Writing For Your Life

A recent study confirmed what We All Knew: gender bias is alive and well in the theatre. However, its most surprising find was the way in which women ADs and agents review the work of women playwrights.

I do not subscribe to beliefs about women's catty behavior to other women. Instead, I wonder about women's protectiveness in the face of norms. Men are still the assumed baseline of civilization; their works are supposedly normative. Women, however, are always Representing Their Gender, rather than an individual view of the world. To find any foothold, the woman writer must be exemplary, not opening the door to criticisms of a woman's inability to write/be funny/command character/etc. Other women professionals are the gatekeepers of excellence; they can't take the chance that their position will be jeopardized by one bad apple.

But perhaps that failsafe has become more of a hindrance than help. Perhaps it is time to trust that others (particularly the males of our species) will not embrace or dismiss a work due to genitalia. Perhaps it is time to quite chaperoning one another. Perhaps it is time to believe in each other, as humans.