Sexist America, Racist Hollywood
by Jaden
Since the dawn of my website Screenwriting for Hollywood, I wanted to write about prejudice in Hollywood, but was advised against it.
Good table manners, right? Do not discuss politics, religion, money, or sex.
Uh oh, here we go…
With America’s most controversial election on the horizon, what better time to talk about racism and sexism in Hollywood?
Reality is not what you see on the screen. Even shows that call themselves “reality shows” are selective and manipulating.
Movies and TV do not accurately reflect America’s population when it comes to race, gender, career, and crime. Characters are often unrealistic stereotypes that aid to suppress certain groups of people.
Due to this year’s presidential candidates, I have heard many racist and sexist jokes. My first thought is: Clearly, you didn’t go to college. Yet, truth is, a lot of these people did go to college.
Many years ago, I co-wrote a script with two female lead characters. A reader at ICM (International Creative Management) who gave coverage on it said that scripts like ours would never exist if it were not for Sex and the City.
Hmmmm, I am a female living in Hollywood, is it really that strange that I would write a story about women in a big city?
Aside of having strong female leads and being in a city, nothing else in the script was like Sex and the City. Our characters are a generation younger and wander through the gritty underbelly of a city, not the upscale shi-shi side of Manhattan. The female and male characters are based on real people and many of the incidents are true, yet the reader said they are unbelievable.
There are millions of women who live in big cities, yet we can only have the one specific subculture that is represented in Sex and the City?
Talk about being put in a box!
A large untapped market of women would pay to see stories to which they can relate, stories written by women for women. I’m not talking about Lifetime television movies wherein all the women get stalked and killed. I’m talking about real inspiring women and fun stories that men can enjoy too.
The new box for any female screenwriter trying to break into Hollywood is the stripper blogger Diablo Cody Juno box. Now, female writers would not exist if it were not for her, right?
Half the population are women!
In 80 years of Academy Awards, from what I can gather, only three women without male writing partners have won an Oscar for writing and zero non-white male.
In 1930 and 1932, Frances Marion won for her scripts The Big House and The Champ. 71 years went by before the next solo female writer was to win. Sofia Coppola, daughter of the famous award-winning father Francis Coppola, won for Lost in Translation in 2003. And for Juno, Diablo Cody won in 2007.
In 219 years in America, all the presidents have been Caucasian men.
Racism, sexism, xenophobia, and many other prejudice are alive and sustaining. When you decide to take up a career in Hollywood, be prepared for this road block.
My modest estimate from working in Hollywood for a decade is that 85% of screenwriters and directors are white male. It is a boy’s club to be sure.
For the few race and gender exceptions who break through, seldom are they recognized for their talents, and often they are picked apart and scrutinized.
One of the most beautiful, creative, and intelligent films I have seen is Frida, for which director Julie Taymor did not get nominated.
Endless untapped talent is ignored and rejected out of fear and ignorance.
Who do you envision as a terrorist? Who plays the funny sidekick? Who is the drug dealer? Who plays a thief? How about the gangster? What people are needy and weak? Who knows martial arts? What is a sexy line of work? What color does the bad guy wear? What color does the good guy wear?
Each of those questions prompts a stereotypical image in your mind of a specific race and gender; how do you think those images got in your mind and who put them there?
If you don’t know drug dealers, don’t write about them, because in my hometown, the drug dealers were not Black, they were Caucasian.
If you are going to write about strippers, you ought to know some, because you will see that they are not all pretty and their lives are far from glamorous.
If you are going to write about terrorists, go beyond what is current propaganda, because all the Middle Easterners I know are spiritual loving prosperous Americans who deserve kindness from their neighbors, not suspicion and crappy movie roles.
One successful Iraqi man I know living in Hollywood (who looks just as white as any European and uses a fictitious name, like half the Hollywood Middle Easterners I know) recently lost nearly all of his family to the hands of Americans in his homeland. With sadness in his heart, he holds no grudge and comes to work everyday with a smile on his face, glad he is alive and in a position to make money to send back home to the remaining survivors.
