This week, news broke that an all-female remake ofLord of the Fliesmay be the works atWarner Bros. Perhaps most frequently cited:Libba Bray’s 2011 novelBeauty Queens.
Spoiler alert: It didn’t go well.
And I sighed heavily and thought, “Oh.
Credit: Vania Stoyanova; Scholastic Paperworks
Because I’m fairly certain I wrote a book like that in 2011.
It imagines the sort of world they would begin to build.
(Spoiler: It does not involve the chant, “Kill the Pig.”
But it might involve Napalm hair remover.)
A world in which we do not make the rules.
A world in which it often feels as if we will never get to share in making the rules.
Beauty Queenswas optioned in 2011 by Fuse Entertainment (now Fabrik).
It was championed for many years by the smart and savvy rock-star producer, Kristen Campo.
She was its tireless advocate through several different incarnations and options.
So: Good, passionate people working hard.
But thenBQwent out to The Suits Who Sanction the Making of the Things.
And that… was eye-opening.
I saw a script in which every stereotype I tried to subvert inBQwas made real.
There was an actual hair-pulling catfight.
It’s hard to put into words exactly how I felt at that moment.
They didn’t get it.
And they were legittryingto get it, which made it doubly painful.
It wasn’t laziness; it was a fundamental tone deafness.
An inability to comprehend and relate to women as real people.
To which my response was, “Why NOT all those women?”
Men,” was almost always that answer, said with blinking incomprehension.
There are a couple of factors at play here.
How difficult it is to get ANYTHING made in Hollywood, which is a reality all writers deal with.
How MUCH MORE difficult it is for women to get anything made in Hollywood.
Every woman creator I know has a story of becoming invisible in the room.
Of being ignored in favor of a male colleague.
Of not being taken as seriously as, well, the boys.
That didn’t work.
Guess people just don’t want to see women."
And, of course, this gets double- and triple-layered for women of color.
I can give an order like nobody’s business.'
I think there’s an unconscious bias, and it gets a little disheartening after a while.
“[3]
Preach, Alison.
And there’s the real trouble: Women with power.
We’re not supposed to talk about these things publicly, of course.
That’s a pretty neat little set-up.
Well played, Patriarchy.
Well, I have decided that Iamtrouble.
And I am becoming more troublesome by the day.
This election did me in.
I’ve been fighting back against sexism for nearly four decades.
My sisters: I see you.
I want all of your stories.
Hence, we get the ubiquitous, mostly mute strippers, prostitutes, and arm candy.
We get teenage girls who are Lolitas, Troubled Daughters, Vicious Cheerleaders, or Vapid Shoppers.
Manic Pixie Dream Girls.
We don’t often get women, though.
Women advised to “try shopping at Chico’s!”
who respond, “Why?
Did my vagina die in the night?”
Women trying to get taken seriously at a professional party full of dick.
Women who have to mirror-pep talk themselves into doing what feels scary.
Women who drop everything and race for a cab when a friend texts, “It’s cancer.”
Women like all of the women I personally know.
Jesus, is that so hard?
I am seriously, seriously asking here.
It said, simply,J’existe.
We exist, complete with our stories which are also complete.
And we can tell the hell out of those stories about ourselves by ourselves.
If only we could get the chance.
