Anna Biller calls out corporate feminism in Hollywood

Is this just a ploy by Mattel to sell dolls and movie tickets, or will the powers that be now be supporting and financing more movies for a female audience? [Anna clarified: “What I mean is, will it make a difference to filmmakers like me, or is it only reserved for GG or other women directing large budget films targeted to existing IP geared towards a female consumer”]

The marketing, conflating indie auteur films with a hyper-corporate product, makes me a bit queasy, but I suppose this is what they were going for: the message that women’s cinema is as serious as film bro cinema.

I suppose the queasiness also lies in my experience pitching to executives the last few years, when I quickly learned that terms like “feminist” and “women’s cinema” soured every meeting, even with women, so I learned not to use them.

It was right after MeToo so I wrongly thought people would be interested in women’ s stories. It turns out that was just for PR reasons. I still don’t pitch feminism in my materials.

In my memory, the press (guided by the studio) only trots out the word feminist to stem backlash. I first noticed it when it was used for every male director who included violent scenes a few years ago. The directors when asked about feminism seemed startled.