Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
If the X-Men and Professor Charles Xavier have taught us anything, it’s that the hallmark quality of a hero is the ability to embrace ones difference and own it not as a weakness, but as a super power.
Take out the grandiose nature of a fictional universe and you realize that this is all just a simple commentary on self-acceptance.
It’s taken me 30 years to figure out self-acceptance, but for the first time in my life, I am really, truly aware of who I am. Part of that is knowing that I’m still changing and evolving. But there are definitely things that ring authentically true to my soul: I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a feminist and advocate for women. I’m a problem solver. I’m a director and storyteller. I’m an optimist. And I’m a lover. I love giving my heart and coming to deeply know and understand the hearts of the people I love.
But I also know what I’m not.
I’m not a caretaker. I’m not a complainer. I’m not patient or capable of pretending to be patient. I’m not always aware of the difference between being honest and being mean. And I’m not great at making other people feel needed.
Some of these things are things I can improve upon, but some of them I will never change. Just as Mystique struggles to accept the very skin she lives in, I’ve struggled for a long time to forgive myself for these flaws. Sure, it has not been through endless visits to dermatologists, but through quiet observation and reflection on what makes me happy. Only recently, I’ve discovered that living as I am is much more challenging, but so much more natural, then trying to fit the mold of what could be.
Put simply, I’ve decided to be painfully authentic.
I’ve had an insane amount of plane time lately, which means I can’t escape into tweets and instagrams when my mind goes idle, but it does mean that I find time to think about my life in a real way. Strangely, after one of the lowest periods of my life and even in light of some seriously painful repercussions from it, I am happier now that I’ve ever been. It would be easy to chalk it up to new business, a new lover and a change of season. But I believe it’s because living authentically is like living with a superpower.
If we frame superpowers as an ability that allows you to overcome seemingly impossible odds, well, it’s easy to want to live that way. In truth, authenticity is defined as: “ “ While I can’t argue with Merriam Webster, I think there’s something distinctly super human about it that can only be found deep within our souls and occasionally, in metaphors within our pop culture.
The thing about being authentic is that you KNOW when something feels true to who you are, internally and externally. When I think about my work as an entrepreneur, I know what comes naturally: choosing the right exposure for a shot, framing an image, writing a script. And I know what is truly difficult to tap into: managing budgets, improving our website and keeping up with all the emails. There’s a strange hum that happens to your very existence as a human when you are living in the first the scenario. Your heart and lungs seem to establish a harmonious rhythm. Your limbs become literal and metaphorical extensions of the flurry of thoughts passing through your mind. And your sense of time and place are opaque, barely visible because they don’t matter.
But put me in to the second scenario, the things that don’t come natural, and suddenly I’m clumsy. I’m more aware than ever of my physical being as I tense up from lack of comfort. My brain races, but not in a productive way, rather, in a way that is full of self-doubt and shame.
Doing the things that are authentically me actually make me FEEL better. Doing the things that don’t fit that description, well, they make me feel uneasy, insecure and uncertain.
The iconic embodiment of a hero is perhaps most compelling when they are feeling their very best. Spiderman is graceful as he swings from building to building, completely unaware of the physics around him. Wonder Woman is a natural with her lasso, as if it’s a limb that she, and only she, has mastered. On the other side of that imagery is the often comical interpretation of a hero losing their powers. In nearly every turn, these heroes suddenly become unsettled, incapable of their heroics and totally unsure of their place in the world. Thor can’t pick up his hammer. And Catwoman is slow and awkward. Sound familiar?
You and I will likely never wear a lycra suit to work. But we will be faced with the ongoing and consistent challenge to live our lives as our best selves. While I don’t believe that we can’t change, I do believe there is value in reflecting on and accepting when our talents and abilities align with our personal truths. Maybe then, we can turn our blazers into capes.
I’m tired of constantly pointing out sexism in the entertainment + media + production industry. At cocktail parties. In pitch meetings. In conversations with my team, my family, my friends and my mentors. It’s a seemingly endless well of awful that never runs dry. So much so, that a year ago, I straight up decided that I was only going to focus on the positive ways we can change the industry.
But today I’m going to have to step away from my previously valiant effort to talk about something that is so pervasive, and yet, so silent that it’s difficult to talk about. It’s about how we teach little boys and little girls to experience and process stories about the opposite gender. Specifically, it’s about how that phenomena negatively impacts how we view entertainment later in life and contributes to a silently socialized sexism that is almost impossible to call out.
Well, guess what: I’m calling it out.
