Althouse: "Historically, the movie business has been a young white man’s business, and there is an ease of men amongst each other because they think alike."

June 14, 2011

"Historically, the movie business has been a young white man’s business, and there is an ease of men amongst each other because they think alike."

Laura Ziskin. RIP.

21 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...: I'm sorry the woman died.

But this shit is old.

If you are a white man (and I am), you might have noticed that other groups don't apologize for reserving the swag to their own members... especially feminist women. (Check out Sailer's continuing posts on the quota systems at colleges.)

So, go fuck yourselves, feminist women. You don't have any plans to share your swag with me. And, I don't have any plans to share my swag with you.; 6/14/11, 8:38 AM
X said...: And here I thought historically Hollywood was a nepotistic business and it was easy for them because they were related to each other.; 6/14/11, 8:44 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Why are body parts that are so delightful so deadly?; 6/14/11, 8:47 AM
Hagar said...: I think this is a bit of navel gazing.

There certainly have been more men than women in the business, but that is pretty much true of all business. And as in all those other businesses - going back to the time of Hammurabi - there has been quite successful women in the movie business going back to its pioneer days.; 6/14/11, 8:50 AM
joewxman said...: "But after watching former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” she realized, she said, “the power of the medium in which I work to affect how people think.”

As well as the power to turn fraud into fact.; 6/14/11, 8:50 AM
Known Unknown said...: For a long time it was an old Jewish man's business.

Women, however, think alike, too ... like women.; 6/14/11, 8:55 AM
traditionalguy said...: The continued success of Pretty Woman/ My Fair lady/ Pygmalion story highlights the wit of GBS, who as a white man was a feminist writer before the feminist writers became women. So she produced his story one more time while being female. What did she do that was creative?; 6/14/11, 8:56 AM
Jeff with one 'f' said...: Sayng the movie business has been "a young white man’s business" is like saying childbirth has been women's business...

White men INVENTED movies. But you can have fun playing with our indeginous art form.; 6/14/11, 9:07 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: In the interest of being open minded, I watched Gore's movie and did not see any there there. To point to that as powerful is to support librul doctrines. And I find it ironic to use a religious word like doctrine when discussing ir-religious libruls.; 6/14/11, 9:08 AM
MayBee said...: When her marriage to the screenwriter Julian Barry ended in divorce, leaving her with a young daughter, Julia, Ms. Ziskin became a full-time producer and for a time dragged the girl from location to location.

Aside from nepotism, the above sentence goes a long way to explain why the movie business has been for young white men.

Working in production means long long days with irregular hours. A female AD I was talking to the other day has been working 16 hour days since October and she has a two year old at home. You need a good support system to get through that, to get to the top as Laura Ziskin did.; 6/14/11, 9:20 AM
Salamandyr said...: Leaving politics aside (because really, a powerful Hollywood figure was liberal? Shocking!), she was responsible for a lot of very good movies. I'm sorry she died so young.

Remember she didn't write this obituary. She just made movies...and good ones.; 6/14/11, 9:22 AM
Cedarford said...: That was Laura Ziskin a female Jewish entertainment producer, complaining about her fellow Jewish male entertainment industry execs producers being overrepresented as "white males" - and hurting diversity.
Akin to an Italian mafioso family female saying the Mafia has historically been a business of "young white males" like her brothers and cousins. Who all "think alike", and dominate opportunities denied females of the right blood ties and connections.
Or a female gay in the fashion industry seeing all the gay men who are major players complaining about the gender imbalance and describing the gay men's club of fashionistas as "all those white males who think alike".

Ziskins "not enough females like me are in the biz" - " despite us belonging to the tribe with equal ability and connections"?" It's called not seeing the larger imbalances focusing on a smaller imbalance. (Actually, as a function of the overall population, jewish women are ovverepresented in top media positions from TV to NPR to Hollywood, high level female Jews are a commoner sight than black males, non-Jewish white females, etc. Just ask Juan Williams). Yes, technically, as well as Ziskin, an Italian female mafioso or a gay female fashion exec are correct. But miss the forest for the tree.

Despite her kvetching the tribe isn't spreading positions fairly between genders...sorry she passed away early. And she had many successes.; 6/14/11, 9:28 AM
edutcher said...: Those young white (and Jewish) men who once had a lock on the biz relied on better stuff than comic books, computer (or any other kind) games, and toys for their material.; 6/14/11, 10:21 AM
test said...: Wow, casual sexism from a leftist woman unchallenged by a leftist propaganda sheet.

I'm shocked.; 6/14/11, 10:29 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Two things:

1) The point of the quote Ann uses is bullshit. Look around: if we men think alike, it's news to me.

2) Explain this trajectory:

Her first job was writing for “The Newlywed Game” and “The Dating Game.” As an assistant to Jon Peters at Barbra Streisand’s Barwood Films, she got her first screen credit in 1978 as associate producer of “Eyes of Laura Mars,” starring Faye Dunaway.

When her marriage to the screenwriter Julian Barry ended in divorce, leaving her with a young daughter, Julia, Ms. Ziskin became a full-time producer and for a time dragged the girl from location to location.

In 1994, Ms. Ziskin became president of Fox 2000 Pictures, a newly created film division of 20th Century Fox.

Writing, a screen credit, and then president of a division? Oooooh, man, white folks have it easy,...; 6/14/11, 10:37 AM
MayBee said...: Well, Crack, Jon Peters went from celebrity hair stylist to producer, while inspiring the movie "Shampoo" about a womanizing hair stylist. So.....; 6/14/11, 11:34 AM
paul a'barge said...: She was one of the best. Her sensitivity and intelligence will be missed.

I was prepared to back up the hate-filled anti-feminist dump truck and unload on her "white boy" statement but now I'm not so sure.

Knowing how much of Hollywood is infected by white Liberals, you have to stop and wonder and give her the benefit of the doubt.

Who could be more clueless and worthless than white Liberals?; 6/14/11, 12:26 PM
ampersand said...: I read where Jay Sebring was the inspiration for 'Shampoo'. The movie was supposed to have some tie in (slight) to the Manson murders.; 6/14/11, 1:55 PM
Victor Erimita said...: Yes, men all think alike. That, and they all make gross, unsupported generalizations about the opposite sex.; 6/14/11, 3:31 PM
Scott M said...: Yeah, but at least we don't do that weird black magic thing you women do with your cycles if you live in close proximity for a while. Voodoo, I tell you.; 6/14/11, 3:35 PM
B. said...: Ziskin gave the world Pretty Woman from a very gritty script called Three Thousand (girl does not run off with cute guy at the end). She also hired her SO Alan Sargent as a script doctor. She might as well have been a guy in pumps. (And there's a world of difference in being a suit and being an AD or any other below the line type.); 6/14/11, 11:21 PM