Hollywood has a long history of sexism that goes back much farther than the relatively recent #MeToo movement. Sexism is built into the very fabric of the film and television industry. This was clearly visible in the recent Hulu series Pam & Tommy, which took a look at the whirlwind courtship and marriage of former Playboy playmate and Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and her ex-husband, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, and the sex tape that turned Pam's life upside down.
In the series, Anderson is frustrated by her husband's inability to see how negatively the sex tape affected her life. He was lauded for it — for landing such a babe, for being legendarily well-endowed. He was met by high-fives and men buying him drinks. Anderson, on the other hand, was objectified, condescended to, lost out on acting jobs, mocked, and generally treated like total crap. When the couple tried to get the tape back in their control, attorneys used Anderson's past Playboy centerfold status to suggest that she had no right to her own body due to her consensual participation in that publication. That argument is absurd, but it is one which women have faced on various levels for decades.
To be clear, Pam & Tommy portrays Anderson in a good light, even if she will never watch Hulu's series and wanted nothing to do with it. She comes across as sweet, determined, and far smarter than the public has given her credit for. The fact remains that women, and particularly women who look like Anderson (tan, fit, well-endowed, and blonde) haven't been taken seriously in Hollywood (or the boardrooms of corporate America) since well before the day Marilyn Monroe rolled into town.
The Infamous “Casting Couch”
The term "casting couch" first appeared in Variety on November 24, 1937. As the sordid legend goes, male producers, directors, casting agents, and others often promised actresses roles in return for sexual favors. The presence of this practice can be traced back to the 1920s, meaning we're looking at a century of women being subjected to sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood.
In the 1950s, actresses developed elaborate ploys to avoid being left alone with men in the film industry. The common thought of the era was that it was up to those actresses to avoid the sexual assault and harassment that is woven into the fabric of movie-making. There were no consequences for the men. Does this sound familiar? It wasn't until Bill Cosby and the disgraced sex criminal Harvey Weinstein faced very public trials about their systematic sexual misconduct towards women over decades that any high profile Hollywood man faced repercussions for the way they objectified, assaulted, and/or harassed women seeking roles and jobs in the film industry.
Sexism in Hollywood After Pam & Tommy
There have been tales of sexism in Hollywood since the days of the best silent movies, and it literally still goes on today. In fact, in 2015, Jennifer Lawrence wrote about the pay gap in Hollywood for Lena Dunham's newsletter Lenny (now offline). She said, "I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard.” In 2015, Kristen Stewart told The Wrap, "Hollywood is disgustingly sexist. Women inevitably have to work a little bit harder to be heard. It’s crazy. It’s so offensive it’s crazy."
In 2016, Mila Kunis admitted to A Plus Magazine (via The Guardian) that she had been "insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on [her] gender." She also said a producer threatened that she'd never work in Hollywood again if she didn't pose seminude for a men's magazine. That same year, Brie Larson commented, "There were many times that I would go into auditions and the casting directors would say, 'It's really great, we love what you're doing, but we'd really love for you to come back in a jean miniskirt and high heels,'" in the press room backstage at the Oscars where she had just won Best Actress.
In 2019, Emma Stone told Rolling Stone, "I hesitate to make it about being a woman, but there have been times when I've improvised, they've laughed at my joke and then given it to my male co-star. Given my joke away. Or it's been me saying, 'I really don't think this line is gonna work,' and being told, 'Just say it, just say it, if it doesn't work we'll cut it out' — and they didn't cut it out, and it really didn't work!'"
Women Face Pressure To Look Perfect And Young At All Times
A lot of press and water cooler speculation has been given to the plastic surgery and Botox female celebrities undertake with gusto in an effort to maintain their youthful glow. They have to. In an industry that not just values youth but idolizes it, their faces are their jobs. Consider the case of Olivia Munn and the film Wolf of Wall Street. She was told that she was too old to play Leonardo DiCaprio's love interest in the film. She was 28 at the time. Margot Robbie was cast as DiCaprio's onscreen love interest. She was 22. Leo was 39 at the time. This is far from unusual.
In Woody Allen's (consider the source) Magic in the Moonlight, Emma Stone and Colin Firth had a 29-year age difference. In Entrapment, Catherine Zeta-Jones was 29 to Sean Connery's 68. In As Good As It Gets, Helen Hunt was 34 and Jack Nicholson was 60. This is such a common occurrence in Hollywood casting that audiences hardly blink an eye. The same goes for DiCaprio off-screen — he tends to favor much younger women in real life too. The well-known modelizer is now 47 and his girlfriend Camila Morrone is 24-years-old. Zach Braff is 46 and his girlfriend Florence Pugh is 26.
