• NY Times article: That entrenched macho bias

3/10/21 (Wed)

I came across this article that I wrote a year ago but never posted. It’s pretty funny rereading it, so I thought I’d throw it in now. This critic recently complained feverishly about unmasked West End audiences on a trip to the UK, where masking is not mandated. Talk about the ugly American. The NY Times is sounding more and more like the Babylon Bee.

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Someone needs to give Laura Collins-Hughes a real job. The NY Times critic wrote an article asking film stars to return to stages around the nation to get things hopping again, a fine sentiment, though I suspect it wouldn’t take that much to get people back to the theater; as Japan has found, demand for communal cultural events even amid the pandemic is a lot stronger than many people think, especially among younger audiences, as long as the product is attractive.

What grated was her notion of the supposed disdain that “this swaggering cowboy nation of ours” has for theater, including “an entrenched macho bias, bound up in misogyny and homophobia, that makes it hard for the industry to be taken seriously”. Anyone know what she’s talking about? Continue reading →