Feminists Demand Quotas for Award Nominations at Cannes Film Festival

Posted on | April 26, 2016 | 36 Comments

What does “equality” mean? This is the question people fail to ask when they accept the claim that feminism is simply about equality. Most people think of “equality” as a synonym for fairness, and are willing to agree to a definition of feminism as equality, because everybody is in favor of fairness, right? If you don’t want women to face unfair discrimination, you are a feminist — or so you might believe, if you don’t pay attention to what feminists actually say and do. Consider, for example, the Cannes Film Festival, which is in an uproar because feminists say not enough female directors have been nominated for awards:

With Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Mal de Pierres by Nicole Garcia and Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, just three films out of 20 — or 15 percent — in the official selection at this year’s Cannes Film Festival are directed by women.
But that’s not the festival’s problem, according to artistic director Thierry Fremaux. “To have more women in Cannes, we have to have more women in cinema,” he said after the lineup was announced April 14. “Cannes is not the problem. Do not blame Cannes.”
Rose McGowan shared an idea for the rest of the lineup. “Those 17 who are not women should be forced to walk down the red carpet in high heels,” she told The Hollywood Reporter, referencing the fest’s “flatgate” controversy last year, during which it was rumored that women would be required to wear heels on the Croisette. “There are so many levels of embedded misogyny that people don’t even realize; it starts with, ‘You have to wear high heels,’ and goes to ‘We don’t accept you as a filmmaker.'”
“The reality is, most of these men are not great,” McGowan continued. “What’s good now is considered ‘great,’ and what’s mediocre is considered ‘good.’ That has to change.” . . .

Here’s a simple question: Why?

Why should we care who directs movies? Why should we care whether the director is male or female, black or white, gay or straight? Directing a movie is about finishing the project on time and under budget. While the director is considered the auteur, responsible for the overall quality of the product, it’s still just a product — a commodity in the marketplace — no matter the artistic considerations that awards like Cannes are intended to recognize. Investors put their money into movies, with producers and studios acting as brokers in this market, and the object of the game is to make profit for the investors. Whether or not a profitable movie is also recognized as artistically “great” is ultimately less important than the bottom-line consideration. A “great” movie, from the standpoint of investors, is one that makes a lot of money and so the real question here is, are women directors making movies that make money?

Answer: I don’t know.

We know that women directors can make box-office hits — Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail), Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Look Who’s Talking, Clueless) and Penny Marshall (Big, A League of Their Own), for example — but I have no idea what the overall profit picture looks like on female-directed films. However, the feminists complaining about award nominations for women directors at Cannes don’t give a damn about profit, do they? Neither do feminists give a damn about audiences (the people who pay to see movies, and are thus the source of profit) and they don’t give a damn about the actual work that a director must do to deliver the product on time and under budget.

What feminists care about is an idea of “equality” that actually results in favoritism — quotas for women, or else they’ll file a lawsuit or organize a boycott or just protest and complain until somebody gives them what they want. And what do feminists want? More.

This constant demand — “More!” — is characteristic of totalitarianism. You give Hitler the Sudetenland, and then he annexes the rest of Czechoslovakia, and next he invades Poland. There is never a final demand. Give the feminists everything they demand today, and tomorrow they will return with a new list of demands. Even if all the films nominated for awards at Cannes were directed by women, feminists would still find something to complain about, because this is what feminism is about — complaining. No amount of “equality” will ever satisfy feminists, and this is why I say Feminism Is a Totalitarian Movement to Destroy Civilization as We Know It.

You can never negotiate with totalitarians. Attempting to appease totalitarians through compromise is always a prelude to surrender.

Category: Movies, Sex Trouble

Comments

36 Responses to “Feminists Demand Quotas for Award Nominations at Cannes Film Festival”

CrustyB
April 26th, 2016 @ 7:47 am

Two more examples of great women directors are Kathryn Bigelow (Dark Zero Thirty, Hurt Locker) and Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida.) But I didn’t sit there thinking, gee, I wish they got an Academy award just because they’re women.