Women over 40, or God forbid, over 50 have little to no job prospects onscreen. Even roles of playing the mother to adult children has Hollywood casting women who are five to 12 years older than their on-screen children. In 2019's Glass, Samuel L. Jackson's on-screen mother was played by Charlayne Woodard who is five years younger than Jackson in real life. When Mean Girls was released in 2004, Amy Poehler played Rachel McAdams' mom. Poehler is only seven years older than McAdams. In Alexander, a then 29-year-old Angelina Jolie played 28-year-old Colin Farrell's mother.
Pam & Tommy, and Women As Commodities
In Hollywood, women are frequently treated as a commodity. In Pam & Tommy, Pamela Anderson realizes this from the fallout she received from the sex tape. She was objectified on the set of Baywatch before that, and it got markedly worse afterward — especially once she realized that the largely male crew had all seen the tape. Men, on the other hand, aren't censured for these things. Tommy Lee was practically voted man of the year by his fans when the sex tape leaked, whereas Anderson was made to feel ashamed of her participation in that tape. Even worse, other men saw her only as a commodity to get into bed.
When Anderson was pregnant and auditioning, the casting executives eyed her baby bump suspiciously. Would this be the end of her slamming sexy body, they wondered. The sad fact is women still face discrimination for pregnancy, and it's even worse if you are a celebrity. Think about all the magazines and websites that devote coverage to how fast so-and-so lost the baby weight. Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Charisma Carpenter has been very vocal in her allegations that Joss Whedon called her fat when she was pregnant and later fired her. It's a misogynistic spin on the whole Madonna/Whore complex.
In 2004, Paris Hilton had her world turned upside down when her then-husband Rick Salomon released a sex tape from 2001 (when Paris was 18). In her This is Paris documentary Hilton revealed, "It was my first real relationship. Eighteen. I was so in love with him and I wanted to make him happy. And I just remember him pulling out the camera. And he was kind of pressuring me into it. It was like being electronically raped."
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the socialite stated that the sex tape was humiliating. Echoing Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy (and showing how little things changed over the decade between sex tapes), Hilton said, “That will always be something that will hurt me for the rest of my life. It’s always there in the back of my mind. When it happened, people were so mean about it to me. The way that I was spoken about on nightly talk shows and the media, to see things with my family was just heartbreaking. I would be in tears every single day, I didn’t want to leave my house, I felt like my life was over.”
The Bechdel Test
The Bechdel Test was created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985 as a casual way to remark on the lack of women on screen. It was part of a comic called The Rule where two women talk about going to the movies to see movies that have two female characters who talk to each other about something aside from men. Specifically, the Bechdel Test is used to determine if women are in the film as fully realized human characters rather than as plot devices for the men. It would be simple for a film to pass the Bechdel Test:
- It needs to have at least two women (with names)
- The women need to talk to each other about something other than a man or men
Easy, right? Sadly, 37 years later, most films fail this simple test of having fully realized female characters more often than not. In 2018, the BBC did a study that revealed that only half of the Best Picture Oscar winners pass the test. Recent winners The Shape of Water, Green Book, Parasite, and CODA pass the test, so it is progressing.
Gender equality is a hot-button issue these days. It has always been a problem in Hollywood. There's a vast imbalance of movies wiith women directors, crew, and studio executives. With the majority of decisions in Hollywood being made by men, women still have a long way to go to achieve equality in film.
People Who Make A Sex Tapes Work For Them
While Pamela Anderson's (and Paris Hilton's) sex tapes were released without their permission and both feel they negatively affected their lives, there are some celebrities who've embraced their sex tapes and turned them into a career. The most obvious example of this is Kim Kardashian. Her 39-minute sex tape with Ray J was made months before Keeping Up With the Kardashians premiered and played a significant role in making her famous and putting her on the road to becoming one of the wealthiest women in the world.
Pam's Experience Would Be Slightly Different In 2022
The experience of having a sex tape leaked without permission is not something anyone should have to go through. That said, if the Pam and Tommy Lee sex tape hit the internet today, it would not be as big of a deal. Nearly three decades have passed since the Pam and Tommy tape and, well, the internet is riddled with porn (something Pam & Tommy expertly depicts the dawn of). Amateur sites have popped up, cam girls make a living online, and there's simply too much noise out there. Sure, the tape would be a curiosity given the fame of its participants, and Pam might still feel violated by it, but the fact is, it wouldn't be as big a deal. After all, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Mimi Faust, Rebecca Gayheart, Blac Chyna, and Eve have all been the subject of sex tapes in the years after Pam and Tommy's tape caused such a sensation.
As such, Pam & Tommy is a masterful snapshot of a moment in culture which led to today, a moment which in some ways was very different from now, and in others, woefully the same.