Female Only Screenings of Wonder Woman - Sexist?

[Ryika]

I'd say that whether it's "discrimination" is sort of based on whether it's intentional for Canadians to have access to these things later, or whether it's just a consequence of the factors that are involved.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I'd say that that "does it matter," "what's the intention," etc etc etc stuff is all going to run aground in the subjective seas every time. Is it LEGAL is an objectively answerable question.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'd say that whether it's "discrimination" is sort of based on whether it's intentional for Canadians to have access to these things later, or whether it's just a consequence of the factors that are involved.

In this case, it was intentional. At first, there was no indication that we would be able to see it at all, given that Hulu is geoblocked in Canada. Then word got around that it would be available on Bravo, which is not part of my telecom's basic cable package. I took out an extra channel subscription just to be able to watch this.

The show is filmed in Toronto, it's based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, one of Canada's best novelists and essayists, there are Canadians employed as technicians, cast, and extras... yet Canadian viewers don't get to see the episodes at the same time that American viewers do. When I go over to TrekBBS to discuss tonight's episode (there are TWO separate threads over there), the American viewers will have already finished discussing the episode I won't get to see until NEXT Sunday.

It's a good thing I've read the book several times, and it also helps to have seen the movie (some dialogue and even some of the music is lifted straight from the movie - legal since the same people hold the rights to both adaptations). Otherwise, I'd have to avoid those threads for massive spoilers.

I realize that nobody is being prevented from watching this show on the basis of sex or gender. But a whole country is being prevented from watching it in a timely manner due to geography and some weird marketing thing worked out with Hulu.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

But the country is Canada, which has no legal standing in the matter.

 

[red_elk]

Purely out of interest, this is not meant to be a realistic situation:

Imagine you're a man living in a small town with only cinema. Imagine you're a worker and you can only visit Cinema on the weekend.
Now the one cinema in your town has declared that all screenings of Wonder Woman on the first weekend are women-only screenings.
Because you're a man, and a worker, you now have to wait a week until you can see that movie.

Now again, not a realistic situation, I'm just interested: Do you think this specific scenario would count as discrimination?

In case if next weekend there will be a men-only screening, this entire situation would not count as discrimination. Just stupidity.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

So you shouldn't judge a TV show or movie only by what's on the screen.

I'd argue that that's actually exactly how they should be judged (well, assuming that includes the soundtrack as well of course).

 

[metalhead]

Purely out of interest, this is not meant to be a realistic situation:

Imagine you're a man living in a small town with only cinema. Imagine you're a worker and you can only visit Cinema on the weekend.
Now the one cinema in your town has declared that all screenings of Wonder Woman on the first weekend are women-only screenings.
Because you're a man, and a worker, you now have to wait a week until you can see that movie.

Now again, not a realistic situation, I'm just interested: Do you think this specific scenario would count as discrimination?

Not only is it discrimination, I have a feeling the studio might pull the movie from that Cinema.

As with most things, context matters. Discrimination on its own is not a values-based thing. It can be good, bad, or indifferent depending on the circumstances. It can be harmless or harmful. All women- or men-only screenings of any movie are discriminatory, but discrimination on its own is not a reason to oppose something. People have a hard time grasping this concept even though there are dozens of trivial examples one could give where discrimination is a socially acceptable good.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I realize that nobody is being prevented from watching this show on the basis of sex or gender. But a whole country is being prevented from watching it in a timely manner due to geography and some weird marketing thing worked out with Hulu.

It's not a weird marketing thing. It's the CRTC and the concept of "right of first run" in Canada. The Canadian station that gets first rights to run in Canada gets to have the show after the American station is finished with it and releases it to Canada. They do that after they have it as an exclusive for a week. This means Hulu viewers have exclusive content for the week before it is released to the rest of the world. It's the same kind of stupidity that keeps videos at the big US networks geolocked for us. Screw them. I won't watch their drivel anyway.

 

[Ryika]

Randomly stumbled on this update to the story while I was browsing my favorite site on the internet:

Dang — looks like those women-only “Wonder Woman” screenings were illegal

An Austin movie theater is being accused of violating anti-discrimination laws after promoting women-only screenings of “Wonder Woman.” In June, Alamo Drafthouse, a theater chain, announced it would be holding women-only screenings in Austin. It later expanded those screenings to New York and Denver.



Now the chain has apologized for the screenings in a letter to the city. Drafthouse admitted their advocacy of a film screening for women was in violation of anti-discrimination laws in Austin, Texas. The apology follows an outpouring of dissent from men who claim they felt discriminated against, resulting in two official complaints to be filed with the city.


“Respondent did not realize that advertising a ‘women’s-only’ screening was a violation of discrimination laws,” the theater wrote to the city. “Respondent has a very strict non-discrimination policy in place, but this policy did NOT include a specific prohibition against advertising.”

[...]

As it turns out, the complaints have at least some legal merit. Austin city equality codes ban any public accommodation — such as a movie theater — from limiting their services for individuals based on factors including race, color, sex, sexual orientation and gender identification. It’s a situation even Wonder Woman couldn’t fix.

http://www.salon.com/2017/08/08/woman-woman-women-only-screenings-lawsuit/

Who would have guessed?

 

[warpus]

Good on them to apologize for their sexism.

Also good to see that such things are actually indeedly doodly ilegallyoodly