It was recently International Women’s day, and part of my day, was spent watching the South by South West festival Keynote panel. I wanted to see this panel, as a fan of Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex. I always enjoy hearing Meghan speak, especially when it’s topics she’s so passionate about. This post is just a little recap and review of the panel, and the things I took away from this.
I enjoyed the women that made up this panel. Whilst I do not have an in depth knowledge of all of their careers in detail, I was familar with each of the wonderful ladies of the panel, which included Katie Couric, Brooke Shields, Nancy Wang Yuen, Meghan Markle as mentioned and Errin Haines. They wasted no time in kicking off their discussion touching on everything from the how women over 40 are portrayed, the portrayal of mothers in film and in the world, as well as the role social media plays into how women are treated and viewed. The women also discussed recent reports released such as from the Geena Davis institute on Gender in Media- ‘How TV represents Moms and what we want to see next’.
Although this was a fairly long panel discussion, I felt engaged in the conversation throughout and it also made me feel hopeful. Despite some statics feeling like we should be doom and gloom, I do believe that what the panel had to say allows us to have hope that girls and women will be able to achieve great things and open more doors. What was interesting is that the women touched on the power of media and how women are represented can influence policy makers. We have seen this to be the case, not just for women, but for such cases in the UK, like the recent show ‘Mr Bates vs the Postoffice’. This tv show has ignited the UK Goverment to correct the wrongdoings to these innocent people, which would not have happened without this show. The same can be said for women. If we only see ourselves as stay at home mums or housewives, than it’s as though we are saying women can do nothing else. Being those things is amazing, if that’s what you want, but we cannot put women and girls in one box.
Characters such as Olivia Pope, Jessica Pearson, Olivia Benson and so many others inspired me to see what wonderful, intelligent and powerful women can look like onscreen. I think these characters are just as necessary as seeing wonderful caregivers onscreen as well. We want to be able to say that we women can be anything we want to be. You can see the progress, slowly but surely. Another example being the rise in popularity of women’s football. Growing up it was never on the tv, yet now we are starting to show the women’s matches on mainstream television. This is the result of the hardwork of those female athletes, as well as those pushing and advocating for women’s football to be given the respect it deserves.
We are becoming a world glued to our screens. Taking in new information, films, podcasts, tv shows at a crazy rate. Whilst anyone has the ability to create their own following these days, that is both beautiful and terrifying. When you see people such as Andrew Tate rise in popularity and Donald Trump potentially becoming President again, despite ongoing accusations of violence, trafficking and assault on both their parts, it’s scary. But this is why we need women and girls in the media to show all sides of what it is to live the female experience. I think in some ways thats why Barbie had the impact it did. Women came together to celebrate this film, have a fun experience of dressing up without being judged and took away the message of the film that navigating the world as woman can be so many things at once. Beautiful; scary, heartbreaking, fun, amazing, filled with jealousy, girlhood and everything in between. Barbie also proved that women have a voice and are powerful when we come together.
I think the panel did a great job of touching on a lot of different perspectives. Not only from the point of view of us as an audience of media, but also to gain insight behind the curtain as it were. Katie and Meghan were able to speak on the production side of creating their podcasts, and future projects, such as films that we can expect from Archewell. But Brooke was also able to add to this as the subject of her documentary, which I was surprised to learn she really didn’t have as much of a say in how it was ultimately edited and directed.
Besides the tv and movie space, a lot of important discussion was also around social media. Whilst I think we all have a love /hate relationship with it, when used right, social media can be wonderful. I see so many people come together to raise money, to spread positivity, as well as make actual real friendships. However, where there is good, there is also a lot of bad. Besides the terrbile aspects of online such as the dark web, the amount of hateful people online grows more and more everyday. I see horrible comments on posts of everyday people, influencers, celebrities… no one is immune. And people really do hide behind a keyboard and think it’s ok to say these things safely behind a computer. The women discussed how these platforms need to do better, and should take serious action, particularly for bullying. I completely agree, and look forward to how these wonderful women alongside so many others will work to make the online world, and the real world a much better place to be.
This panel discussion was also a look into how far we have come, especially when hearing from Katie Couric and Brooke Shields, in how they were treated and spoken to or about, in the 70’s onwards. But also providing hope. Hope that we have these brilliant women championing for change in media, and holding social media companies accountable. Though there is a lot of work to be done, I loved hearing the discussion. I not only feel hopeful, I feel proud to be in the time that we are, and to see how far we will come in the next few years.
Check out the panel in full here.
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