You will not see current heartbreaking stories like these on the screen because America and Hollywood do not want you to know. Furthermore, the American public will not pay to see such movies when they are losing their own sons and need an enemy for justification.
As a screenwriter selling to Hollywood, don’t sell your soul by being part of the suppression machine that teaches hate to the subconscious. Know about what you are writing from first-hand experience. Turn stereotypes upside down. Dig deep in your research. Let the light shine.
A commendable war film project directed by Clint Eastwood are the two films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. With an honest and respectful approach, two entire films are dedicated to showing the perspective of each side, the Americans and the Japanese. This is a beautiful endeavor.
For screenwriters who are not white male and not in a position of power, I strongly suggest making your own films. With today’s technology and the Internet, cost of filmmaking is affordable, and the want of the public will speak for itself.
Choose to have a positive effect on the world.
[In the comments section, you may read additional discussion brought forth by Friar about the overplayed stereotypes placed upon white men.]
Sunday Picture Post 15 / Fruit Loops
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: FRUIT LOOPS
Think about Fruit Loops for a while and go write something original.
If You Like Mexican Emo Wars, You Will Also Like…
by Jaden
The strangest news I have read this year was about the emo riots and protests in Mexico.
Who knew emo existed in Mexico? And why would anyone care enough to fight over it?
Metalheads, punkrockers, rockabillies, any group who considers themselves über-tough and virile, join forces to battle the nice skinny-pant emo.
When you speak the same language and have the same color skin, I guess you have to find other things about which to fight, like hairstyles, fabric colors, and music.
You can read more about emo violence in Mexico on Time or Wired.
What is emo?
Six years ago, my little brother called me emo, which I didn’t understand, nor did he, really, because he couldn’t explain it.
Looking up emo online, every website had different unrelated definitions and mentioned a smattering of bands whose music was definitely not in my iTunes library.
Since then, emo has refined its look, its sound, and its mood.
Wikipedia starts its emo profile by saying it is a “style of hardcore punk.” Ha! Please! Emo is not hardcore punk, nor is it independent, considering that major labels are putting out this conformist formulaic music. Emo is widespread and international. Way down on the Wikipedia page, in the “Third Wave (2000- present)” and “Fashion and Stereotype” sections, there is a proper description of today’s emo.
Emo looks like a retrofitted gothic glam rocker wearing a sad emotional face expression ’cause life sucks.
Emosexuals are not as clean, aged, or affluent as metrosexuals, but due to their attention to fashion and sensitive nature, they are just as ambiguously straight, wherein lies the social conflict.
Being fashion conscious is nothing new for men and it by no means signals homosexuality.
Take our first president of the United States, George Washington, he was a pretty fashion-savvy guy. Bet he had manicures and curled his hair.
Macho Mexico could resolve the effeminate problem in a non-violent way by doing what England did in 1795 to those big white curly hair powdered wigs that were so popular — tax them! That’s a sure way to kill a trend. Look at what taxing cigarettes did for smoking. Or how about those taxes on the sex industry? Just put an extra tax on tight pants and black hair dye.
If Mexico takes it too far and makes emo illegal, the emo underground market would explode to huge proportions. Americans would sneak sad songs across the border to fulfill the need.
If you are into good ol’ fashion gang rivalry, here are some classic movies to watch:
The Outsiders (1983)
West Side Story (1961)
Crybaby (1990)
Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
Grease (1978)
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[Please read in the comments section from Shaner an excellent explanation of emo: existentialism, suicide, and how it developed to be so absurd and bleak today.]
Sunday Picture Post 14 / The Manimal
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: THE MANIMAL
A fun technique that I call the MANimal for building characters is to either 1) attribute animal traits to a human character, or 2) attribute human traits to an animal character.
The manimal technique is usually best used with comedies, but can be done with any genre, mystery, crime, and romance.
You can practice with the above image.
Of what type of dog does the man make you think?
What type of human does the dog summon to mind?
Now make up some new traits for both the dog and the man.
Give the dog some human traits — he clearly likes to ride scooters.
