Blog 12

Because I am incredibly selfish and only care about how events affect ME, I have been ranting and raving about the writer's strike in Hollywood for about a week now. Being a frustrated writer myself, I understand the Writer's Guild's desire to make more money from online sales of their shows, especially since "the suits" are certainly making the big money from new media. Still, striking writers means no new TV and I love TV, so I am taking the whole thing as a personal affront. But, a story I read at http://www.womensenews.org/ has made me think about all of the little people who are being affected by the writer's strike, and of course a majority of these little people are women.

Sandra Kobrin writes about all of the writing assistants, secretaries, and crew members who work for a salary to support the writers who are striking and the shows that are going dark. These workers, lower paid than the writers and not getting residual payments to keep them afloat like the writers, are being pink slipped as the strike drags on. And who are these cogs in the machine? Not all are women, but the majority seems to be. And who are the striking writers? Not all are men, but only about 28% of paid TV writers and 19% of movie writers are women, so let's just say the majority of the picket line walkers are male.

I'm not sure what it is going to take to bring the two sides of this mess to some sort of amiable agreement, but here's hoping that something gives soon. That way, I can go back to watching brand new episodes of my favorite mind rotting television shows, and the young women who work, largely unnoticed and unappreciated, to support the Hollywood system can go back to work. Rents and student loans don't pay themselves, as I well know.

For Sandra Kobrin's complete story, please go to http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3385/context/archive