So I was hanging out over at a friend's house last night, and while I was using his bathroom I went through his reading material (probably one of my favorite things to do when I use a guy's bathroom) when I was reading Paste magazie and came across this article entitled, "The Production Widow's Lament". In this article it's basically a run down of the day to day life of a woman married to someone in production. Here's an excerpt:
Monday: Halfway through a frozen pizza and a long overdue Netflix date, your husband's cell rings. The faint murmur in the earpiece bears good news: a film shoot. You rejoice, toasting Coke cans. After a year of spending your weekends helping him make call sheets, trimming pages, and highlighting scene late into the night for the zero-budget indies he's been assistant directing, you're always delighted when a paying job on a real studio production comes along. Go to sleep smiling.
Tuesday: Begin familiar Production Widow triage-cancel all tickets between now at wrap, rearrange dinner parties, take over paying the bills.
Wednesday: For a month, you'll see him occasionally, and when you're lucky he'll have weekends off, but usually he's crawling into bed at some indeterminate hour and whispering drowsily that he nearly mistook George Clooney for a Teamster at the studio.
Thursday: Go upstate for your Grandparents 50th anniversary celebration. "Where's your husband?" they ask. "Working," you say. "This late?"
Saturday: Weekend shoot. Spend the day on the couch watching six episodes of Six Feet Under, then four of Arrested Development to take the edge off.
Monday: Go for a run before breakfast and pass your husband on the street. He's just arriving home from a night shoo. Smile and give him a kiss. Three weeks to go.
Normally this kind of stuff doesn't really bother me, but for some reason after I read the article I came out and started going off on this rant to everyone about the incredible gender bias of this article (I got a very strange look when I asked if I could rip it out to share with my class). But seriously, all this article does is show how men are the breadwinners and that in order to be good wives women must sacrifice themselves in order to be able to properly care for their husbands.
What do you guys think? I am going too far here?
3 comments:
Wow, there are a lot of gender biases in this excerpt. It shows that the man is the one paying the bills not just earning the money but also physically writing the check. It is saying that women are incapable of managing finances, when in reality we are just as capable. The article also makes it look like women can't do anything productive unless their husband is around. All she does is watch tv and mope around while counting the days til her husband gets back. Killer Queen, you are not over reacting.
I think the article could have mediated the gender biases it was communicating by telling the story from the other point of view, a man who has a wife who works on movies. I think the worst part of the article for me was when the women could not even go home without her family being concerned that her husband is present. Are we so tied to women needing a man that our own families cannot even define us without a man by our side? This women has the golden opportunity to experience so many things in her life since she has a husband that is often absent, she could utilize her time traveling writing, etc. Yet like deep thought says she is depicted as a mopey mess without her husband. WHat does this communicate in a men's magazine. Men watch what job you get because your wife can't survive without you?!
I think that there is a lot of gender bias here. Why do they always make sure to point out that the woman is just sitting around on the couch all day or going out for a run...like that is ALL she every does...please!
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