There is a story circulating about a star-studded lunch that took place last week at Sundance in honor of women filmmakers and others attending the fest. The hosts were Glamour’s Cindi Leive and Amanda de Cadenet of #girlgaze. It was held at the unbelievably spectacular home of ChefDance CEO and Founder Mimi Kim and celebrity chef Cat Cora did the cooking honors.
LA Times’ Amy Kaufman was the intrepid reporter on duty and she posted a story that had my Facebook and Twitter feeds humming yesterday.
She captured a conversation with several high profile women in entertainment — actors, directors, and others — grappling with what we are all dealing with this last week: the struggle to understand the world we are living in now that we have a President who is racist, sexist, and everything in between.
What makes this conversation so unique is the real talk that happened. Usually at these events everybody plays nice, takes pictures, talks up their movies, eats a little, and then gets back in their cars and goes off to their next event.
This is a time of crossroads for feminism. Longtime feminists — particularly white, cisgender ones — who have done things a certain way for a long time are being educated on how to deal with and understand the importance of how to be intersectional. This is not easy. (Speaking for myself, this is something I have to put in the front of my brain at all times. I make tons of mistakes. I am challenged all the time, and my work is the better for it.)
“I don’t want to be hired because I’m a girl. I want them to see I’m fabulous. Don’t give me a job because I’m a girl. It’s condescending,” Salma Hayek said at the event. Shirley MacLaine observed that Donald Trump presented a challenge to “each of our inner democracy” and urged those participating in the conversation to explore their “core identity.”
Hayek and MacLaine’s comments didn’t sit well with Jessica Williams, who has had a breakout festival, and not only for her on screen work. Netflix acquired “The Incredible Jessica James,” the film the “2 Dope Girls” host premiered at the fest, but she’s gotten even more attention for using her voice at a time when people are using their voices in unprecedented ways. She made a heartfelt and radical speech at the women’s march and also challenged the privilege in the room at this lunch full of privileged women.
The event took an unexpected turn when Williams asked “What if you are a person of color, or a transgendered person who — just from how you look — you already are in a conflict?” to both MacLaine and Hayek. I would imagine that a collective breath was inhaled in the room.
And then this happened:
MacLaine: “Right, but change your point of view. Change your point of view of being victimized. I’m saying: Find the democracy inside,” which no doubt inspired lots of cringing in the room.
Then Hayek asked Williams: “Who are you when you’re not black and you’re not a woman? Who are you and what have you got to give?”
Williams took a deep breath. “A lot. But some days, I’m just black, and I’m just a woman,” she said. “Like, it’s not my choice. I know who I am. I know I’m Jessica, and I’m the hottest bitch on the planet, I know.”
Keep in mind that Hayek is Latina, and as she has explained at the event and in many other instances, she struggled for years and years. She was told that a Latina woman could only play a maid, and a studio once refused to cast her in a movie because they couldn’t imagine “a Mexican in space.” Hayek has been outspoken on this issue and has helped her husband’s company, Kering, focus on women’s issues.
This full conversation is an illustration of where we are in feminist dialogue today. I found this whole conversation to be extremely painful. Granted, I think that Hollywood is a bit behind mainstream activist feminism. It’s not Jessica Williams’ job to make white folks, and folks of privilege, understand why things are different for black women. It’s the job of the people from the privileged perspective to support what she has to say and to spend more time listening than talking.
While this clearly is not a conversation that typically happens at these types of events, it’s a good thing it did. I hope the women learn more about the term “intersectional feminism.” I give it up to Dee Rees and Kimberly Peirce for having Williams’ back, and to Jill Soloway for again making people understand whose voices we need to hear from.
