Gabi Smith - 'Now That I'm A Woman, Everything Is Strange' Response

I was first interested in Beard's choice to start the conversation about Moulton's work with the quote by Douglas Sirk, "you can't make films about things, you can only make films with things." It reminded me of something screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has said in relation to The Social Network. Sorkin said that when writing, you cannot capture the essence of a zeitgeist, or capture the meaning of a time period or movement. You can only write a story that has all of those things in it, or is related to those things. The thing that impresses and excites me about Moulton's work is that it's clear she understands this. By fleshing out her character and sets with such bizarre, personal detail, she manages to package 80's feminine self help and the essence of that experience into her work.

I was also interested in Beard's note, "Whether this corporate icon of the wavy lady is insidious or innocuous, one can't help but wonder what its ubiquity says about the culture whose focus groups approved it." I love the idea that the character companies project their messed up cultural influences onto isn't the villain, but just a product of a faceless focus group accidentally saturated pop culture in toxicity and self hatred.

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