Meet Aaron Sorkin.

For those who don't know, Aaron Sorkin is renowned screenwriter and producer for TV and movies. Famous works include The West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War, Social Network and - the show that everyone in the U.S. is talking about right now - The Newsroom. He would probably also have scoffed at the way I started this blog post and called me one of those "Internet Girls" that he hates so much, and commented that I should watch a film or pick up a newspaper or something, and then taught me how to high-five properly. That was what he did to a Canadian female journalist that interviewed him once. Aaron Sorkin hates the internet and so thinks that everyone who originates from the internet are lower on the intelligence scale, particularly if they're women.

Sorkin presents me with one of my biggest dilemmas in life. Sorkin's shows are great; they're well-written (a soft spot I have for shows), they take on important issues (or at least Sorkin's important issues) and they're intelligent, witty, compelling. I have a lot of respect for art, literature and media, and I am of the belief that you don't dismiss the entirety of a book or film just because the creator might be sexist, or some character in there is less than savory, and so on. Things on the side that might rub me the wrong way. I think liking and agreeing with something are two different things. I can like something, but I don't have to agree with it. (I just have to don't really hate it i.e. Republicans.) I merely have to appreciate that this piece of work is out there. But there are a lot of times when my belief is tested. Like in the Indiana Jones movies. My thoughts are probably the same as the above - the movies are great, well-written, legendary, etc...but I can't say the same for some of George Lucas' female characters. It would take a whole blog post to describe how I feel about the female protagonist n the second IJ movie (sorry don't remember the name and won't google. Was it the crystal skull or something?). She was a blonde bombshell whose intelligence were basically tied to her looks, but even then she still took a backseat to Indiana Jones (the REAL hero of the movie, of course! Only him and no one else! Hurrah! Sorry, bitter), and later we find out (spoilers) that she's only intelligent because she's evil and is a Nazi. And when she goes over to the good side in the end by killing the villain - I was all ready to cheer for what seems like her manifesting agency - and then she dies. What the fuck?

But even with that, I was forgiving. IJ is a product of its time, after all. Lucas is like 68 years old now. (I did Google to make sure I spelled Lucas right.) You can probably name twenty other movies with similar plotlines. More than that, the case just didn't feel that severe to me. Fucked up portrayal of women in the media? Okay... bad, but women today are doing better, we're seeing better portrayals, representation isn't everything, etc. I reason.

But if there's one thing I simply cannot stand for, it is when men belittle women's intelligence. Especially when they have no justification to back their claims. I am linking this because I want you to read it. Read about just how much of a prick Sorkin was being to this journalist, and try to fathom how she didn't jump out of her seat and punch him right there.

When she commented that she watched pilot twice, he immediately assumed she didn't understand it. She said no, it was because she wanted to know it better since she was writing about it. Then she remarked that she would have liked to watch a show about Gawker (pointing out that it was a personal preference), and it was probably then that he made up his mind about her. And before he leaves, he goes...

“Listen here, Internet girl. It wouldn’t kill you to watch a film or pick up a newspaper once in a while.”

I would have punched him. Or tried. Or retaliated. Or something. But when women do things like that, they just don't fly. Instead, the journalist named Sarah Nicole Prickett (who writes for a newspaper, by the way -  a fact Sorkin seems to have completely forgot after he saw that she had boobs and liked Gawker) fought fire with fire. She beat him at his own game - by telling the truth and publishing it in print. Hah. 


It doesn't end there. Apparently he even tried to convince her to "write something nice" (his words), and that's AFTER he tried to awkwardly high-five her, then tell her she's doing it wrong and that he's "sick of girls who don't know how to high-five". First of all, whoa, "girls"? Second...no, there is no second. Just read that statement of his again and tell me it does not make your blood boil. If I had been treated like that at an interview, quite honestly I don't even know how I would have reacted. If I had stormed out in protest, I probably would lose my job. If I had punched him, hell would break loose for me. Tell him off and never be scheduled for an interview again and have my career ruined? What can I do when a man is being a total misogynistic prick to me? Absolutely nothing in the moment...so thank God for the media providing Prickett an outlet to get even and exposing this bullshit.

Ever since reading that, I've been feeling a little sore and bruised when it comes to Sorkin's shows. I hate it when men belittle women's intelligence precisely because I would feel so helpless if it happens to me. There is nothing I can do. And I feel the same way when I sit there, watching these shows. Millions of people are going to watch them, enjoy them, and not think for a second more about them, unknowingly absorbing and taking along all this bullshit, and I can't do anything about it except rant here in my insignificant little blog space.

Prickett's article describes exactly how I feel. She praises the show where it deserves it, and criticized it for its problematic values, as well as those of Sorkin's. Pretty damn well-written article, I must say.

PS - This is the opening speech of The Newsroom:

Easily one of the greatest speeches in a TV show or a movie, despite the idealism (points out the bf). But was the "sorority girl" jibe really necessary? Who is he to speak? So do all women who look like her join sororities? I am the biggest critic of Greek life but to insert such a presumptive and uncalled for comment in what is supposed to be a great speech...disgusting.