[NTLK] Women of Newton

[Steven Frank]

The quiet danger is not so much a particular "agenda" that's maliciously and purposely setting out to exclude women and other underrepresented groups, but by creators who passively contribute to the problem by simply being unaware of it, or choosing to ignore it, and thus not putting effort into more equal representation.  

Noah is to be applauded for looking past the low-hanging fruit, and making an active effort to bring more balance to his film.  It's easy to simply interview the obvious candidates.  Seeking out into the far corners to blend in the stories of the lesser-known participants is harder, and will without question result in a more interesting documentary.

There's also a chicken-and-egg thing that happens over the very long term (generations) where particular groups don't appear to be "interested" in a certain topic, because they don't see portrayals of people like themselves in media about that topic in their formative years.  If young girls are rarely exposed to strong role models in computing or science, then yes, they will take away the message that it's not "for them", even though it's untrue, and look for a career elsewhere.  Same thing with boys and careers that traditionally are occupied by women; it cuts both ways.

Anyway, I don't know if it'll help, but I'll put out a call from my Twitter account for Newton women!  :)

Steven


> On Sep 15, 2017, at 7:57 AM, Dan <dan at dbdigitalweb.com> wrote:
> 
> But it shows how our society tends to accuse about such aspects.  Just
> because a group of people are not covered/included very much in a
> particular film or whatever does not mean bias on the side of the
> producer.  It could be there weren't people of that race/color/gender
> that were interested (or were unavailable).  People are different and
> those of a certain race/color/gender tend to gravitate more to certain
> interests.  It is a fact of life.  Not all of course, but to always
> assume first they are excluded because of an agenda?  Yes it has
> happened in the past, but that does not mean it happens all the time
> either, and if you don't have a "perfect balance" does not mean you are
> bias.
> 
> -Dan