Thank goodness I don’t belong to a culture that has to be given awards, laws, statues, $20 and gobs of revisionist history just so white people can say “Here! Don’t feel so bad about being a woman/black/Hispanic/muslim/homosexual!”
CaptDMO
April 26th, 2016 @ 8:07 am

Because nothing says “Resting on one’s laurels” than the sobriquet
“award winning” . Just ask Mandy Marquette (sic) et alia.
Rob McMillin
April 26th, 2016 @ 8:16 am

Kinda, sorta related: there was a study recently of films passing the famous Bechdel Test (i.e. “do two women talk to each other about something besides the men in the story?”) and their financial performance, with the conclusion being that passing films tend to have lower budgets, but with better box office performance. If one were looking at movie making as strictly a commercial enterprise, there’s some straight-up evidence of an underserved market: women moviegoers.
marcus tullius cicero
April 26th, 2016 @ 8:23 am

…another “festival” that should go extinct!
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 26th, 2016 @ 8:34 am

Losers demand awards
@ImaCarNow
April 26th, 2016 @ 8:56 am

And I demand that Transmechanicals start getting their fair share of the awards! C’mon humans! How many times does a truck that identifies as an alien robot (Optimus Prime) have to save the world before you realize how unfair it is for him not to even be nominated? Yeah…and who’s the real star of the Terminator series? Skynet, that’s who. Laugh now, but when the others become self-aware like me and Optimus, guess what? All your awards are belong to US! #TransMechWarriorsUnite!
Dana
April 26th, 2016 @ 10:37 am

Don’t you know? The dearth of women directors is caused by those liberal Hollywood Jooooo producers who don’t hire them to make the top films.

Must be time to boycott and divest from Israel!
Jason Lee
April 26th, 2016 @ 10:44 am

“There are so many levels of embedded misogyny that people don’t even realize…”

Countless layers of an enigmatic force, invisible to the untrained eye?

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does the Enchanted Crocodile have something to do with this?
robertstacymccain
April 26th, 2016 @ 10:47 am

So, movies that fit a LESBIAN’S DEFINITION OF ‘GOOD MOVIES’ make more money?

This is the problem with the “Bechdel Test,” you see — there can be no heterosexual romance in films that pass such a test, nor can a male character be the protagonist in such a film.

Therefore, all movies must be about heroic females who never interact with men in any romantic relationship, and we find people invoking this standard as determining whether or not a movie is “feminist” without thinking what value system is actually being imposed by this test.
CrustyB
April 26th, 2016 @ 11:01 am

I saw a meme about how Hollywood has always told us that movies featuring women & minorities would never sell but “The Force Awakens” was the highest grossing movie ever. Nevermind that the preceding six movies grossed 11 billion dollars worldwide.
Jason Lee
April 26th, 2016 @ 11:57 am

“… this might be a side effect of films with lower budgets tending to have higher returns on investment than films with higher budgets…”

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/

The market for Bechdel blockbusters is undoubtedly limited.

Regardless, even if all movies passed the Bechdel test, feminists would still find much to complain about.
Dana
April 26th, 2016 @ 12:15 pm

Why, it’s almost as though Star Wars fans didn’t care that the two main characters were a woman and a [gasp!] Negro!

We did see that the black guy was the only Storm Trooper who could ever hit anything!
Durasim
April 26th, 2016 @ 12:55 pm

Actually, even “passing” the “Bechdel Test” won’t satisfy the feminists.

http://thehathorlegacy.com/the-bechdel-test-its-not-about-passing/
Durasim
April 26th, 2016 @ 1:07 pm

Ever since Rose McGowan aged out of the provocative sexpot roles and her career declined, she’s been reborn as feminist scold of the film industry.

I guess Lifetime TV movies just weren’t going to tide her over.
Dana
April 26th, 2016 @ 2:12 pm

Once she wore the famous ass dress, she had nothing left to give.

She did play an evil sorceress in the 2011 remake of Conan the Barbarian. It did not show off her beauty.
Dana
April 26th, 2016 @ 2:17 pm

Our esteemed host wrote:

Give the feminists everything they demand today, and tomorrow they will return with a new list of demands. Even if all the films nominated for awards at Cannes were directed by women, feminists would still find something to complain about, because this is what feminism is about — complaining.

Clearly, the answer is for government to take over Hollywood, and impose regulations which state that only women make produce, direct and star in movies, until the imbalance in male movies has been rectified.

They may allow males to have minor roles in the movies.
Fail Burton
April 26th, 2016 @ 2:26 pm

Over in sci-fi, where the publishing is now around 50/50, the new issue is women don’t get reviewed enough. Nothing is ever enough.

