This is an industry rife with racism, sexism and homophobia. It is so closely woven into the fabric of the business that we have become snowblind to the glaring injustices happening every day.
We know in our society, women are valued for their sexual desirability and not necessarily for what they have to say.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the societal tendency to judge women primarily by their appearance rather than their intellect or contributions.
Jessica Chastain's quote addresses an important issue in contemporary society regarding gender perception. It emphasizes that women often face a valuation based on their sexual desirability rather than their ideas or capabilities. This reflects a broader commentary on how societal norms can affect the representation and respectfulness afforded to women, urging a shift towards recognizing their voices and contributions beyond mere physical appearance.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for women's rights, this quote could illustrate the need for societal change.
More from Jessica Chastain
All quotes βI just want to see more women in film and behind the camera. I'm tired of seeing movies from one perspective.
It's tough, acting. You have to walk two lines of a tightrope. There's the all-consuming fear of failure: I'm about to fall flat on my face. There's that and there's also confidence - you have to be confident in order to try things - and they fight each other all the time.
I'm not taking jobs anymore where I'm getting paid a quarter of what the male co-star is being paid. I'm not allowing that in my life.
It's a fact, the majority of films in Hollywood are from the male perspective. And the female characters, very rarely do they get to speak to another female character in a movie, and when they do it's usually about a guy, not anything else. So they're very male-centric, Hollywood films, in general. So I think it's incredible that Ned Benson, when I said I'd love to know where she goes, says okay, I'm going to write another film from the female perspective.
I find it very interesting: when 90 percent of the critics that review films are men, how is that helpful when trying to create stories from a feminine point of view?
Similar quotes
It is often falsely assumed, even by feminists, that sexuality is the enemy of the female who really wants to develop these aspects of her personality, and this is perhaps the most misleading aspect of movements like the National Organization of Women. It was not the insistence upon her sex that weakened the American woman student's desire to make something of her education, but the insistence upon a passive sexual role
Men are boys for such a long time and really don't start getting the great roles until they're in their mid-thirties. But then they've got a long time to do them, whereas for women, it's all about playing younger and younger and younger.
The more I was treated as a woman, the more woman I became. A adapted willy-nilly. If I was assumed to be incompetent at reversing cars, or opening bottles, oddly incompetent I found myself becoming. If a case was thought too heavy for me, inexplicably I found it so myself.
We still live in a world in which a significant fraction of people, including women, believe that a woman belongs and wants to belong exclusively in the home.
All too often, girls are ignored because their challenges aren't thought to be as serious as those faced by boys.
Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.