Give the man some dog traits — say, he likes sniffing butts, which gets him into trouble with the authorities.
It’s fun. You try it now.
Let’s see if any of you can come up with a story more interesting than the true story of this guy, which I will add as a comment here next week.
What You Don’t Know About Juno
by Jaden
A dear family friend casually gave me a few unlabeled corked bottles of red wine recently. Opening the first bottle with some friends in Hollywood, we laughed as we caught the German stealing each of our fuller glasses. “Hey, that’s my glass!”
Without a label, without a price tag, we all sensed this wine was phenomenal. We guzzled it up and enjoyed it, knowing nothing about it.
“That wine you gave me is incredible, what’s the story?” I asked the giver. He was happy that I recognized its excellence and told me the interesting story of the European vines.
Grown on his small family-run vineyard in Sonoma county, an exclusive buyer slaps on a label and sells each bottle for $160 a pop.
I was moved by the giver’s humble quiet offering. He gave me this valuable gift (3 bottles, mind you, that’s $480 retail value!) with no explanation and no expectation of praise or recompense. All he said at the time was, “Here, have some bottles of wine.” And all I said was, “Thanks.” It was a beautiful motion.
Tonight, knowing the price, I am finishing off alone a second bottle that I had opened with a loved one. (Two small glasses, ok? Sheesh, calm down. Somebody has to finish it before it goes bad.)
I need a break! Everyday I write, write, write, chasing my silly dreams. Just stop! I told myself. Stop, sit down, and relax. You’re going crazy.
Ok. Ok. I’ll stop, for 11 minutes.
Sitting down with my special wine, I cracked open a book I had bought as a gift, one of those kinds of gifts with which I am having a hard time parting, The Book of Goddesses: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine, written and illustrated by Kris Waldherr.
Clearly, I am not resting, I am writing again, but I can’t help myself, that’s what I do. I write. I write and I write.
I was ranting earlier in a different post that I have postponed until I can put a positive spin on it — though racism is hard to spin positively. Once I post that diatribe, some fly-by commenter will probably tell me I need a shag again.
Looking at the Contents section of the Goddesses book, I was browsing to see about which goddess I wanted to read. Who would inspire me?
Juno, page 57, jumped out at me. Juno is a goddess? Who knew?!
Reading the chapter, it looks like the goddess
Juno worked her magick for screenwriter Ms. Cody with “bright offerings of money.”
“Juno was often invoked by young couples yearning for children, as well as by mothers laboring in childbirth.”
That sounds like a pitch for the movie Juno.
“Juno was believed to watch and protect all women from their first to last breath.”
To be honest, the title and weird name Juno had bugged me, until now. Reading about the goddess Juno, I can only assume Ms. Cody was well aware of the meaning when she chose the name and title for her screenplay. The depth of the name pleases me, as does the little coincidence that Ms. Cody, a woman, got rich and famous from invoking the goddess Juno in her work.
Forget the buckets of money and child-rearing, I think I am going to start writing the screenplay 
Hsi Wang Mu, based on the goddess of eternal life who dwells on Jade Mountain — and then I will live forever!
Here’s the story… Hsi Wang Mu used to be the goddess of plague and sickness, you see, but she goes on MTV’s Extreme Goddess Makeover.
“Let’s put a positive spin on that mortality stuff, eh, Ms. Mu? How about immortality instead? Death is death. Cup is half full or half empty, same thing, same cup, different marketing approach. You want people to feel good about dying.”
–”Ok. Sound good. You taste my peach; I give you tree tauwzan more year to live for being so nice.”
“You think I’m going to fall for that old trick? No thanks, Ms. Mu. You kind of remind me of this girl Eve we had in here last week from the Middle East. Eve and her friggin apples. Didn’t want her apples, don’t want your peach.”
–”Dat’s cuz you gay.”
“Funny. I’d rather have my own show than your peach. No offense, Ms. Mu. Ok, here, now, lay down and stop talking, let your mud mask dry. Hey J Maf, you doing the pedicure or what?”
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Any wonder who was the man who gave me wine like it was water?
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