Transparent Creator Calls Male Stories 'Immoral'

Transparent, a drama featuring a transgender father who comes out to his family, can be seen exclusively on Amazon Instant Video. The show has attracted acclaim for pushing the LGBT social agenda. Its creator, Jill Soloway, recently told Variety that Hollywood needs to become more diverse. Her rhetoric was pointed:

“I think, as the ACLU is investigating the illegality of keeping women from directing positions, male creators, showrunners, producers and directors have to really face the immorality, their own immorality, of hiring their friends, of telling male stories, of perpetuating male privilege through protagonism,” said Soloway, clad in electric pink as an extra show of feminism. “So that means the male gaze — men as subject, women as object — is business as usual for men to be able to keep telling their stories from their point of view. … (They need to) really offer women the chance to write, to direct, and then to empower them once they are writing and directing, and say, ‘tell your story, tell your story!’”

Soloway’s comments emerge from a broader rejection of free association. The concept of “privilege” references the natural human tendency to act in service of chosen values. Of course you’re going to favor your friends and family over complete strangers. Why wouldn’t you? Of course a storyteller is going to tell stories which she relates to.

In truth, no moral obligation exists to provide women with greater opportunity in Hollywood. Indeed, suggesting otherwise cheapens the accomplishments of someone like Amy Schumer. Does Soloway really want the commercial success of Schumer’s new film Trainwreck to go down in history with an asterisk? Would she truly prefer that Schumer be credited, not as a meritorious talent, but as the fulfillment of a quota?