Women's History Month and the Myth of the Female Writer
I was inspired by a campaign launched this month by director Ava du Vernay regarding Women's History Month and #ArrayToday, #ArrayNow and @ArrayToday and @ArrayNow to share my thoughts on how the history of the accomplishments of women have impacted my life and "career" as a female screenwriter.I grew up in a family that felt marriage and motherhood were what every young woman should aspire to. I didn't know that women could be race car drivers, pilots, firefighters, doctors, or inventors. I didn't know that a woman in her fifties became one of the most respected criminologists of all time during the 1930's, or that a black woman born and raised in the South moved to Paris to become a pilot in the 1920's. I didn't know about the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or the only known female stagecoach robber in American history, or the all girl bands in World War Two. I didn't know about Elizabeth Blackwell, Hedy Lamar, Bessie Stringfield, Jackie Cochran or countless other women who forged a path through a male dominated world because they wanted the chance to live the life they chose. Not the one they were expected to live because they were girls.
For the past thirty years, I have researched and written about the lives of remarkable women because I persist in believing that if young women today knew about the accomplishments of the women before them, they would start their lives with the same building blocks men take for granted. Instead of being asked "Who are you wearing", they should be asked, "What mountain have you climbed lately, what new app are you developing," or "When is your new movie going to be out?"
When people say there aren't enough female writers or enough good roles for women. I want to cry. Actually, sometimes I do. I've been told the reason I still don't have an agent or manager, why I have never sold a script, or why I haven't been a writer for hire, is because I write about women. Yet, in the past three years, I have been selected as an Athena List winner AND Finalist (in the same year), I won the screenwriting competition for the Atlanta Film Festival (2017), I was a finalist in both the Nashville Film Festival (2016) and Diverse Voices (2016), I placed ninth in the Emerging Screenwriters Contest (2016), was a semi-finalist for the American Zoetrope contest (2015), have placed in the top fifteen percent of the Nicholl Fellowships twice, won the Grand Prize (Shorts) for Table Read My Screenplay Austin (2015), was a Second Rounder for the Austin Film Festival (2015) and am currently a finalist for the Female Initiative sponsored by Seriesfest and Rose McGowan.
The last Table Read My Screenplay winner was nominated for an Academy Award and is now directing his first film.I still work in the RV business to put food on the table.I hate the fact that its 2017 and we are still trying to convince Hollywood that we are here and we are not going away. I am not going to stop writing about amazing women. And continue to hope that someday, when someone says, there are so many great women writers out there with such fascinating stories to tell, one of those female writers they will be talking about, is me.So here's an idea, Hollywood. Stop talking about the problem and start hiring women. You can start right here.