The Letting Off Steam Thread - Page 228

"Robin Wright says she had to fight for equal pay on House of Cards"
is the title of an article on the guardian.

Kevin Spacey (two times Oscar winner) is a more important character (he's the protagonist), he has more screen time, more scenes, more work to do, he has more draw as an actor, people know his name. She threatened to go public, blaming sexism for the fact that she made less money than the main character of the show she plays in. She won despite not deserving as much money as he does because she works less and she's less valuable for the show. And after threatening to go public if she didn't get more money for less work, she still went public.

Not only did she use sexism to blackmail Netflix into giving her money she didn't deserve, she still fucked them. It's unbelievable.

It's interesting what this whole ordeal says... Wright basically argues that women should get more than men for equal work. Women entertainer should get more than their male counterparts. And they shouldn't necessarily attempt to increase their market value, instead they should use guilt and blackmail to elevate their market value artificially, by giving their employer a choice between the financial losses from being labeled a sexist, versus the financial costs of hiring a woman for more than what she's worth to the market. Ultimately it hurts women.

Let me put it this way. All other things being the same, if Kevin Spacey in House of Cards was replaced by a female actor of equal talent and notoriety, and she was the protagonist of the show, and her wife was Robin Wright, she would 100% make a fair bit more money than Wright. Doubtless some people will read this and still somehow accuse me of sexism but I legitimately think that these types of things are detrimental to women in the long run. This is the wrong way to go about it.