Equality in Hollywood

When you look at the news feeds and the political landscape of Hollywood, you’ll see a completely polarized battle between men and women. Anyone who knows me or has listened to any of my podcasts, film or politics, will agree that I am a supporter of women in film and equality in America but there exists a society of exclusion that is extremely frustrating to me. I’ve worked with many great organizations that support the rights of women to have equal pay, equal work and equal opportunities but these organizations exist to exclude men entirely. I didn’t think it was a problem until I received an email stating that, after a month of open support and promotion, I was not able to join the organization because I am not a woman.

Organizations and groups that exist to exclude a demographic based on their gender are wrong. Regardless of which gender is being excluded. For example, why is it seen as “strong” and “progressive” for a group of women to have an organization that excludes men, but if a group of men have an organization that openly excludes women it’s “sexist” or “chauvinist”? It’s the same thing as a group of white males creating a movement to support white males, instead of being progressive or bold, it’s automatically racist, but any other ethnicity can build a group to support their own ethnic group.

The only way we are going to see actual progress in this battle of equality is that if these organizations will stop excluding people and start accepting the fact that we need each other to grow, thrive and prosper. If you are going to continue to fight against inequality, then you MUST embrace equality entirely and not selectively. Do these organizations not see that they are, literally, the exact same thing they are fighting against?

Equality means equal. Not putting one group over another. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, here to point fingers or to lay blame. In fact, that type of behavior is entirely detrimental on the movements of equality and diversity because blame, by its own nature, is singling out and being negative. Instead of Tolerance, I want to help spread the message of “Acceptance”. Instead of tolerating others, let’s accept each other for the differences we have and celebrate them rather than exploiting them.

When we as a society talk about “Gender Equality” people often roll their eyes and think of some aggressive man-hating feminists placing blame on every man in sight, but those people are not helping the cause. Regardless of your level of passion for a movement, you cannot let your own personal bias cloud the message of your cause.

Gender equality will be achieved when both women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision making, and when the different behaviors, aspirations and needs of both men and women are equally valued and favored.