Rita Wilson Gender Equality Spoof — It’s Only Fair That Men Should Have It All
Women have been fighting for gender equality for as long as they’ve had jobs outside of the home. The Inquisitr recently laid out the data on why the fight for equality is far from over. The latest salvo to draw attention to the plight of women in the working world is a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek video featuring Rita Wilson and a group of other female actresses, including Mamie Gummer (The Good Wife) and Annie Parisse (The Following), naming the disproportionate percentages of men in a variety of jobs across various industries.
“Women get to be naked in movies twice as often as men do.”
Just one of the startling statistics in the PSA spoof for the Make it Fair Project.
Seen through the satirical lens marked by the chorus of the call-to-action musical number, “It’s only fair that men should have it all,” the rest of the information on gender inequality that gets thrown out would be ridiculous but, because it’s true, is just sad.
The video, created by Patricia Noonan, Nadia Quinn, and Emily Tarver using an all-female cast and crew of talented women who are under-utilised, is both shocking and funny, and maybe that’s what a society too comfortable with the status quo needs to wake it up.
“#makeitfair is a call for gender equality in the stories we tell, the wages we earn and the future we shape.”
But this isn’t the only instance of the women of Hollywood taking matters into their own hands. Patricia Arquette used her platform, after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, to give a rousing acceptance speech calling for wage equality and equal rights for women.
Keira Knightley gave an interview with Elle UK talking about the need for a gender balance in the voices that make it to the screen.
“Where are the female stories? Where are they? Where are the directors, where are the writers? It’s imbalanced, so given that we are half the cinema-going public, we are half the people [who] watch drama or watch anything else, where is that? So yes, I think the pay is a huge thing, but I’m actually more concerned over the lack of our voices being heard. I think it is interesting that for women in film, the problems they face are generally put into the sphere of home and family and not into the workplace.”
Vanity Fair reported on Sunday that Meryl Streep has started a lab for women screenwriters over 40, with her own money, to fight both gender inequality and ageism.
And wise-beyond-her-years Emma Watson, U.N. Women’s Goodwill Ambassador, gave a stirring speech at an event focused on gender inequality where she promoted the HeForShe Campaign. She echoed Knightley’s concern for the lack of female viewpoints.
“Currently, females comprise 7% of directors, 19.7% of writers, and 2.2% of producers in the film industry. When you have a female writer, there’s a higher representation of women. So that’s a pretty huge problem. Why are women not telling their own stories?”
The conversation started long ago and over the years has gone through several periods where it’s ignited. The discussion on gender inequality seems to be heating up again, but only time will tell if this time it will come out as real change or just warmed up leftovers.
[Image via Elle.com]
