Everybody Supports Women, Until…

Through my time in the industry, I have worked for 10 different Visual Effects houses in NYC and LA, while mentoring students of all backgrounds not only nation wide, but globally.

While these experiences helped me grow in both my network and my technical skill sets at an expedited rate, I constantly felt pressure to hide innate parts of who I am due to working in a primarily male dominated industry.

“You’re only getting booked as much as you do because of your looks,” (from a Senior Male within the Industry)

or , “Is the work you do even hard?” ,

are just a couple of the comments I received that conditioned me to want to shrink myself. And while I’m sure the second one came from a true lack of knowledge of what our industry entails, I realized in these moments that a man would never ask another man explaining the same exact job that I do (Lighting Technical Direction), if his job is in fact, hard to do.

The truth is, while our industry is expanding to be more diverse in gender and ethnicity, I still struggle to feel that ALL women are being accepted.

Women supports women doesn’t mean we only support:

• the women we find attractive

• the women we feel comfortable around because “she’s one of the dudes”

• the women without families who can stay post 8pm

• or the woman that fits whatever box you’ve decided she needs to be placed in to make you feel more comfortable.

Women Supports Women means we support ALL women.