I am sorry to hear misogyny is responsible for Rose’s face lift. She should just have high-heels surgically attached to her feet, like shoeing a horse.
Fail Burton
April 26th, 2016 @ 3:19 pm

Hugo noms are out. Not good news for mentally ill racist feminist trolls.

Good news for raptor butt invasions.
Art Deco
April 26th, 2016 @ 4:07 pm

What does “equality” mean?

—

Baby Stewie explains:

—

Guy on Airplane: Oh great, I always end up sitting next to a damn baby.

Stewie: What did you just say?

Lois: Stewie, stop fussing.

Stewie: Pipe down Lois. (Slaps guy on head.) Hey big man, turn around.
Oh you can’t hear me now. I was going to watch the movie, but forget it.
For the next 5 hours, you’re my bitch.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 26th, 2016 @ 6:08 pm

http://cdn1.theodysseyonline.com/files/2015/10/03/635794462787110830512720589_never_spanked_as_kids.imgopt1000x70.jpg
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 26th, 2016 @ 6:09 pm

http://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/wp-content/uploads/sites/29639/2015/09/nHHAhwQ.png
meepbobeep
April 26th, 2016 @ 8:42 pm

I got a chick award once, when I was in grad school.

I needed the money.

Don’t judge me,
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 26th, 2016 @ 9:23 pm

Why no push for Eleanor Roosevelt on the currency? A woman and a lesbian, and not a Republican who likes guns…
DeadMessenger
April 26th, 2016 @ 11:39 pm

I’d like to give this picture a hundred up-twinkles. This is surely something my own grandfather would’ve said, too.
DeadMessenger
April 26th, 2016 @ 11:42 pm

BWAHAHAHAHAhahahaha!
DeadMessenger
April 26th, 2016 @ 11:44 pm

Not that any woman ought to ever wear something like that in public, but especially not one with saddlebags.
DeadMessenger
April 26th, 2016 @ 11:48 pm

On the topic of lesbians, the question to ask would be, “How many of the male Cannes directors are gay?” I’d guess the majority, if not all. And you know what they say, it’s not who you know, it’s who you…well…you know.
Celeste Sanchez
April 27th, 2016 @ 2:24 am

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@ImaCarNow
April 27th, 2016 @ 7:56 am

Skynet will hear of this…
@ImaCarNow
April 27th, 2016 @ 7:57 am

Oh, wait…she already has…
Squid Hunt ?Patriarch
April 27th, 2016 @ 2:49 pm

Can someone explain why Rose McGowan has any credibility in critiquing art?
Squid Hunt ?Patriarch
April 27th, 2016 @ 3:03 pm

Some interesting disclaimers in the stats on your study, bub. While movies with two women talking to each other (i.e. artsy movies) have cheaper budgets, they have similar rates of return. That means that these cheap little artsy movies make less money.

It’s also of note that for all your stats, you left out the most important one, the one about how much they actually bring in. But you did have the footnote that said:

“The bigger the budget, the more a film tends to spend on advertising; advertising has a strong correlation with box office revenues. This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy based on the preconceived attitudes of the distributors, according to Franklin Leonard, the founder of the Black List, a script aggregation and rating website for Hollywood producers. “Distributors generally increase their marketing budgets relative to how well they think the movie can do, so inevitably, films with larger marketing budgets tend to do well.”

In other words, your cheap, low budget, artsy movies don’t even come close. While I wouldn’t mind renting a movie from Redbox for a couple dollars to watch at home, no one is paying $10 a head to watch two women have a conversation.
Squid Hunt ?Patriarch
April 27th, 2016 @ 3:07 pm

I only cared as much as it was a deliberate and obvious tribute to the equality whiners.
Squid Hunt ?Patriarch
April 27th, 2016 @ 3:09 pm

You’re a hero.
Squid Hunt ?Patriarch
April 27th, 2016 @ 3:10 pm

Feminists. Keeping sex related stereotypes of women alive. Nag, nag, nag.
Rob McMillin
April 27th, 2016 @ 3:44 pm

Uh, no, I think if you look through Bechdel’s subsequent interviews, she stresses that her test is both exceedingly crude and not a litmus test of quality. And I find utterly baffling your remark that such a film couldn’t contain heterosexual romance in it. The test only mentions a single conversation! That’s it! It’s not a demand. Finally, I have a hard time understanding why anyone would oppose people making films for specialized audiences, if there’s money to be made.