"Welcome to our world!" -Olivia Wilde

I loved this video of Olivia Wilde speaking about women’s image and portrayal and justice. I agree with her: the question we have to ask ourselves is—what can we do to change that image that society and the media have painted of women. Men do get the lead roles. It is difficult to finance a movie starring a female. So, what can we do to make movies that celebrate women more and show a more accurate picture of how strong and beautiful women really are? 

This inspired me to continue writing my script. It already has a lead female (me). However, Wilde’s speech also opened up my creative juices and I thought up of seven other movies that I want to write.  Movies showing the intelligence of a woman, movies showing the talents of a woman, movies showing the true inner beauty of a woman. I believe that it is important to celebrate  who we are as females. Don’t get me wrong: I do not have any intention of bashing men in the process. I think that defeats the purpose of making these movies. But I would like to create a film where women aren’t objectified. Not that I don’t like being beautiful and being admired as such, but I think there’s a big difference between presenting your beauty because you respect yourself enough to take care of yourself and presenting your beauty because you crave attention and affection. There is big difference.  All these magazines and media scream to women that there is something inherently wrong with them, that they need to lose weight, look prettier, wear better clothes, be as skinny as the photoshopped images that claim to be the ideal. But what is the ideal exactly? And why is it a size 2 with 7% body fat? How is that ideal? And who is that really ideal for? I don’t know any woman on the planet who enjoys feeling hungry all the time. Do you? I certainly hate the feeling. I think we as a society have become all too concerned with the damaging values. And it’s not just the men. We women are more guilty of this than they are. We hold more responsibility for this because we let this happen. We allow ourselves to be objectified and disregarded, and that can stop now. We have the power to respect ourselves enough to stop being mistreated. I’m not trying to step on the feminist soapbox and preach equal rights. I’m just advocating being treated with respect. I think that women were innately made to care and comfort and nurture. We were blessed with the greatest gift of all, which is to have the ability to bring a bring new person into this life. I think that should be celebrated.  Men—I’m not wanting to take away your duties. Go out there and provide. Work hard at your job, bring home the bacon, and protect your family with your strength. Just recognize that our jobs are just as hard and demanding. And if we want to make movies starring us, that should be celebrated too. We are also storytellers and deserve to have our stories told as well. We are the yang to your yin. That means that we compliment each other. That means that we provide each other with things that the other one needs. All I’m asking for is to respect us as your equal counterpart. You are not better than us. We are not better than you. We are part of the same puzzle that can create beautiful balance should we choose to work together.  Allow us the freedom to do what we do best. And ladies, stand up and walk away when they don’t respect you enough. We have to be able to tell them when they have crossed the line. It’s not okay to continue to allow them to disregard what we bring to the table. Respect yourself and love yourself to show all the wonderful things that you are as a woman and to walk away when you are not being recognized. We can make changes. It all starts with you. Let’s make a difference and a change in the way that women are viewed. Let’s bring back classy women. We have more power than we think.

YES TO THE YING: What empowers you? What can you do to empower yourself and those around you?