Or at least I’m going to attempt to. In March of this year, the new Ghostbusters trailer was released to mixed reviews - for all of a minute. And then, the reviews turned ugly. So much so, that the trailer is now the most disliked movie trailer of all time, according to YouTube. What does that look like in real numbers? 841,930 Dislikes. If genuine fans of the original franchise were so hard up on repping the OG, then I guess I could see why they would feel the need to put down the reboot in the form of an internet thumbs down. But we all know that this is not where that story is going.
Since the trailer’s release, the film, the actors and director Paul Feig have been the targets of unprecedented negativity unlike any reboot has ever seen. I am going to call it bullying, because frankly, that’s what it is. I’m not going to give it the time of day by sharing some of the comments here, but if you want to, just look at the comments on ANY news story about Ghostbusters. If you’re not depressed after five minutes, you have a special talent. CBS News laid it out pretty simply:
“So what makes this trailer so much more objectionable than others, like the critically panned “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (16,495 dislikes) or last year’s “Fantastic Four” reboot (7,391 down-votes)?”
Keep in mind, we know just how bad the movies above are already. The negative reaction to Ghostbusters is based entirely on a 2 minute trailer which reveals very little about the actual plot of the movie. Who has ever said: “I loved the trailer, but hated the movie!” No one. Ever. In the history of time. As a result, it’s hard not to immediately assume that the negative reaction to the trailer and the film is based entirely on the gender of the people in it. And if you want to disagree, you can feel free to go check out all the comments on the video itself on YouTube. Again, I refuse to give those kinds of comments space on this blog, but they basically amount to a violent hatred of women having a role in the Ghostbusters franchise and how utterly unfunny the women in the film will be.
If you think that the reaction to Ghostbusters is a solitary one that is isolated to this individual reboot, I invite you to look at a similar phenomena recently uncovered by the data blog, FiveThirtyEight. It turns out that when men and women rate television shows on IMDB, women generally rate male-led programming the same way men do. But men? Well, men seem to apply a “lady-centric” de-merit to any television show that primarily features women. If Ghostbusters exists on the troll end of the spectrum, then the findings about television show ratings on IMDB may serve as a median. Specifically:
“Women gave their top 100 shows, on average, a 7.8 rating, about the same score they gave the top 100 male-dominated programs, 8.0. …Men gave their top 100 an average score of 8.2 but gave the top 100 female-skewed shows a mere 6.9 average ratings. Shows with more than 10,000 ratings are inherently popular and yet men thought the programs in that group that skew female were below average.”
Does this apply to all men? No. #NOTALLMEN. Amen. But, when looking at data in aggregate of larger cultural phenomena around the preferences of male and female consumers, it’s important to note that outliers are not the story. And while the screaming trolls on YouTube might also be another kind of outlier, the nature of anonymous points-based reviewing that doesn’t require prosaic use of the comments section to share sexist slurs, reveals how the male community at large generally views programming that primarily casts the opposite sex. It doesn’t mean they are misogynist. It doesn’t mean they are sexist. It doesn’t mean they are bad people. What it means is that at some point, they are taught that shows about women are somehow not capable of being analyzed and reviewed in the same objective way. And that somehow, the factor that determines “how good” a show is, is in part, determined by the sex of the stars.
What FiveThirtyEight’s analysis doesn’t reveal is whether or not these men and women actually watched the shows in question. However, I think there’s one subset of data that they didn’t really dive deeply into that really highlights just how actively a certain subset of male internet users will go to ensure that the qualitative rating of entertainment featuring women is exceptionally lower than that of their male-starring programming. Looking at shows with more than 10,000 user reviews on IMDB, there are only 2 shows that women rated a full point lower than men. One of them is Beavis and Butt-Head. The other is Star Wars: Clone Wars. However, the list of shows that men rated a full single point lower than women rated them? 50. FIFTY FREAKING SHOWS.
Amongst these shows is Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which I have to point out featured a younger Paul Feig as science teacher Mr. Pool. But you probably won’t be surprised to find nearly every single Shonda Rhimes show on the list, either.
If you’ve stuck with me this long, congratulations. I’m finally going to make my larger point. Thank you. Thank you for being patient.
This behavior, this seemingly latent “female deduction” that happens to our entertainment does not happen in a vacuum. For years, our media has been asking the obnoxious question of: Can women be funny? I contend that what we are actually dealing with on a cultural level is much more negative. The real question is: Are women ALLOWED to be funny in our entertainment? And that doesn’t just happen. That is socialized in us from a very young age.
So, where does this come from? Bold statement time: Children’s freaking books.
