Let’s face it, this is one of the reasons why these industries have stayed male- dominated for so long. How many women who might have been inclined to become a Hollywood heavyweight instead got burned out by the BS? Or accepted being sidelined in order to keep some spotlight?
22 Likes
Exactly. Sidelining the potential of half the human population so men can maintain their “good old boys” clubs is horrible for so many reasons that go beyond the individual harms suffered.
We’ll never know what art and medicines and coding and building design we’ve missed out on but might have enjoyed as a species if we’d made work spaces safe for everybody.
25 Likes
Oh don’t worry, they have no problem stealing credit from women who tough it out. Just this way men get to profit from the rape too 
20 Likes
Yeah, not only is this not surprising, it’s like I was even unconsciously expecting to hear this. He gave off those vibes as he was generally a creep.
Yeah, it’s hard to get into counter-factuals about what someone “might” have done if they hadn’t been driven from (or prevented from entering) an industry, so knowing how many women this happened to is impossible. But every so often I run across the account of some young woman (or person of color, etc.) who got into the industry and did amazing work (and not just film, but all manner of disciplines in art, science) and then were driven out, and it becomes incredibly clear that the culture as a whole suffered a great loss, just so some mediocre (or worse, someone terrible like Jerry Lewis) white dudes could keep their positions (and do nothing of value). And for every person where it’s blindingly obvious they would have done great things, there are many orders of magnitude more women (etc) whose accomplishments never were recorded or whose trajectories weren’t so clear. I honestly weep to think about what, as a culture, we’ve lost to misogyny and racism, etc.
18 Likes
I get the sense that, on a long enough timeline, every guest on “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” will be dethroned.
2 Likes
I’m amazed (ok, maybe more disappointed than amazed) that Seinfeld still has a career. In the mid 90’s during the height of his success he was openly dating an underage high school girl half his age. This was way before the #metoo movement but still, as a high schooler at the time I remembered thinking so wait that’s creepy and illegal. Is everyone just ok with this??
9 Likes
Exactly! They’re scared because of the power he had. They would be totally destroyed. They knew they would not only be ruined financially, but would be unable to get work in the field anywhere. Lewis was particularly nasty, and they knew it.
I used to be a fan of his movies, but when I saw him on his telethon, and when one of the affiliates was not raising enough money to suit him, he said to the camera, about the other host, to “get off your butt”! He was finished as far as I was concerned! He was a real nasty one – also disinheriting all his sons! His wife should have taken at least one or two of the many millions she inherited, and split it among the boys!
1 Like
His show even made a joke about Jerry and George ogling a 15-year-old girl’s breasts. After Elaine called him out for being a creep his defense was “You don’t consider age in the face of cleavage. This occurs on a molecular level, you can’t control it!”
16 Likes
I’d have to go back to verify, but pretty sure various folks on Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast have mentioned less-than-desirable aspects (to put it mildly) of this jackass.
1 Like
These things are always open secrets.
13 Likes
As recently as, say, 15 years ago, here in Los Angeles, an extremely popular radio morning show on the local rock station had an ongoing bit where they would jokingly put their female co-host “in the basement” (which meant temporarily muting her mic so she was barely audible) whenever she chimed in with a “unpopular” opinion. The guys that ran that show didn’t really survive the shift in consciousness we’ve had since then (though there was a big uproar when they were replaced).
I think, when people ask why victims didn’t come forward earlier – in addition to all the other reasons people have mentioned, this stuff was so commonplace that they might not have realized they were being abused, or how serious the abuse was.
4 Likes
13 Likes
Is this usage of “female” in this case not OK? I was using the word here to describe the co-host, in distinction to the others (whom are male). Unlike Quark, who uses the word “female” as a noun, which I realize is seen as improper, my understanding is using it as an adjective in most cases is OK. But I’m open to learning more about this.
1 Like
She is “female”, but they are “guys”?
Any time you would use “men” to describe human males or their activities, use of “females” is derogatory, wrong, and grammatical incorrect (this last part will prevent one from ever earning the supposedly “coveted” Pedant Pendant).
10 Likes
That hill would actually be his grave mound. Being “safely” dead, it’s unfortunate that the true extent of JL’s true scumbag nature is coming out only now… and who knows what else will pop up. Where there’s a stink, there’s probably a cesspool.
1 Like
“Woman” is the word you’re looking for.
7 Likes
Thanks for the reply; that is helpful. But in this use case – I used the adjective female to distinguish from the other co-hosts, whom are male. For example, had the situation been the inverse, I would indeed have used the word “male” to describe the only male co-host. Like, I wouldn’t have referred to the “guy co-host” or “man co-host”. I would have also, subsequently, referred to the other co-hosts as women.
This conversation has been done before. And not too long ago. Let’s get back to the topic at hand, eh?
2 Likes
No. It’s not. I’m not a FEMALE, I’m a person.
And it’s in the style guide. Use FEMALE and get the Quark.
Except you did not use “male” once in your comment.
16 Likes
Yes, it’s telling that it’s always women who need an adjective, subconsciously supporting men as default.
One is so much less likely to say something like “a woman was picked on by her male co hosts.”
The first statement was the radio show picked on the female co host. The radio show was presented as the actor in the first sentence. We are just meant to assume it was some men running the show. Yes some guys are mentioned later but the lead in is that the show by default is made of men and the woman is the odd one out.
It’s true that she was the odd one out and this enabled her mistreatment but our language keeps supporting this as an expected default.
“Their female co host” implies only one women working with a group of men, but it’s better to call her something like “the only woman on the show” instead of relying on implication.
18 Likes
