Women are Not Male Knockoffs

From pantsuits to mediocre movie remakes: It’s time to feature women as themselves

I was sitting on the couch watching cable, something I hadn’t done in a year and a half, when I saw an ad for What Men Want, a new movie.

It’s about a woman trying to climb the corporate ladder at a sports agency who can hear men’s thoughts. Sounds like it has promise, right?

But it’s just a remake of What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson. Based on the ad, it looks pretty much like the same film.

This trend started with films like Ghostbusters and Oceans 8, which featured all-female lead casts. On the surface, it seems great that Hollywood is showing more women.

But it isn’t. Because we aren’t showing more women.

All Hollywood has done in the name of making women equal — which is what society has done all along — is try to make them men.

Wouldn’t it be better to write stories that are original? That bring a unique perspective to the world in all its glory?

By substituting a woman for a man and calling it a day, we’re saying that the only way to achieve — the only way to get a story told, the only way to be — is to fit a woman within the already established male box.

Ouch.

As much as we think we’ve moved past the days of Freud, who believed that all women have a fundamental desire to be men (yup, true story), we still seem to think that a woman is simply a male knockoff.

The Dawn of the Power Suit

I believe the notion of making women equal by turning them into men is epitomized by the power suit, shoulder pads and all.

“You looked at suits at the store and men wearing those suits,” said Lisa Bredtke, plant manager of Hanon Systems San Lorenzo manufacturing facility. “So professional [attire] meant suits. When you did that, you were given more credibility and were accepted in the office.”

I have to admit, it does make some sense (when in Rome and all). When the competition with men became real, mirroring their clothes was meant to signal equality, in many cases by making women indistinguishable. They would wear oxford shirts and even ties. “It was like, ‘Look at this, I can do the job you can do, and so I’ll dress like you do,’” says Austyn Zung, the creative director of work wear staple Ann Taylor.

“I wanted to walk into a meeting and mirror the man I was in there doing business with,” Joanna Dai explains about her years with J.P. Morgan. “It reflected how similar we were in rank and competence.”

This choice to equate competence, rank, and viability with being a man has continued to present hurdles for women to be valued as themselves, aka sticking a woman into a film that was originally about a man.

The good news is that the trend does seem to be changing.

Women Led — And Kicking Ass

It only took 21 movies and 11 years for them to get there, but Marvel Cinematic Universe finally showcased its first female superhero lead, Captain Marvel.

“Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, is so unapologetically herself as she discovers her real identity throughout the movie. She never loses the traits that make her Carol: strength, conviction, and the desire to help in any way she can,” shared a female friend who saw the movie two days in a row. “As a huge MCU fan, it was refreshing to finally watch one of these movies and be able to identify with the lead character.”

And Captain Marvel isn’t alone. Star Wars has been performing incredibly well with a diverse cast led in part by Rey (Daisy Ridley). She clearly has her own personality, attitude, shortcomings, and capabilities that allow her to be her own person, beyond just being a Skywalker knockoff.

After all, the best films are the ones that recognize we’re all unique, not simply representative of this or that group. They tell stories of complete humans with their own unique hopes, fears, perspectives, and experiences — both male and female.

To Change What Ends Up On-Screen, We Need to Change The Dynamic Off-screen

As is true in many industries, women need to fill roles across the board if we expect on-screen representation to change.

According to The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, here’s where we stand:

On the top 100 grossing films of 2018, women represented:

• 4% of directors
• 15% of writers
• 3% of cinematographers
• 18% of producers
• 18% of executive producers
• 14% of editors

It is not surprising that in the top 500 films of 2018, movies with at least one female director employed greater percentages of women writers, editors, cinematographers, and composers than films with exclusively male directors.

It is human nature to seek out, attach to, and advance those we believe are like us. All that means is we need to change the landscape to change the results.

Reese Witherspoon took on this challenge with Hello Sunshine, a media company dedicated to changing the female narrative.

Here’s how they talk about themselves:

“We’re a media brand anchored in storytelling, creating and discovering content that celebrates women and puts them at the center of the story. We tell stories big and small, funny stories, complex stories, those that shine a light on where women are at right now and those that help chart a new path forward.”

It is no surprise that Witherspoon is a supporter of the #4percentchallenge by TIME’S UP and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. To participate, you must commit to working on a feature film with a female director over the next 18 months.

This is brand new in 2019.

We Need Three-Dimensional Characters

I believe — or choose to believe — that somewhere, someone does think that they’re helping. That by making iconic movies featuring women in male roles, they’re demonstrating equality (quite literally: anything a man can do, a woman can do).

As a woman, I’m looking not for the knockoff, the redone movie you could do without effort to check the box that said you had a woman in a lead role, but for the authentic film that portrays women as complete human beings on their own individual terms.

Accepting stories that position women as a male knockoff — or a disproportionate number of films that don’t represent women at all — sells humanity and our understanding of it short on many levels.

We have the power to change things because we fuel the industry (to the tune of billions of dollars). Investigate. Know what you’re supporting before you go. Make sure that you’re demanding what you want to see and put your money where your mouth is.

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