Cartoon/TV ► Marvel's Jessica Jones

[Taochan]

Not opposed to female directors by any stretch of the imagination. Prioritizing diversity over talent is what's not okay. Purposefully choosing directors only because there are female is discriminating.

They likely felt that women were the best choice for the direction they wanted to take season 2 in. Diversity is a positive thing; diversity allows for broader perspectives.

It's difficult to judge talent on a season that hasn't aired. If the quality of the show takes a drastic dive because they chose to hire people who they felt were best for the show, that's one thing. But JJ is my favorite of the Netflix shows and, as a woman, I think it's an exciting prospect to have female superheroes -- Patsy will probably suit up in season 2 -- being written by women.

The Netflix shows have so far maintained consistent quality so I highly doubt any director they chose isn't qualified.

 

[Shadow Fenix]

They likely felt that women were the best choice for the direction they wanted to take season 2 in. Diversity is a positive thing; diversity allows for broader perspectives.

It's difficult to judge talent on a season that hasn't aired. If the quality of the show takes a drastic dive because they chose to hire people who they felt were best for the show, that's one thing. But JJ is my favorite of the Netflix shows and, as a woman, I think it's an exciting prospect to have female superheroes -- Patsy will probably suit up in season 2 -- being written by women.

The Netflix shows have so far maintained consistent quality so I highly doubt any director they chose isn't qualified.

That I can agree with, for sure. The quality and precedence is certainly there, so I don't see an issue in giving this the benefit of the doubt for the time being. But if the only reason for hiring these directors was because of what's between their legs, that's an issue. That's, as I said, literally discrimination in that case.

 

[Lonbilly]

I can see the issue on both sides in this discussion, and why it could be problematic for both sides. On one hand, I'm fucking thrilled that Jessica Jones is going to have a season directed by just women.

Last season, Jessica was reeling with PTSD about her abusive, mind-controlling boyfriend who raped her over and over again and made her do things she would have never done, and while last season was fantastic, who knows, perhaps if that season had been all-female directed, it could have sent a stronger message or done something better. Women are more likely to experience sexual harrassment and these kinds of experiences than men are starting from a young age, and I do think a woman who has experienced that and knows how it feels could bring an extra element than say a guy who knows it's wrong but has never actually endured it. That's not to say guys don't experience it, because we do, it's just a helluva lot less often and typically trivialized by other males (but this is a different subject altogether).

That being said, if they decided to go with a direction for the Netflix series by, say, having an all female-directed Jessice Jones and all-African/African-American directed Luke Cage, I don't really think they would be that unjustified to keep Daredevil with the directing team it currently has since I do think asking for them to have a wide and broad range of directors for one show but then allowing a different show in the same universe and company to have only a certain type of directors for it's show is kind of contradictory.

That being said, I do also think the directors should only be chosen if they have earned it as well, but let's also remember that it's been proven just how hardit can be to actually land directorial positions in Hollywood, be it for film or TV, when you're a woman doing it for an action/comic based show, or a POC in general. And while we have seen non-female directors do a fantastic job in Jessica (I have yet to watch Luke since I am making my way through S2 of Daredevil currently), who knows, maybe a female director could have come in with an first-hand experience of what Jessica went through and made it, overall, a stronger episode without having to make it feel like they are beating you over the head with it (as we've seen from other projects where a director who has never experienced a form of discrimination/abuse like that can make it more preachy than realistic).

Plus, it opens the doors to give more opportunity for female directors to get their debut or even make a much bigger name for themselves when it's already so hard to get a directorial job in the first place.

So I dunno, I'm completely for it, I'd love to see what it brings to the table, but I also do think it would be unfair to expect Daredevil to heavily diversify it's directorial team if the directorial team for Jessica would remain all-female for more than one season (and if they did something similar to Luke Cage in the future). Not saying I don't want a diverse team for Daredevil (maybe if we had one, Night Nurse woulda been treated better), but I just feel it would be contradictory to allow one show to get away with it, even if that show is doing it for better representation and a potentially more authentic voice, while another has to have a wider range.

But again, that's just my two cents.

 

[XIII Heartless]

It's extremely weird that Marvel said "we're gonna have all female directors in Jessica Jones S2" and your immediate thinking was "ugh, here they go giving the good directing jobs to women who might not deserve it".

That's not what's happening here. They're gonna pick directors that are fully capable of producing a quality episode who also happen to be female. Don't be an idiot.

 

[rawpower]

It's extremely weird that Marvel said "we're gonna have all female directors in Jessica Jones S2" and your immediate thinking was "ugh, here they go giving the good directing jobs to women who might not deserve it".

That's not what's happening here. They're gonna pick directors that are fully capable of producing a quality episode who also happen to be female. Don't be an idiot.

Don't underestimate the ability of humans to fuck everything up. You have no idea how capable they're going to be, so don't even pretend to know. It sounds to me like they're doing this as a creative decision rather than a discriminatory one, so all the power to them.

If it works out, great. If it doesn't, they gotta be willing to change things up. It'll probably be fine but in my own opinion, JJ is the weakest of the Netflix Marvel shows. So hopefully this will turn out to be a good decision because I wasn't too hype about the previous directing.

 

[XIII Heartless]

Except I do know that's what's going to happen. Because nobody in the business of anything is going to intentionally hire someone who is incompetent. They may indeed hire a female director that doesn't work out; but it won't be because she's a female. So writing off diversity for the sake of "maybe they won't be a good hire" is…well, stupid. That's a risk regardless of if you're going for a diversity hire or not.

I just kinda hate when people argue against initiatives like this using that flimsy logic. No one cares when a white male is hired for anything and turns out to be a bad choice, but God forbid anybody tries to give women/people of color a shake in a field that they don't typically get a fair shot in.

Representation is important, and having a story about a woman told by other women should be celebrated, not scrutinized.

 

[Taochan]

Representation is important, and having a story about a woman told by other women should be celebrated, not scrutinized.

I can't give this enough love.

 

[Audo]

Except I do know that's what's going to happen. Because nobody in the business of anything is going to intentionally hire someone who is incompetent. They may indeed hire a female director that doesn't work out; but it won't be because she's a female. So writing off diversity for the sake of "maybe they won't be a good hire" is…well, stupid. That's a risk regardless of if you're going for a diversity hire or not.

I just kinda hate when people argue against initiatives like this using that flimsy logic. No one cares when a white male is hired for anything and turns out to be a bad choice, but God forbid anybody tries to give women/people of color a shake in a field that they don't typically get a fair shot in.

Representation is important, and having a story about a woman told by other women should be celebrated, not scrutinized.

+ rep

 

[XIII Heartless]

I can't give this enough love.

<3

Discrimination, my ass. Virtually the entire roster of directors of Marvel projects are white men. It's bad enough we don't have many characters that fall outside of that description. Marvel making a point to hire a black director for Black Panther is just another reason I'm excited for it, dammit. Ryan Coogler is awesome. I love that they're letting us tell our stories.

 

[BufferAqua]

I'm not good at this kind of these types of topics but...

I mean, if Daredevil was directed by blind directors, they'd know Matt's point of view. If Luke Cage was directed by black people, they'd be familiar with the culture (I've never watched both series, so excuse my vague knowledge). Like Lonbilly said, Jessica Jones was mind-controlled by a sadistic man who raped her over and over and made her do terrible things, so it would be a good start to understand Jessica's point of view.

But once again, as long as they're good for the job and season 2 will turn out fantastic, it's all right with me

Not good with this stuff, sorry ;-;