This Twitter account is ripping the way women are introduced in film scripts

Film producer Ross Putman has noticed some cringeworthy commonalities in the way women are introduced in the scripts that cross his desk. Namely, that these women are all described as being hot, and the description usually includes what they are (or aren’t) wearing. To shine a light on this unfortunate trend, he started @femscriptintros. The Twitter account launched a little under a day ago and already has more 19,000 followers. Here are a few highlights.

“JANE stands next to it (30’s) dressed in a paramedic’s uniform - blonde, fit, smokin’ hot.”

“A gorgeous woman, JANE, 23, is a little tipsy, dancing naked on her big bed, as adorable as she is sexy. *BONUS PTS FOR BEING THE 1ST LINE”

“Behind a steamy shower door is the indistinguishable but sexy silhouette of JANE showering.”

“JANE, a 19 year old Bunny girl - honey-blonde farmland beauty queen.”

“JANE, 28, athletic but sexy. A natural beauty. Most days she wears jeans, and she makes them look good.”

Again, these are real scripts, and only the characters’ names have been changed. It’s simultaneously hilarious and really, really sad.

Follow @femscriptintros

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Thoughts on Romance from the Road Victoria Crayhon

This work is an ongoing project that uses photography to document text interventions on roadside marquee signs. I place phrases on movie and motel marquee signs, many of which I find through research but also in the course of my frequent long distance travel by car. I use my own sign letters and then leave the scene with the words left intact upon the sign. Before I depart, I make a photograph from the sidewalk or roadside. I then make large-scale color prints as documents of the sign in its environment. The photograph becomes the sole remnant of the project as the letters inevitably disappear or are taken down. The work addresses the effect of media and technology upon human memory and desire.

Images and text via Victoria Crayhon

Syd Mead concept art from the Blade Runner 30th Anniversary blu-ray still gallery, part two: interiors

AL PACINO /// HEAT

The first on-screen kiss between two men.

“Wings”, 1927

This doesn’t show exactly what the caption suggests it shows. 

In this scene, the lower pilot is dying. He had been captured, managed to escape, and stole a German plane to fly back. The upper pilot–his best friend and rival for the love of Clara Bow*–shot him down, believing he was the enemy. This is him kissing his friend goodbye.

“But that’s still slashy!” you can say. Yep, it is. “You can read this as homoerotic!” Yes, you can. “Why are you denying this? Is it because you think being gay or bi is shameful?” A thousand times no. I am pointing this out because I think this is an important piece of evidence about what homophobia has done to our society and to male expressions of emotion. 

In 1927, the obvious reading of this scene, for audiences, was not that this was a romantic kiss. Audiences primarily understood this as an expression of friendship and love, because of course it was perfectly natural for non-romantically involved men to embrace or even kiss, particularly at highly emotional moments. Of course a dying man would want to be held during his last breaths. Of course a guilt- and grief-stricken man would want to kiss his friend goodbye. 

However, not very long after this, the commercialization and commodification of homophobia became a powerful force. The market (including Hollywood) began drawing lines and graphs and boxes, declaring which emotions, expressions, habits, and even colors “belonged” to men and to women. This kind of touch, which would not necessarily have been sexualized during many eras or in many cultures, became forbidden to men in the US, Britain and Canada (and many other places, too) within the decade–and is still lost to them today. This scene–a far more honest expression of grief and affection than anything we’re used to seeing in today’s action films–became gay. 

Now, if you strongly wish to write “Wings” slash, you can still do so–and not entirely by putting on your goggles! University culture of the 1900s-1920s definitely allowed for a far wider range of sexual behavior than frats do now, etc. I don’t want to police what anybody can and does find in “Wings.” But I think we should acknowledge what we lost when capitalism decided that, for men, kisses could only be sexual. 

*You may recognize Clara Bow from that goddamned photo that keeps making the rounds of the internet captioned, “A sex ed class in the 1920s!” so everyone can hoot with derision at the shocked girls in their desks. The photo is actually a still from a movie, and the star, Ms. Bow, is front and center. 

Very much this.

Comic - Star Trek #030 (Cat Staggs Cover)

PLANET OF THE APES production stills