#Flatgate at Cannes: Another Nail in their Misogynist Coffin
It’s a known fact that film festivals aren’t as inclusive to women as they are to men. Cannes especially has faced criticism in the past for not including more female film directors, whose stories are often mitigated to only the indie sphere, where they are completely dependent on festival buzz. Cannes was remedying this disparity by including more female driven stories, including the lesbian themed drama “Carol,” a film that has been getting much acclaim.
In a huge step backward, Cannes has become newsworthy for some less than friendly behavior towards female guests of its festival. In a mandate, that hasn’t changed since the festival’s inception many generations before, women were turned away from the “Carol” premiere for not wearing heels, in what has been christened #Flatgate. The women in question were mostly elderly and disabled, women who shouldn’t be held to that expectation at any time.
While Festival director Thierry Fremaux has denied that this rule is enforced in such drastic ways, the festival itself has issued a statement that says the dress code was “black tie/evening dress” without saying anything about heels. It has been confirmed by several sources, including ScreenDaily, that heels are required. It’s unclear whether or not the mandate is true, but it’s definitely true that it was upheld, to a startling degree, as many women have attested.
Actress Emily Blunt has come out against the ruling while in Cannes, and Twitter has been outraged by the entire episode. The festival is at fault for more than just being disparaging to the elderly and the disabled, but to all women in general. In many debates on the subject, the issue has been focused on whether flats can be considered dressy or not, but that’s not the main problem. The festival’s dress code asks for women to be in a dress regardless, which is pushing for gender norms that are both stereotypical and insulting. It’s bad enough that female directors are underrepresented at a festival that is supposed to be ahead of its time, but to then reprimand them for not being sexual objects is misogynistic and insulting.
It’s bad enough that women accounted for only 7% of directors working on the top 250 films in 2014, or that 38% of films employed 0 or 1 woman in the roles considered in 2012. Cannes opened with a film made by a woman, for the first time since the 80s. Only two of the 19 films competing for its top prize, the Palme d'Or, are directed by women. If Cannes wants to be part of an emerging trend of modernity, and inclusion, it should be doing better than this. It should not only be including work by women, but treat those women like professionals instead of kewpie dolls to be displayed on the red carpet. For all its glamour, Cannes is gritty in its treatment of women.
