I went to a YouTube round table yesterday and got a bit of a jolt in my broad-minded attitude. The guys around the table were all there because they have channels that are popular enough to qualify them as YouTube Partners. Many of them make their living on YouTube.
If you caught my use of the word "guys," good for you. The shock for me was there at the table. Without any studio executive choosing who gets the green light because on YouTube you greenlight yourself; without any prejudice in hiring since nobody there worked for somebody else; without any philosophizing about gender bias in the media, the fact remains that the proportion of guys to broads at the table was as bad as it is in the mainstream movie and TV biz.
And that pissed me off.
The last time I got pissed off like this at the Writers Guild, I started this festival. I gotta do something. And I can't do it alone, gals. If we want a place at the table, we need to start putting it out there, as regularly and as boobs-to-the-tubes as the guys do.
So let's hear all the objections and excuses. Maybe some are valid. And yes, I know some women have very big audiences on YouTube. Nevertheless, we have some explaining to do to ourselves and each other.
I'm both shocked and not surprised. This is such an important issue. Why aren't we there, making a good living? What do we need to do to get there? Thanks very much for this post.
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