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| From Indiewire: Jane Campion and her female Cannes jury members |
I know, I know. I'm just as tired as you are of complaints that women don't get a fair shake in the film biz. We have to get over that fatigue, in my opinion, just like marathon runners have to get over being tired halfway through a race. The inequity is real. It's entrenched. Changes are happening at a glacial pace, if at all. But I like to think that maybe Stephen Jay Gould's concept of "punctuated equilibrium" for evolution applies to social change as well. The system, unfair though it may be, is trying to maintain its identity in equilibrium. So it will resist change that threatens to radically alter its identity. A few random "mutations" may survive or breed out in a generation without shifting the species, like the few lucky women who catch a break.
(NOTE: I don't call them "lucky' because they succeeded entirely on luck. I know they are all incredibly talented and hard-working. Their luck is in having their hard work get suddenly rewarded, while other equally hard-working and talented women get bupkiss.)
When external pressure creates situation where the old attributes no longer fit the environment, survival suddenly encourages mutations that fill the niches of opportunity. At these times, species evolve very quickly and dramatically until they settle into a new equilibrium that fits the new environment.
Look at how gay marriage initiatives, stalled and thwarted for so many years, suddenly reached critical mass and state after state has been passing marriage equality legislation. If we keep the pressure up with our "complaining" and keep making films on whatever platform we can, these may turn out to be good times to be a female filmmaker. After all, we're already in the middle of a flux period in the entertainment business. Technology is putting on some pressure. Changing social norms are putting on more pressure.
(Hat tip for the Indiewire article to Judy Chaikin and the Alliance for Women Directors.)
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