Every year, Elle Magazine releases a Women in Hollywood edition where they conduct individual interviews with some of the biggest and most influential names in the business.
This years’ feature includes powerhouses like Gwenyth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman, Zendaya and Mindy Kaling.
In the aftermath of #MeToo, Elle’s 2019 Women in Hollywood honorees are defined by the question: Where do we go from here?
For the 2019 Women in Hollywood, the answer comes with plotting a new path.
“No point in going down that same Old Town Road,” Dolly Parton said. “We got other roads to travel.”
All of the women in the feature are walking new roads and breaching previously taboo topics with their work.
Nicole Kidman’s upcoming film Bombshell follows the Fox News scandal involving Roger Ailes.
“The story it’s trying to tell is broader than Fox News. It’s much more about sexual harassment and the women,” Nicole Kidman, who plays Greta Carlson in the film, told Elle.
Mindy Kaling’s Late Night, similarly explores the power imbalance that exists in media settings. The film delves into the inner workings of a writers’ room, where a woman of colour sits at the table among a sea of white men.
“That experience [of a diversity hire] is so universal for so many women who are trying to do something that they were not trained to do, and who have ambition, and who don’t see people who look like them succeeding,” Kaling said.
Every woman in Elle’s feature has their own barrier breaking project, story, or insight to share.
Natalie Portman reflects on the modern definition of feminism, Zendaya admits her daily battle with anxiety, Gwyneth Paltrow talks about her ambition.
The feature is an empowering read – there’s something about seeing powerful, successful women side-by-side and offering words of wisdom that just makes me feel good.
And I suppose that’s the point of the feature: to give hope to women around the world who for so long have felt helpless in a situation that felt hopeless.
But for all the good things Elle’s Women in Hollywood feature has to offer, there is one glaring problem: Scarlett Johansson. Specifically, how Elle Magazine has chosen to report on Scarlett’s past controversies relating to issues of race and sexual assault.
Elle hasn’t reported on it – well, barely. They gloss over Scarlett’s past errors in a single paragraph which read as follows:
“After being called out for possibly appropriative roles in Ghost in the Shell and Rub & Tug (she exited the latter amid the controversy; the project is now in limbo), Johansson told a reporter that “as an actor,” she should be able to play “any person, or any tree, or any animal.” (She later clarified the statement, saying that in an ideal world art should be immune to political correctness.) Two days after we talk, she’s in the news again for defending Match Point director Woody Allen, who’s been accused of molesting his adopted daughter (an accusation he’s repeatedly denied). To her credit, Johansson’s critics will find zilch to take issue with in her current films, both of which feel drawn from the most authentic wells of personal history.”
That very last line – about Scarlett’s current work being authentic – is where the issue lies for me. It’s dismissive, it says “she’s done all of these questionable things but it’s okay because her work since has been good.”
But I don’t think it’s that simple nor do I think it should be.
Don’t get me wrong, Scarlett is a hugely successful woman and deserves to have her success celebrated. But her success does not negate her controversy.
Scarlett should be held more accountable for her errors, especially by the media industry who has such huge influence when it comes to topics of gender, race, and sexuality.
The entire #MeToo premise of Elle’s feature is contradicted by how they report on Scarlett. Elle Magazine should have probed Scarlett about her comments on racism, cultural appropriation, and sexual misconduct – they should have shown an awareness and thoughtfulness about the whole issue. They should have given Scarlett the opportunity to show humility.
Instead, they played ignorant. But ignoring an issue does not make the issue go away. If anything, it gives it space to continue to fester.
Like I said, Scarlett deserves to have her success and power celebrated. Her mistakes do not define her entire career but they are an important part of her narrative – they should not be ignored.
To Elle Magazine I say this:
It’s all well and good to celebrate women and the waves they are making in the wake of #MeToo movement, but it’s just as important to investigate how those same women have failed and risen above their failures.
The Women in Hollywood feature is insightful and poignant and important…until you look closer.