I like wedding dresses but I also like guns....

First of all.... I LOVED the pilot script to "Ray Donovan." It was gritty and sparse and character driven and everything I love to write. I've raved about Ann's script for months and passed it on to other women I know as an example of excellent writing.

But Paskin's Salon interview with Ann Biderman was a little concerning.

Ann's comments about how feminine fare amounts to stories about contriving to get a man - seems narrow and is disconcerting to me as a woman who likes to write both female centered/feminine and edgier/masculine stories.

There IS an inherent prejudice in the industry against softer, feminine fare and an inherent attraction toward the more masculine/grittier/cable/anti-hero fare. It worries me that that same prejudice seems to extend to the female leaders in our industry, too.

The unfortunate truth is that there are significantly less women represented in our industry. Not because they're less talented, or "not fit for the job" but because the gatekeepers see a masculine-driven show and immediately go to their roster and reach for their male writers.

Finding the women who are right for this job may take a bit of effort on the showrunner's part (may even require said executive to call out and ask specifically for women who have a bent for that type of fare), but it's important for female executives in that position of power to create those opportunities for other women. Otherwise we'll continue to be trapped in the cycle of creating male-driven cop shows, cable shows, etc and seeing women represented in the television industry at a mere fraction of how they're represented in the actual human population.

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