A few years ago, J.K. Rowling made news when she revealed that her publisher had asked to her change her name to the more male sounding “J.K” for the Harry Potter series for fear that little boys wouldn’t pick up a book written by a woman. And while that story is a perfect illustration of just how subliminal this kind of subtle sexism has been in publishing, I contend that little boys are taught from a very early age that stories about women are rare and not for them. This is not necessarily explicitly said. Rather, this is implicitly indicated by the sheer volume and exposure to the kinds of stories that are told. Little girls? Well, there are no options. So nearly every story is for them. And the data backs this up. Unsurprisingly, this goes ALL the way back to your picture books.
As the Wall Street Journal reports:
“A 2011 Florida State University study found that just 7.5 percent of nearly 6,000 picture books published between 1900 and 2000 depict female animal protagonists. … No more than 33 percent of children’s books in any given year featured an adult woman or female animal, but adult men and male animals appeared in 100 percent of the books.”
When only 7% of children’s picture books feature female characters, female characters become abnormal. If something is abnormal, it isn’t widely accepted. And if that precedent begins before you can even read or write, you are bound to start to have some unconscious bias. In fact, research finds that this bias sets in by the time boys are in the fourth grade:
“Two studies, one from 1978 and one from 1988, did find that boys expressed a preference for male characters, but the youngest age group studied was the fourth grade, at which point it is impossible to separate nature from nurture.”
Let me reiterate that this is not all men. I know plenty of men who love shows and movies starring women. But this is a ground up problem. This starts from before the moment a child is born when books are wrapped and packaged and delivered to waiting parents eager to raise smart and well-balanced kids.
How can we possibly expect Hollywood to change if we teach little boys from the time they learn their very first words that female characters are not the norm? How can we expect a Ghostbusters reboot to receive the same warm reception as a Jurassic Park remake in a culture that celebrates male heroism and applies sex-based penalties to media starring women? And how can we expect female storytellers to receive opportunities from the powers that be when the socialized belief amongst 50% of the population is that women’s stories are unpopular before they’ve even seen it?
We can’t.
We must be better. And it starts with little boys.
This week we released another beautiful sizzle reel at Mighteor. And when my team put the first cut in front of me, I noticed something that made my heart really happy: there was actual, meaningful representation in the piece. Women in their 40s. Teenage girls. Women of mixed race backgrounds. Asian women. I told them to cut out all the product imagery and just focus on my favorite shots of women, because you know what, women need more representation. Even if it’s just in our summer sizzle reel.
Too often, in marketing and advertising, I see the same casting requirements that are popular in film and television: thin, tall, young, blonde. To often I have heard people with power in these creative settings say: “We are going to give the client what they want.” And you know, I get that idea. But to be frank, if we are responsible for crafting the image, we are ALSO responsible for making the case for why the imagery SHOULD BE and WOULD BE made better in part because of diverse casting.
Do we have even further to go at Mighteor? Absolutely. We’re not perfect, but we’re constantly pushing for more. And it’s MY job as our CEO to do so. I hope to see more women in the 60+ set, for example, in future projects. After all, a huge part of the problem with the way women are represented in media has to do with the disappearance of women who are over the age of 40.
As creators, we must ask ourselves really hard questions about why we lean on certain types of imagery or visual cues. Do we do these things because they make our projects better? Or do we do them because we are used to seeing them? It’s amazing what the power of suggestion can do to alter our own perception of where our creative energy comes from. It’s not a mystery that nearly every tech product video comes with a request for a “clean crisp white background with a little indie ukulele in the music behind it” - you can thank Apple for that.
The same can be said for humans. If you see a type of human over and over and over - you start to become accustomed to a certain type of body or a certain type of face. No wonder we have a culture that is obsessed with thinness. And if you think the movie pictures are the only ones to blame, you’re kidding yourself.
Marketers. Commercial directors. Art directors. We are to blame if we perpetuate the same old.
This is partially a challenge to myself and partially a challenge to all of us. We may not even realize what biases we hold. And checking them or reviewing your own work with a very critical eye may reveal where we have room to improve.
This whole thing started with a mission: support female led films on opening weekend whenever possible.* If you want to read more about why, you can read that post here.
You know what the funny thing about doing this month after month? You discover that there are movie titles you are SURE are directed by or written by women. It seems so obvious that they would be. For example, this month’s “Mother’s Day” (April 29th) isn’t on the list because… you guessed it: A movie specifically designed to come out the week before Mother’s day isn’t written or directed by a woman. Luckily, there are a few other films worth checking out instead.
