In other words, we're taking a break from your regular programming to talk about AMERICAN problems. You know, the capitalist culturally imperialistic near-feudalist country my friend's communist brother likes to call it.
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Well, I have a lot of issues that fire me up. You can imagine, as a proud Millenial, which ones they are but today I want to hone in on something important: Feminism. It's especially relevant cause I have this rad tee shirt from new production company More Feminist Comedy Please and it's soft. Like, I must be wearing what clouds wear as pajamas cause it feels so good. I'm gonna wear this shirt everywhere!I have two sisters. One older and one younger. The younger one is currently a moody teenager and the older one is a twenty-something 'adulting' as best she can. I think now, more than ever, I can relate with them. I mean, before, when we were all like pre-teens we were pretty awful to each other. Alex poured hot sauce in my eye on purpose. I've often provoked Lilly to the point of tears. That was back then, now we do it to each other and it's a lot more about connecting in some (slightly disturbing) way. Hey! Say what you will but my sisters and I have very healthy relationships where we feel we can share just about anything with each other. I can't count the times I've gone to Alex or Lilly to blab about something and have them politely *listen* to me and vice-versa. Oh! And if anyone so dares to mess with my sisters God help the person because you can't imagine what I will do to defend them. Soooo, yeah. I like my sisters. I maybe even love them.
That means I want them to live in a world where they have just as many opportunities as me. I want them to be successful, live happy lives, and never ever be harassed by anyone. The last thing I want is for some man to judge them on their looks and say they don't deserve a job or a raise or vacation or (God forbid) more maternity leave (should they ever decide they want to work AND be a parent.) I definitely don't want them thinking their lives are confined to any one career or that housekeeping/child raising is their mainstay. Thankfully my sisters are already smarter than that so I never worry about them. They're also hella tough so me worrying is more about trying to save face and act like I can actually contribute something.
Some people have argued the pay gap is made up. There is a victim-blaming mentality surrounding sexual assault and that's before we get to court sentencing. Personally, I don't really want to hear it. I came particularly close to punching a hole in my wall when an acquaintance posted a "the pay gap doesn't exist" Facebook status. I had a friend basically talk me out of the green raging Hulk mode back to puny Daniel Pappas. They have the right to say these things and I have the right to disagree. Vehemently.Look, let's put the statistics aside for a minute and just look at it on pure experience.
Like I said I grew up around women. I tend to get along particularly well with girls. It honestly took me forever to understand the "bro" mentality. I always thought it was weird when 'dudes' just started talking about 'dude things.' As if there was a difference between what guys talk about and what girls talk about (spoiler alert: there really isn't. At all.)
When I finally did catch on I hopped on the bro-train. I'm not entirely proud of it, but I have done and said a LOT of cliché 'Bro' things in the company of other men. I had a friend viciously remind me of what I was saying last summer and she made a very good point. If you don't think there's a sexism in our culture you only have to reflect on our words. And by 'our' I mean 'men' because when Men look back at what we say among each other we quickly realize it is not flattering at all.
Example: A groupchat between some friends of mine.
- There was to be a party and they wanted to invite some members of the opposite sex because.... Well, girls are way more interesting to talk to than a bunch of guys who already spend way too much time together.
- Someone said they were inviting a sports team and another one responded that these athletic women were gross.
- The 'joke' continued that these athletes didn't like the guy either.
- The conversation devolved from there until, when I finally checked it, the concept of 'scraps' was being thrown around.
Where was this coming from? I don't remember having a conversation so degrading. I corrected this conversation and the 'joke' died. Boys will be boys? Disgusting. Scraps? Who says that?
And yet, this isn't uncommon. "But I don't do that!" you might say. "Only messed-up men with problems would say something like that." you argue. America's a big country. Your little corner of 'polite respect' isn't the center of American pathos. You're not going to find a small community of sexist men and say they're the last remaining bastion of an old system. It's fair to say it's quite the opposite.
So what does this mean for me?
Well, in the film industry women are extremely disadvantaged. Wanna be a forty year old 'over weight' (don't even get me started on image issues) woman comedian? Forget about it. Those are long shot odds. Why? Why are women romantic attachments to male protagonists? Why do so few movies pass the now-infamous Bechdel test? Women-led board rooms are prone to making much smarter decisions financially. Female-led comedies are an untapped market that's proving to wield economic weight. More female filmmakers, actors, writers, DPs, sound mixers, all of it. Make a protagonist a woman. You'd be surprised how little your story changes. Does this disadvantage me as a white male filmmaker? Hell if I know. I'd like to think I'm being judged on the quality of my work, not my sex or race. If a woman can do something better than me I perfectly understand her getting the job.
Bechdel Test Search
Women deserve equal treatment. They deserve to be both rewarded and punished equally. They deserve all the opportunities I have. Is it a utopic ideal? Listen, there are a lot of things I recognize as my youthful naïveté speaking and this isn't one of them. I don't ever want to live in a world where young men have conversations about 'scraps' and they're talking about my sisters or any of my female friends. There would be hell to pay.
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| Aziz getting knowledge bombs dropped on him. |
Maybe you're struggling with a situation that's getting wildly out of control or you see something you don't know how to handle. Maybe it doesn't directly affect you but you want to help out. Ask yourself: What would I do if this was my sister? What would I say? It's as simple as that. I'm not advocating you start punching slightly creepy men around the office. I'd advocate you use protocol, tell somebody. Intervene directly if you have to but make sure you're doing it the right way. If you don't have any sisters then think about your closest friend-that's-a-girl. Don't have any friends that are female? Well then I truly pity you cause you are missing out on an incredibly enriching experience.
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For those of you reading who are willing to write off my John-Oliver-Vice-News-binge-watching liberal agenda, well, I tried. Appealing to your good nature may not work, but if I ever catch you saying something or doing something I think is not conducive to male-female relations I 100% will call you out and not feel guilty. You have been warned.
In the meantime, I'm going to shamelessly plug the It's Gonna Be Fine Productions team for their More Fem Com Please campaign. They are addressing this issue in a highly constructive manner. Comedy, obviously. But through film. They decided to make their own content to address this issue head-on. They're not out playing some cat-and-mouse-climb-the-ladder game so they can initiate change ten or twenty years down the road. They're doing it right here, right now. Not to mention the countless times they've helped me put together my projects. I won't lie: I write much differently now because of their influence.
Check out their website - It's Gonne Be Fine Productions
Buy some swag. Their tee shirts are smoother than a John Legend love ballad or Duke Silver jazz performance. Their films are comedic gold. (I know, I did some good work on Unemployed - although I didn't make the website credits.)
Thanks for reading this elaborate diatribe. If you disagree feel free to contact me. Me email should be somewhere on this page. Or just comment publicly (but don't be a jerk and post anonymously. If you're gonna call me out have the guts to do it in your own name.) Let's start a dialogue.
America, get ready, I'm fired up about your problems. Four months left to go. I'm coming home soon, and I'm coming home angry.
Daniel out.
*Mic drop*
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