Benedict Cumberbatch says he will only work on films in which female co-stars are paid as much as he is

Now if we can just tweak that ceo to money-making employee ratio down from what was it, 1500/1? Who’s first for that?

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How exactly does one measure or compare “how famous” two different people are? And if anybody gives me some formula involving media mentions or something similar, i have a follow-up question: Should we weight our formula to account for the fact that our society, and hence our media, treats men and women differently (and rarely even considers other expressions of gender).

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Um…it does.

Yea they are doing all of those things, and also wondering about why there are no qualified women in tech (and other fields) for higher position.
It is very frustrating for the women who are.

They drop out, usually.
And that serves the machine.

Too dark?

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I’m pretty sure it’s measured in how much money one person’s last films made compared to the other’s.

Edit: This is also the metric that should be applied to actually implement this. Pay the female actor the same as a male actor with the same box office value would be paid.

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In a world where we pay people for what they do, rather than who they are, this would be a dumb comment. Sadly we don’t live in that world, and you make a good point.

This seems to happen in pretty much every industry (even female dominated ones). My wife is a specialist, and worked for a corporate owned vet hospital (she signed on when it was just starting up, and was owned by someone she did a residency with, then they sold…). She was their top earning doc. Tons of people referred specifically because she was there to see a case. They kept denying raises etc…, and as she’d taken a bit of a pay hit to sign on to work for a good person that she knew (originally). I kept pushing her to demand what she was worth (minimum industry standard or better), and they wouldn’t budge. The last straw was when they hired a new hire, with the same specialty, for more than what they were paying her (their senior Doc, most accomplished vet, and breadwinner), all the while telling her that they couldn’t afford to give her a raise…

Push come to shove, and it took tons of other people leaving for her to jump ship. Now she works for someone else, at much better pay, and being more valued. The original hospital is failing and looks like it’ll cost the corporation a fair amount of $ before they have to sell.

The problem is partially that, in this female dominated field, there are huge, largely self imposed restrictions. My wife wasn’t willing to push as hard as she should have, and it was a lost cause by the time she was willing to fight for what she was truly worth. For the new place, she really made them fight for her because there were two places trying to woo her away from the other, so the fight for what she was worth was almost more up to two business owners rather than being managed by her. I’ve generally seen the few guys in the industry, myself included, get greater pay raises etc… because they’re more willing to “fight”/push for what they’re worth. The women who do the same are few and far between.

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Most likely the end result.

This is exactly what Unions are supposed to be about. Closing ranks and working together. No wonder the Powers That Be™ are so against unions. Can’t have the royal subjects questioning the nobility’s divine right, can we?

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  1. His pay is lowered and his female co-stars’ pay is increased to parity.

If studios just start shrinking their casting budgets, someone needs to blow the whistle on that shit. Equal pay isn’t a fight for employers to pay their workers less. It’s a fight for employers not to low-ball workers based on reproductive plumbing.

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Those who aren’t in a position or are unwilling to take a meaningful stand for a good change have four five choices when confronted with someone who is and does:

  1. Ignore it.
  2. Applaud it.
  3. Give it due appreciation while recognizing the further work they and others need to take to achieve the desired change.
  4. Question the motives of the person taking the stand.
  5. Take a shit on the person taking the stand.

Two and three aren’t mutually exclusive. Four and five tell you more about the concern trolley than anyone else.

It’s a fair guess that most of the people who disdain Cumberbatch for this will be male “allies” and chauvinists who oppose the change, between whom there’s little practical difference.

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Being famous doesn’t make an actor talented. Or a good fit for a role.

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There’s the IMDB Starmeter, the Hollywood Reporter’s Top Actor’s Chart, and who knows how many analytic firms. It is worth noting that actors’ contracts are often backended with % bonuses based on gross profit. Cumberbatch could say that he and Tilda Swinton will be paid the same amount to co-star in Dr. Strange 2 but his deal could include % accelerations that hers does not. He could take this a step further and require his contracts and those of his costars to be made public in full.

As long as the women are as high-ranking as he is, as experienced as he is, as sought-after as he is, and so on & so on - then sure, why shouldn’t they be paid similarly?

What too many morons ignore is that when two people, regardless of what lays between their legs, get paid differently - it’s because their value, worth & input - is different! Gosh, who’d have thought?

Feminists demand equality (when it benefits women, but have a long history of demanding inequality when women stand to benefit from that too). yet somehow manage to forget to demand equal responsibilities… It’s almost as if they’re biased, sexist and misandric…

That’s bullshit and you know it. Plenty of talented women at the top of the industry GET PAID LESS THAN MEN. Bankable stars we’re talking about. Of course the new actor with a bit part isn’t going to get paid the same as Cumberbatch, but someone like Jennifer Lawrence, who is an Oscar winning actor SHOULD.

carrie-fisher-noooo

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So would he mind if the Female costar is paid more?

Why do you ask?

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Totally true and agreed.

Conversely, a side effect is that in any organization you have to interact with, it’s usually safe to assume that at any level, the women are most likely going to be more talented and competent than the men, precisely because of the problems they face in getting hired and promoted. If you want something done right, those are the people you should go to.

I regret that I have but one like to give for this comment.

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missy-wink

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