In honor of Michelle Wolf’s comments at the White House Correspondents Dinner, FF2 Media is launching the new hashtag #WomenTakeBackTheMic
“I actually really like Sarah,” Wolf joked at the April 28 speech, jabbing The White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “I think she’s very resourceful. Like, she burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she’s born with it; maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”
Attracting criticism and backlash (from both sides), the now infamous speech has inspired FF2 Media’s Editor-in-Chief Jan Lisa Huttner to create a social media hashtag campaign, “Women Take Back the Mic.”
“From this woman’s point of view, Michelle Wolf’s smokey eye joke was really funny on every level!” Huttner stated on FF2 Media’s social media. “A few questions for you: (1) Did you know that kohl, used around eyes for millennia in Asia & Africa, is made of ground charcoal? (2) Have you ever seen the “Maybe it’s Maybelline?” commercial? (3) Do you know the “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” lyrics? For most women, I expect at least two yeses.”
Welcome to “Women Take Back the Mic,” an initiative to empower women and their unique points of view. At FF2 Media, an online publication dedicated to promoting the work of female film writers and directors, our mission is to support women’s creative endeavors from around the world.
Why do women continue to have a disproportionate percentage of voices, particularly in the entertainment industry? Take film critics associations, for example, with Rotten Tomatoes composed of roughly 83 percent men and only 17 percent women. Like FF2 Media, women are beginning to create their own networks of support. Rotten Tomatoes’ blatant imbalance of voices has even inspired an all-female critical site for women in media called Cherry Picks Reviews (CPR), created by Miranda
Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
The gender equality issue has been making the headlines for the past couple of months, and rightfully so. The backlash against Michelle Wolf is one example of what women in the entertainment industry are up against. Nevertheless, women are taking back the mic.
Photos: Comedian Michelle Wolf entertains guests at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner at The Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 28, 2018. The 104th WHCA raises money for scholarships and honors the recipients of the organization’s journalism awards. (Bottom Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto; Courtesy of Getty Images)
