Leaving the grand and largely baseless theorizing aside, might I suggest that this "positive reinforcement" gets such a negative response because the people doing it are unbearably inept? Social Justice types have completely forgotten how to market their causes. There are so many little ways to get people interested and participating, but these days most of the people trying to "help" would rather throw long-winded rants in people's faces. One gets more people with honey than with vinegar, and it might be worth a bit of time to figure out what people find off-putting about one's rhetoric and change it, rather than getting angry all over again about their reactions.BulbaRaith said:Any positive enforcement of women has already been shown (even in this thread where no motive was given other than asking a simple question about which films people like pass, what most would count as the bare minimum, a test of participation for female characters in a film) to get a massive negative response from the male (dominant) population. As I said this isn't only a problem in films, this is a deep flaw in society.
My suggestion on solving the problem of the small number of female directors working today would be to find films by female directors with the potential to appeal to something beyond the film school crowd that already cares about these issues and get them out there where people can see them. "Punisher: Warzone" might not be a classic work of art, but it's a damn good action movie and it can win you a lot of converts you would never reach otherwise if you swing it the right way (it also has a pretty good commentary track from the director and her DP, which doesn't hurt). Making someone a fan of an actual female director, especially a vocal fan, will give you more practical results than getting ten people interested in the idea of one.