pour myself a cup of ambition
women in the workplace as depicted on film
cinema can + will + should + does glamorize everything it can get its filthy paws on; from little league ball, to being stranded on a remote island, to the papacy. even nine-to-five jobs are not safe!
i never saw myself working in an office but i’ve always loved editing little movies. it wasn’t until film school that i realized how comfortable a job in post-production would be, with the big windows and the endless supply of coffee and the ergonomic computer mouse that conforms to your lego-person-shaped hand. i’d take sitting-standing-sitting at a desk over a 16hr back-breaking production day any day. now that i work a nine-to-five as an editor (!) i find myself drawn to what the movies are saying about labor + working women.
as splicing film reels was seen as akin to sewing or secretarial work, women were hired to edit movies since the earliest days of film history; of course, this was before editing was recognized for the creative + technical prowess required to bend + alter spacetime, manipulate psychologies, and keep up the pace. historically uncredited and severely under-appreciated, it’s the editor who sculpts out rhythm + tone, combines + amplifies the artistry of others and solidifies herself as the final author of a film. an invisible art: great editing goes unnoticed, and great editors alchemize performances (acting, camera & otherwise) into something greater than the sum of its parts.
the ratio of female:male editors today is actually 41:59 despite a running misconception that most editors are women. in an interview with NPR, Geena Davis (Louise’s Thelma!) speaks more on this perceived gender imbalance:
“We just heard a fascinating and disturbing study, where they looked at the ratio of men and women in groups. And they found that if there’s 17% women, the men in the group think it’s 50-50. And if there’s 33% women, the men perceive that as there being more women in the room than men.
My theory is that since all anybody has seen, when they are growing up, is this big imbalance – that the movies that they’ve watched are about, let’s say, 5 to 1, as far as female presence is concerned – that’s what starts to look normal. Isn’t that strange that that’s also the percentage of women in crowd scenes in movies? What if we’re actually training people to see that ratio as normal so that when you’re an adult, you don’t notice?
In family films and kids' television shows, for every one female character, there are three male characters. But lest people think that it's all bad news, we were able to see an increase in the percentage of female characters in family films such that, if we add female characters at the rate we have been for the past 20 years, we will achieve parity in 700 years.”
– Geena Davis, founder of The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
June 30, 2013
though misogyny is just as pervasive as in any other industry, what’s unique about film is the way it continually archives worldviews + ignites global movements thru the yarns it spins – changing the outer world from within. almost as though it were a living breathing thing, no? but no, that’d be crazy… wait… unless?
film history depicts + informs progress for workers’ rights over time like mineral deposit rings at the waterline of a slow-to-drain pool. we can see how far we’ve come, while, floating the same vantage point, can see how far we have yet to go.
in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) dir. Jacques Demy, a working mother butts heads with her lovesick daughter in exquisitely devastating pop-art opera form. the soprano duo sing their way thru arguments in vibrant technicolor (hard to tell who screams louder, Mother or the Wallpaper) but the ugly reality is that the widow’s inherited business – an umbrella shop, once a symbol of frivolous elegance – is failing. customers are scarce, bills are way past due, and Anne Vernon’s character is already pawning off her possessions when she finds out her daughter is with lovechild. sidestepping celebration, much less romantic ideals, she at once begins calculating the gargantuan expense of supporting new human life and knows she doesn’t have it in her. the umbrella store owner urges her only daughter to marry a (literal) diamond merchant; a lifeline who can offer stability in ways an unresponsive lover at war cannot. the weight on a matriarch’s shoulder to survive long enough to make sure her offspring are taken care of weighs on, and on, and on.
“they couldn’t kill their bosses, so they did the next best thing – they organized.”
Nine to Five (1980) dir. Colin Higgins is about sticking it to your creep of a boss and demanding respect, recognition, and recompense where due. before sexual harassment was legally recognized as workplace discrimination, Jane Fonda was hunkering down with the 9to5 National Association of Working Women to develop the film that would go on to ignite protests in that symbiotic tug-o-war between life and art. by validating the experiences of underpaid working women with wit + warmth, and giving us the quintessential Dolly anthem (and spin-off musical to boot), this 80’s comedy drove attention to the grassroots cause and generated empathy for cinematically unexplored perspectives. it rocked the boat then and it continues to resonate today.
okbut what happens if you get what you want and then hate it? office jobs are not the end-all be-all of fulfillment and financial independence for everyone.
Parker Posey plays a cynical and rebellious temp worker in the cult classic Clockwatchers (1997) dir. Jill Sprecher. Posey’s character is resistant to the oppressively fluorescent corporation, questions authority, and won’t beg for table scraps. but also, she’s a liar and a thief and she’s been smoking in the restroom. as this is a cautionary tale for the nonconforming woman, homegirl is ultimately ousted (see: fired) and her defiance stamped out, defeated. the system won’t reward those who challenge it – it’s literally hollywood – her radical spirit lives on in Toni Colette’s character, who finds her voice by the end of the film in what can only be described as a quiet girl standoff.
The first feminist gesture is to say: “OK, they’re looking at me. But I’m looking at them.” The act of deciding to look, of deciding that the world is not defined by how people see me, but how I see them.
― Agnès Varda
as the depiction of on-screen working women expands + echoes real-world shifts, i look forward to witnessing more films by women working together about women working together. and to think i almost got away without saying girlboss once? i almost got away with it too.
"as splicing film reels was seen as akin to sewing or secretarial work, women were hired to edit movies since the earliest days of film history; of course, this was before editing was recognized for the creative + technical prowess required to bend + alter spacetime, manipulate psychologies, and keep up the pace." UNBELIEVABLE BARS within the first few paragraphs. I cannot wait to recommend this article to literally everybody. of course you are brilliant at your craft/trade of editing, but I really need to once again emphasize that you have such a command over written words. Spellbinding, engaging, unique, and thought-provoking through and through! I cannot wait to read more on this blog. We're soooo back.
“though misogyny is just as pervasive as in any other industry, what’s unique about film is the way it continually archives worldviews + ignites global movements thru the yarns it spins – changing the outer world from within.” what a fantastic way of putting that. great read!!