Female roles in Hollywood and women in the movie and television industry continue to make further strides due, mostly, to their own efforts and activism for recognition, respect, and equal treatment with the men in the industries and on the screen.

Sarah Jessica Parker spoke on feminism and humanism. In the call for better roles for women, she remarked how this is not simply a feminist issue but, in actual fact, a humanist issue, broadly speaking.

Part of this may be due to the stigmatizing of the term “feminist.” Another part may be due to the universalist nature of the implications, in terms of direct representations, of the term “humanist.”

Of course, the terminology of feminism, in its traditionalist meaning, is universalist, as in women and men recognized as social and legal equals. Humanist simply moves this out into the level of the species.

“The actor reiterated this sentiment in a recent interview, explaining that she believes the LGBT+ community must be included when discussing better representation in film,” the Independent reported, “When questioned over whether or not female actors are being offered higher calibre roles than they have done in the past, the actor stated that she doesn’t feel as though she’s ‘equipped to speak to the quality across the board.’”

Parker’s hope is for the quality parts in movies and television will be part of the industry, not simply as a “call-to-arms” for feminists but, in fact, a general movement for the furtherance of humanism.

A humanist is someone who does not identify with the supernatural — not necessarily the rejection of the metaphysical but the supernatural — and emphasizes human reason, compassion, and science, in addition to their inherent limitations as evolved organisms.

Both respect the human rights of men and women. In that, there is a wide overlap in their outlooks.

“People of colour, gays, lesbians, and transgenders who are carving out this space. I’m not spitting in the face or being lazy about what still needs to be done — but I don’t think it’s just women anymore,” Parker said in 2015, in Cosmopolitan.

She further explained how the movement within the television and movie industry could be even more powerful if this was identified with the humanist movement. Others have proclaimed this as, in essence, an evasion tactic with the aforementioned demonization of the term feminist.

While, at the same time, these can both be true positions; the shift into humanist language may be more powerful than the limitations, currently, of the plurality of feminisms on offer.

But this could also lead to a similar problem with a wide range of humanisms on offer as well. As there is a wide range of humanisms, indeed, these can range from the deistic humanists to the atheistic humanists, and never the two meeting.

The world is complicated; people similarly so. Meryl Streep was also on record as identifying as humanist because of being for “nice easy balance,” which does reflect the casual style and flavor of thinking of the actress.

In addition, Susan Sarandon described her view of humanism too. It is not simply about the distinction but more about the overlap and then the appropriateness of the term to social context.

But certainly, these identifications as humanist by prominent women is an important aspect of the work to modernize the views of the humanist world and, as importantly, getting the title out into the mainstream sphere through prominent and respectable actresses.

Photo by asoggetti on Unsplash

The Independentreported on some of the outspoken feminism and empowerment of girls and women of Annie Lennox, former member of Eurythmics. She acknowledged the truism is the vast majority of older women simply becoming forgotten, but affirmed that this does not necessarily have to be the case. That older women do not simply have to become “invisible.”

This seems like the right orientation tome. She has continued to support important initiatives including Amnesty International and Greenpeace. Lennox is serious about feminisms and about the inculcation of the values and the term, likely, into the public sphere more and more.

Annie Lennox has spoken about the importance of empowering girls and women through feminism, expressing her belief that women her age should not have to feel as though they’ve become “invisible”.

The reportage stated, “‘My current focus is to bring the term ‘Global Feminism’ into the zeitgeist,’ Lennox tells Good Housekeeping. ‘I’m so happy we can use the ‘F’ word now and talk comfortably about being feminists!’”

For a long time, the term was something uncomfortable and not seen as worth mentioning. But, at the present moment, we are seeing a resurgence of consideration for the rights and responsibilities of women. Bearing in mind, the equality of women simply was not on the agenda for centuries and this continues to be fought against — in a red and tooth and claw manner.

As she — Lennox — has noted, it is criticizing men. It is critiquing negative behaviors that are damaging to men, women, and society that are being criticized. However, this is misrepresented as criticizing all masculinities, all men, and simply being a purported witch hunt. Not the case in most or all cases, insofar as I can tell, once one looks by the media extravaganza and hyperbole.

Now 64-years-old, Lennox is work to establish a renewed culture of interest in and public acceptance of older women, to fight against the stigma and the disappearing from public consciousness of women.

Lennox said, “At the end of the day, Global Feminism is about the fundamental human rights of girls and women — why should we continue to tolerate disrespect, abuse and disempowerment?”

“Dressing up for this photoshoot was really fun and trying on all these clothes for the pictures was enjoyable,” Lennox continued, “I want people to realise that women of my age don’t have to become invisible.”

Photo by Katie Rodriguez on Unsplash