The COVID-19 crisis has hit women especially hard: professions dominated by women have seen the most job loss, and women are bearing the brunt of homeschooling-while-in-quarantine and childcare responsibilities. Women in Hollywood have also felt the impact: 2020 was supposed to be a huge year for women-directed blockbusters, but pics such as Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 1984,” Chloe Zhao’s “The Eternals,” Cate Shortland’s “Black Widow,” Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman,” and Niki Caro’s “Mulan” have been shuffled around the schedule, postponed until 2021, or sent straight to streaming. Released in late winter, Cathy Yan’s “Birds of Prey” and Autumn DeWilde’s “Emma.” had their theatrical runs cut short and were sent to VOD early.
The picture has been even bleaker for TV projects centered or run by women. Several beloved shows, including Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch’s women’s wrestling comedy “GLOW” and the Andrea Savage-created and -starring “I’m Sorry” were retroactively cancelled after being renewed due to COVID-related production issues. Same story for Kirsten Dunst’s “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” and Cobie Smulders’ “Stumptown.” Similarly, freshman Netflix series “The Society” and “I Am Not Okay With This” were “unrenewed.” Then there are the projects that didn’t even get off the ground: Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira’s much-anticipated “Americanah” adaptation will not be moving forward. HBO Max had previously given the show a straight-to-series order.
Meanwhile, the futures of “Space Force” and other male-centered stories are secure.
Speaking to Vanity Fair about the COVID-era TV landscape, Television Critics Association president Sarah Rodman acknowledged the elephant in the room. “If you look at all these shows that have been unrenewed, they were either by, about, or run by women,” she said. “It’s very concerning to me that the things I don’t want to think of as niche voices are being treated as niche voices. Seeing what’s happening is a big concern to me not just as someone who covers the industry, but as a consumer.”
The message networks and streaming platforms is sending is clear: to use coronavirus terminology, women’s television is not essential. If there’s a finite amount of money and resources to go around — and COVID has definitely forced many companies to tighten their belts — that means stories about or told by women are the first to go on the chopping block. It doesn’t matter if they are just getting started or, in the case of “GLOW,” ready to embark on their final chapter.
The issue isn’t that COVID and its related restrictions have led to cancellations — that was, unfortunately, to be expected. What is frustrating is that there is a definite pattern regarding the series that have been cancelled, or unrenewed, or given the red light. Women’s stories are being treated as if they’re disposable, as if they are the dead weight that should be jettisoned before anything else. It’s unacceptable. Women make up more than half of the population. Our voices and our experiences matter. Pandemic or no pandemic, gatekeepers and decision-makers need to recognize that.
