Woman of the Week: Diablo Cody

WOW:  Diablo Cody

Why Now?: Her most recent film Jennifer’s Body premiered last weekend, the Cody-created United States of Tara recently won an Emmy (Toni Collette, Best Actress), and she was recently tapped to write a screen adaptation of the Sweet Valley High book series. (YES.)

Why Should You Care?:

Love her or hate her, since her Oscar win for Best Screenplay (Juno, 2008) Diablo Cody has gotten a lot of people talking about women in Hollywood– especially women behind the scenes, and screenwriters like herself. She’s drummed up a significant amount of hype for her new horror-feminist(-comedy?) flick Jennifer’s Body, a film she claims is the first horror flick written and directed by a woman. (I’ve not seen it yet, but the critics seem split.)

Cody’s cover interview in the August/September issue of BUST is actually the reason I wanted to start writing this feature (WOW). While discussing her new film, women, and Hollywood, she touches on her belief that women are too hard on each other. When we should be supporting each other, we spend too much time tearing each other down for not being feminist enough, smart enough, ________ enough. She laments:

“It’s such garbage. But I actually feel that kind of hatred back and forth, whether it’s feminists calling other women whores or the other way around. I am speaking as a radical feminist: feminists can be incredibly hard on other women. They were the first people clutching their pearls when I came onto the horizon. They were the first people to disapprove of me. I really thought it was going to be the dudes.”

While I don’t agree with some of her sweeping generalizations (who comprises this group of monolithic Feminists that she claims was “against her” from the beginning, I wonder?) I can see her point. People, especially thanks to the anonymity of the internet, can be unnecessarily cruel to one another. And it’s sad; women have it hard enough–we shouldn’t have to worry about other women tearing us down too (unless you happen to be Phyllis Schlafly, Faith Popcorn, or Anne Coulter. Sorry, but you spend your days telling me to go “cocoon” or spouting hate, it’s every woman for herself). But before I become a Hallmark card, let’s just show Ms. Cody some love.

How to Fall in Love with Her: You can Twitter-stalk her: twitter.com/diablocody

Watch this interview. I find this particularly hilarious because:
1) she’s on a pastel set and clearly hating it
2) it’s beyond awkward. this is how i feel when i’m forced to talk to someone’s parents or a random coworker: overly polite and completely uncomfortable
3) she throws in sarcastic cynical jokes that go right over the host’s head– or at least confuses the shit out of her