Recently Telegraph Women did a piece on the phrases that are
only ever used to describe women. Words like ‘feisty’, ‘bitchy’, and, my
personal worst, ‘sassy.’ Now, because everything in my head eventually ends up
at what flavour crisps to have today or casting calls, I thought I’d take a
look at how women are often described in the world of acting. The list in the
Telegraph piece are all too regular when it comes to describing female
characters but, of course, the world of acting can’t help but go that bit further…
I always hoped I’d see this awful phrase just once but, sadly
not. This soul-bustingly terrible term comes up all too often and, most of the
time, it’s used to describe women. Not only is it hugely derogatory towards
women for reasons that should be hugely obvious (if not, this blog probably
isn’t for you) but it’s also impressively insulting towards men too. The idea
that men can only watch something that contains beautiful women is about as
ridiculous as getting an actor to get your tax affairs in order.
Many drama schools claim to get their gorgeous little actor
fledglings ready for the realities for the acting industry. If that was true
then the men would be sent off to learn a new, interesting character everyday
while the women would spend 3 years being taught how to remain still while a
prosthetic wound uncomfortably dries on their face and a pathologist pokes
their boobs. One year I'd like to keep count of the amount of times a dead naked woman is wheeled out on a slab in films or on TV but I fear I'd run out of numbers around mid-March.
Find a casting call containing a woman and it generally
won’t be long before the subject of nudity is brought up. If you haven’t got a
woman getting her bits out in your film then, quite simply, you don’t have a
film. FACT.
This is an interesting one. And it's totally fine to explain how your characters look but if you find yourself looking for a sexy woman and an 'interesting' or 'confident' man then you need to take a serious look at what you're making. Describing a woman purely on her looks does not a female character make.
Or prostitute. Or stripper. Or lapdancer. Of course, there is nothing wrong with these
professions or including them in your work. However, if you do have these roles in your film or on your stage
then please write them to be more than just a pair of tits.
Just don’t. Same goes for slapper. Thanks.
Much like nudity, boobs are often what are included in a
script in place of a well-written female character. And who can blame ‘em
because, really, what’s a women apart from a cracking pair of baps? Yep, that’s
right. EVERYTHING.
This, along with ‘surprisingly beautiful geek’ and ‘actually
pretty with no make-up’, comes up a lot. Let’s get this straight; being smart
and beautiful doesn’t automatically make a woman some kind of witch. You don’t
need to mention it. If you've written a smart and beautiful female character then congratulations, you've just written yourself a woman.
So there we go. There's just a few that make my forehead meet my desk, wall and floor. Please, let's save the hard surfaces of the world and stop using these terms ALL THE BLOODY TIME.
A woman is not just a pair of boobs or naked set dressing for your film. We're capable of heading up a storyline while keeping our clothes on. I promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment