05-10-2018, 01:59 PM
(05-06-2018, 01:39 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Could liberals be finding an issue on which to embrace chastity as an ideal? They have excused sex between consenting adults, but not between children, between adults and children, or in which there is no consent. They are even sacrificing some of their political and cultural icons. Nobody gets a pass for being black (Cosby) or having lost parents in the Holocaust (Polanski). Maybe the Hollywood studios and world pop music scene protects someone still useful. Farewell, casting couch -- and good riddance!
I will see more cause to believe that the change is real when I find that a pro athlete loses his job for sexual harassment.
I would guess that nailing an older executive for sexual harassment is a good way to open a spot in a corporate hierarchy.
On your last point, in particular, I think that the whole discussion around diversity - especially at the top - turns on symbolism. As in, it's good to have women, people of color, lgbt people, and others in high profile positions almost as an end in itself. Which, okay, true enough.
But what's more often missing from this conversation is that it seems to have a self-perpetuating impact. Those people in turn help to elevate other women, poc, lgbt people, etc - in some cases people who might not otherwise have gotten the opportunities.
I can speak to some of this stuff from personal experience. I'd always wanted to be a writer, and thought that regardless of whether or not I ever got success in more glam gigs (writing scripts, plays, etc), I should have a more practical fallback. So, for years, I tried to break into technical writing in the streaming media sub-sector of IT. And for years, despite a pretty good portfolio, I didn't get so much as an interview.
Fast forward to early this year. A script I've been working on gets a little buzz from a certain entertainment-related site, and within a couple months (April Fool's no less - I thought it might be some strange/cruel joke at first), I get an fb message from a Hollywood producer (most recent credit was last year's "Beauty and the Beast"). So, things starting to happen. And I don't think it's a coincidence that he's a part of writer/director Bill Condon's circle (which is one of the few making studio features that includes a substantial number of out gay men, including he and Condon both). Being an out gay man (25 years last year) it doesn't surprise me that (provided it continues to happen) it happened this way. Also, I'm inclined to suspect that if there was any kind of diversity among the gatekeepers of the streaming media outfits in these parts (most of which are mid-sized) I might've gotten an in too.
And I'll say too I don't think this all or at least always fall along political lines. Yes, liberals may be more supportive of civil rights, women's rights, lgbt equality, etc., but it doesn't always mean in practice that more supposedly "woke" organizations are actually that in practice. I care more about who's in the board room and executive suites than what their website and ads and donations to ngos say about their Commitment to Diversity. Heck, there's an out gay male anchor at Fox News (as well as CNN). Et tu, MSNBC?