All-male Shakespeare cast causes sexism row. New Zealand. Regularly in "western society" there are all female productions and no one bats an eyelid! Just do a web search of "all female productions".

FarTooLong2 · 2018-07-23T14:05:35+00:00

The BBC are proudly announcing 'all-female' lineups for discussion shows, comedies, panel discussions etc. As though all-female is something desirable, something we need or want.

ZeroSevenDK · 2018-07-23T16:57:34+00:00

Wasn't Shakespeare originally played by all male casts?

auMatech · 2018-07-23T15:29:04+00:00

All-Male anythings = outrage

Mixed anythings = "we can do better"

All-Female anythings = "optimal 'diversity'"

phoenix335 · 2018-07-23T17:17:11+00:00

Diversity means "no white males".

PM_ME_UR_PC_SPECS · 2018-07-23T13:05:08+00:00

New Zealand, check.

Outrage over historical accuracy, check.

Not a NZ news source, check.

tricks_23 · 2018-07-23T16:37:03+00:00

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Couldawg · 2018-07-23T16:57:51+00:00

True colors shown. It's not about highlighting injustice or drawing attention to an issue (in order to promote natural change). It's simply about numbers. More members from our group, fewer members from their group. More stuff for us. Less stuff for them.

2018-07-23T15:53:01+00:00

please use an archive link instead of giving the bbc traffic

Ted8367 · 2018-07-23T18:34:02+00:00

The usual one-way sexism, getting worked up over an all-male cast (we all hear about that) but ignoring a similar all-woman cast.

Auckland actor Rosie Cann, 22, said she believed the tradition of men playing female roles was outdated and should fall by the wayside.

She said last year some women reversed the convention and had an all-female cast put on a Shakespeare play. They called themselves the Lord Lackbeards and their lead actor was six months pregnant.

"Which was so amazing. So much more interesting to watch than straight white dudes."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11780699

Imnotmrabut · 2018-07-23T14:58:28+00:00

So the Biased Broadcasting Corp now has to turn the world down side up to find a story to fit editorial bias.

I can't wait until they find life on Mars and it's asexual. The pronoun bun fight will be spectacular.

Hessmix · 2018-07-23T16:52:19+00:00

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croidhubh · 2018-07-23T17:59:12+00:00

Uh...they're just doing it the historical way...originally productions WERE all men and the plays were written as such...

thrway_1000 · 2018-07-23T19:33:37+00:00

Nothing can be all-male anymore but all-female is great. So much for feminists and their "equality".

Archive -- https://archive.is/nq3o0

Karma9999 · 2018-07-23T15:53:01+00:00

"No such thing as bad advertising". This may have been a really good move.

Igloo32 · 2018-07-23T22:23:09+00:00

Never mind that historically, Shakespearean plays often had actors in drag for some female roles.

2018-07-23T23:06:49+00:00

... Shakespeare's plays were written and produced for the all male theater companies. Producing it in this method is historically accurate .

aspoels · 2018-07-24T02:59:22+00:00

I mean, back in Shakespearean times wasn’t the theatre men only in terms of acting?

The_Original_Gronkie · 2018-07-24T03:23:11+00:00

A little perspective here. The problem wasnt the all-male cast, it was the use of #metoo and #timesup to promote it. They are irrelevant to the subject matter (except maybe Taking of the Shrew, but that's a separate discussion, and an interesting one, actually) and obviously poor PR attempts at drawing attention. Doing Shakespeare with an all male cast is actually authentic to the original productions, but why would you use those hash tags? Hey look, it's in iambic pentameter, let's promote it as a rap show. Makes no sense. They should be slapped not for being sexist, but for being stupid.

Godkun007 · 2018-07-24T06:03:55+00:00

Wasn't Shakespeare's original plays all male? I remember reading that he would often have clean shaven men playing women.

50PercentLies · 2018-07-23T16:47:52+00:00

Feminists are idiots. The production better defend their rights

MasonTaylor22 · 2018-07-23T18:57:07+00:00

First world feminist problems.

DRUNKEN_ELVIS · 2018-07-24T00:01:36+00:00

Equality..

2018-07-24T10:09:57+00:00

Great idea use "#metoo" to advertise junk

Heffree · 2018-07-23T16:27:52+00:00

Some of the upset is from the theatre using #MeToo to promote themselves.

horsesandeggshells · 2018-07-23T21:14:31+00:00

So, producer does everything he can to appear controversial, gets exactly what he wants, and makes the play.

I mean, come one: He picked a play that is about subjugating women in marriage, makes it all-male, and then starts tweeting out #metoo until someone notices.

This would be like doing an all-white Othello while screaming black lives matter. You're making controversy.

And that's cool. I think this could be a little bit clever, especially if he makes allegories to gay marriage, but he had to work hard for this outrage.

2018-07-23T22:42:29+00:00

I'm totally for more female acts and productions, but in no way am I for the censoring of one of the best artists of the past.

2018-07-24T00:32:42+00:00

If Dr Who can be a woman, Juliet can be a man. Hell, back in the day Juliet WAS a man!

skwishy29 · 2018-07-23T17:39:13+00:00

Literally everyone bats both eyelids when There’s an all female movie. Ghostbusters: terrible reviews, everyone hates how forced it is that they added women. Same with the new oceans movie. Find me one all female lead movie that doesn’t get shit reviews for being forced.

skwishy29 · 2018-07-23T17:28:29+00:00

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2018-07-23T20:11:26+00:00

Ironically the chances are a large portion of them are Gay...just the Left eating itself yet again.

BlackSet · 2018-07-23T17:54:58+00:00

Nah dude, I get it but there’s a bit more to this story that the simplified title.

1-The company is the biggest theatre company in NZ and has a history of casting very few women which means women losing out on a lot of jobs and people (specifically equity) getting annoyed.

Now that’s all fine right cause it’s up to the people in charge who they want to cast which is why it’s never been news, just a few people getting shitty.

2- (and the reason that its big news) is the fact that they used the metoo and timesup hashtags to promote the shows along with titling it the “abuse of power season” all of which are predominantly feminist issues and the Taming of the shrew (which is one of the all male casts) is a fiercely feminist show which is a bit shit to do, taking away some of the best female roles in Shakespeare from women.

I fully believe that the company has every right to hire whoever they want but if you’re going to use feminism to promote your work then you need to back that shit up with hiring equally.

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