APRIL 1st:
They Will Have to Kill Us First (Directed By: Joanna Schwartz)
Musicians unite to organize a concert in Timbuktu, Mali, after Islamic extremists ban all forms of music in the country.
APRIL 8th:
The Boss (Starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Bell)
Wealthy mogul Michelle Darnell always gets her way, until she’s busted for insider trading and sent to federal prison. After leaving jail, Darnell finds herself broke, homeless and hated. Luckily, she tracks down former assistant Claire, the only person who’s willing to help. While staying with Claire and her young daughter, the ex-con devises a new business model for a Brownie empire. Unfortunately, some old enemies stand in the way of her return to the top.
The Invitation (Directed by Karyn Kusama)
While attending a dinner party at his former house, a man starts to believe that his ex-wife and her new husband have sinister plans for the guests.
APRIL 15th:
Hostile Border (Written by Kaitlin McLaughlin and Starring Veronica Sixtos)
Raised in the U.S., Claudia is an undocumented illegal immigrant living beyond her means in a twisted version of the American dream. When she’s arrested by the FBI for credit card fraud, Claudia is quickly deported to Mexico. Speaking no Spanish and lost in her foreign “homeland,” she reluctantly takes refuge at her estranged father’s cattle ranch. As she clashes with her unyielding father, she her attempts to return to the U.S. thrust her into a dangerous bond with a foreign smuggler, Ricky. Caught between her father’s sermons, Ricky’s promises, and the encroaching military, Claudia must navigate a tightrope of impossible choices.
The Adderral Diaries (Directed and Written by Pamela Romanowsky)
Writer and Adderall enthusiast Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his writing. Adrift in the precarious gray area of memory, Stephen is led by three sources of inspiration: a new romance, the best friend who shares his history, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story.
APRIL 22nd:
The Meddler (Directed and Written by Lorene Scafaria and Starring Susan Sarandon)
After the death of her husband, a woman moves from New Jersey to Los Angeles to be closer to her daughter.
Nina (Directed by Cynthia Mort and Starring Zoe Saldana)
Manager Clifton Henderson helps singer and pianist Nina Simone rediscover her love for music.
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One additional note before I go: I am not able to tell you if these movies are objectively good or feminist friendly, as I have not seen all of them. The point of this list is to give you a place to start. The truth is that we don’t have a lot to choose from, but part of the battle is giving you the information. Information is power. However, shared knowledge is also key. So if you see one of these films or have seen an early screening, please let us know if you recommend it or not in the comments.
This whole thing started with a mission: support female led films on opening weekend whenever possible.* If you want to read more about why, you can read that post here.
Now that the Oscars are over, we are about to hit a real serious slump in the quality of movie offerings in our local cinemas. But fear not, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is coming back to remind us just how funny family comedies can be. I’m not even kidding. I’m super stoked for this movie. Really. Seriously.
MARCH 4th:
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (Starring Tina Fey)
When reporter Kim Barker’s life needs something more, she decides to ‘shake it all up’ by taking an assignment in a war zone. There, in the midst of chaos, she finds the strength she never knew she had. Sometimes it takes saying 'WTF’ to find the life you were always destined to have.
They Will Have to Kill Us First (Directed by Johanna Schwartz)
Musicians unite to organize a concert in Timbuktu, Mali, after Islamic extremists ban all forms of music in the country.
MARCH 11th:
Hello, My Name is Doris (Written by Laura Terruso and Starring Sally Field)
With help from her best friend’s (Tyne Daly) granddaughter (Isabella Acres), a smitten woman (Sally Field) concocts schemes to get the attention of a younger co-worker (Max Greenfield) in her office.
About Scout (Directed by Laurie Weltz and introducing India Ennenga)
A rebellious Goth girl embarks on a road trip across Texas with a suicidal young man in an effort to find her little sister.
Lolo (Directed by Julie Deply)
A workaholic in the fashion industry surprises herself by falling for a computer geek.
MARCH 18th:
Sweet Bean (Directed by Naomi Kawase)
Sentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayakis—pastries filled with sweet red bean paste. When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen, he reluctantly accepts.
MARCH 25th:
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (Written by and Starring Nia Vardalos)
The Portokalos family gathers for a massive wedding after Toula’s (Nia Vardalos) parents learn that they were never legally married.
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One additional note before I go: I am not able to tell you if these movies are objectively good or feminist friendly, as I have not seen all of them. The point of this list is to give you a place to start. The truth is that we don’t have a lot to choose from, but part of the battle is giving you the information. Information is power. However, shared knowledge is also key. So if you see one of these films or have seen an early screening, please let us know if you recommend it or not in the comments.
