Picture via Instagram
Actress and mother Amber Tamblyn recently wrote a brilliant and inspiring guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, advising women to support each other in order to end Hollywood's gender problem.
The 34-year-old spoke about her first time directing a film, and how she didn't know if she could fill such a role because she had worked with so few female directors.
"I've been an actress since I was 11, and in over two decades of experience, I've only ever worked with two female directors," The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actress wrote.
"I did not know what the version of me — the one who would exist behind a camera, calling the shots —would look like. In almost every position in Hollywood — from the director's chair to the writers' room to the A.D. department — women are grossly underrepresented."
And the situation isn't any better onscreen, either. According to the Geena Davis Institute, in 2015, male characters had twice the amount of screen time that female characters did and spoke two times as often as female characters.
Amber made the valid point that the gender gap is due to the rampant sexual misconduct of powerful men in the industry.
"As more allegations of sexual harassment and assault emerge daily, it's becoming increasingly apparent to me that the abuse of women leads to the absence of women," the mum-of-one wrote.
"Is it any wonder that women are so scarcely represented when men — who wield the majority of our industry's say-so — can easily humiliate us or shame us into such uncomfortable situations and still keep their jobs? When they behave as if they've earned the right to our bodies, or worse, just take what they want without even asking?"
She continued, "I believe that to end the era of such intimidations, we must turn to each other, that women must become allies like never before in the history of the entertainment business. We must demand widespread accountability and action from our unions, representatives and film and television sets. And we must hold each other up."
Here, here!
"If you see a woman struggling at work and you're in a position to say something, do it," Amber wrote in The Hollywood Reporter, "If you can help get more women of colour in positions to direct feature films, do it. If you hear of a queer woman being bullied at her job, reach out to her and ask what you can do to help."
The Paint It Black director said that the empowering words of her producer, Wren Arthur, gave her the confidence to direct her first feature.
She hope that other women will do the same: "It's actions like these that exemplify the power of allies, in a business that can marginalize us, behind the camera and in front."
Let's work to support women, no matter what industry we are in.
