Anna Bowman is a senior English and telecommunications major and writes 'Film Annalysis' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Anna at aabowman@bsu.edu.
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I know there’s been a lot of chatter about Bennett Miller’s “sexist” reply to David Letterman’s “women in filmmaking” question during last Monday’s Letterman lecture, so I’d like to add my voice to the conversation.
Did you think Miller was being sexist? Read the other side of the argument.
I’m a feminist, and I’m also a woman in the filmmaking industry. And I don’t think Miller was being sexist at all. Here are the facts as I see them:
- Dave asked the men what they thought about the treatment of women in the film industry.
- This question has been a hot topic in recent news.
- The atmosphere was tense after the question was asked.
- Spike Jonze and Bennett Miller are men.
- Jonze froze and didn’t say much.
- Miller did indeed say, “It’s a jungle out there.”
- The question went largely unanswered.
- Until it came up again.
- Resume tense atmosphere.
- Jonze and Miller are still men.
- This time, Miller tried to take back his “jungle” comment.
- He rambled on a bit more.
- They showed that clip of Jonze breakdancing again.
- We all felt awkward.
If you were a male film director in front of thousands of students (many of which were female filmmakers) and you were unprepared for this question, how would you react? I’m not even sure what I would have said in this situation.
These were quiet and, let’s face it, pretty awkward guests. They were asked to appear at this lecture series because of their filmmaking talents – not their stunning interview skills. You can’t expect them to come out of nowhere and stand on a soapbox with endless advice about how women can get an edge in the industry.
“It’s a jungle out there,” did actually come out of Miller’s mouth, but do you really think he would have been that tactless on purpose? At least he said something. If you ask me, Jonze left him hanging both times the issue came up. Plus, he really did try to clarify what he said, he just wasn’t that successful. At that point, he was probably pretty frazzled.
At one point, Dave asked, “How can you help women in the industry succeed?” or something to that effect (I don’t have the transcript with me). The key word is “help.” Now, Miller could have taken the easy route and given some off-the-cuff speech about how poorly we delicate females are treated in the industry, but instead, he said the question was “patronizing” to women.
I couldn’t agree more. I don’t want a man to “help me” get a job – I want to earn it. I am not a victim of the film industry – I am a participant. It seems like we’ve hit a point where we’ve started pitying women for their situation instead of empowering them. I’m sure this was a mere slip of the tongue by our main man, Dave, but I’m glad Miller didn’t let it slide.
Yes, I know that both men and women are responsible for eliminating sexism, but you can’t expect male directors to have an “affirmative action” plan for whom they hire. Think about it: how much time do you spend trying to alleviate issues that don’t directly affect you? Probably not a lot. That’s human.
And can I just say, neither of the directors were in support of sexism. They didn’t jump up and cheer when Dave brought up the film industry’s lack of women. They didn’t say, “Who needs 'em?” Both Jonze and Miller expressed distaste for the lack of women in filmmaking, which I think we all understand.
I would chalk up this clumsy display of “sexism” to simply poor PR. Jonze and Miller would have benefited greatly by being prepped more for the questions Dave was going to ask. Furthermore, we all know this is an issue – there’s no debate about that. However, that doesn’t mean that we have a solution to this problem. I mean, do you?
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