacey Dash said on Friday’s “Outnumbered” that female actresses should stop complaining about gender bias and be “grateful” for being cast alongside famous male actors.
Dash’s comments were made during a discussion about gender bias within Hollywood, which women such as actress Elizabeth Banks and director Kathryn Bigelow have taken issue with.
“I think that if you are directing a film, man or woman, there is pressure and if you don’t do a good job, the results are the same — you’re not gonna get to do it again, or maybe you will,” Dash said. “But it doesn’t matter on your gender. That’s not what’s gonna, you know, affect the outcome.”
“If you want something, you have to fight for it, you know,” Dash said. “And the other side of this is that I know hundreds of thousands of actresses who would love to play the leading lady to a Leonardo DiCaprio, a Matt Damon, you know, a George Clooney. So, you’ve gotta be grateful for what you got and if you want more, then get it. Work for it.”
Co-host Harris Faulkner agreed with Dash, noting that there were plenty of female executives.
“How many female exec— I mean you’ve got Oprah Winfrey,” Faulkner said, “you know I mentioned Ava with ‘Selma’ who directed that, you’ve got Oprah Winfrey. You’ve got a lot of people who are opening doors for other women in the business, too. You know, Tyler Perry is another. I mean you do have lots of opportunity.”
At this point, co-host Melissa Francis pointed out that the numbers actually show that over the past 17 years there has been a decline in the number of women directing films.
“The reason why this matters is because if there is a woman executive producer, writer, or director, then 39% of the time the lead in the movie is also a female,” Francis said. “If it’s a male writer, director, producer, only 4% of the time is the opportunity there for the actress.”
Co-host Sandra Smith then chimed in with her take on the issue.
“But, that makes so much sense to me,” Smith said. “Yes, sometimes you need a female perspective from a directional (sic) standpoint — correct me if I’m wrong, you guys are the experts in this industry — but sometimes you need a male direction.”
Dash added that Kathryn Bigelow got an Oscar for the movie “The Hurt Locker.”
“Like it’s relative. It’s all relative,” Dash said. “Like I said you have to fight for what you want and be good at it. Be extraordinary at it.”
Well, it goes without saying that “you need a male direction” amirite? Good thing Hollywood knows what it’s doing on that count:
But hey, there’s Oprah, so it’s all good.
You can watch the video at Media Matters. Don’t do it if you just had lunch …
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