Levi Dean can name more than a few female TV characters he finds inspiring – Ruth Wilder in Netflix’s Glow, BBC’s Eve in Killing Eve and (his raison d’etre as a writer of ‘strong women’) Sarah Linden in The Killing. Levi identifies himself as a feminist who is passionate about re-writing female characters. Having graduated with a BA from The Manchester School of Art in Film and Media with Practice, Levi went on to complete his MA in Scriptwriting at Bournemouth University. After working at Gothenburg Film Studios in Sweden, Levi returned to the UK to begin lecturing in film while undertaking his PhD. He now also helps other writers develop their scripts through his freelance script editing company Screen-Time.
A joint study carried out by BBC America and Women’s Media Centre recently published its findings, including that girls and boys want more female led TV programmes. So we begin by agreeing that there is a need for the women we see on screen to be more complex, particularly in relation to female TV characters, as arguably contemporary TV is embracing a larger role than film in challenging gender stereotypes. Its increased accessibility combined with more flexible viewing options for audiences and our ever-shortening attention spans make TV where it’s at (for now). Its difficult to solve the ‘chicken and egg’ conundrum surrounding the increased visibility of women on our screens: are we seeing more women because that’s what audiences are asking for or are audiences asking for them because they are more readily exposed to them? Either way, Levi is keen to provide TV audiences with a new kind of anti-heroine who he hopes will be a bold mashup of all his muses. Now almost finished with the third year of his PhD – ‘An Offer She Can’t Refuse: writing an Anti-Heroine for Television’, he believes the gangster genre is ripe for the inclusion of more female characters. In fact they are perfect for it. The genre’s tradition and easy popularity have resulted in hits such as The Sopranos but it also remains dominated by men. Throughout Levi’s research he has found that, as with Netflix’s Ozarks, female characters are just as capable of engaging audiences with their ruthlessness, power and dominance as their male counterparts. His own screenplay follows the dark descent of Angela Sparks into a criminal underworld that proves too tempting to turn away from. She – like other male characters before her – develops a lust for power, domination and respect. Her climb to the top however, is very different.
When we talk about writing a convincing female character, Levi explains that you have to be willing to throw away your preconceived ideas and try to have empathy with what it means to live as a woman. That as a male writer you can’t be lazy and rely on what you think you know; rather he goes on to say that he is trying to become a ‘gender cyborg’. He talks to women – a lot of different women – and uses his dialogues with them to inform his understanding of just how different their lived experiences are to him. As an academic he also engages with critical theory and key readings that are both historical and contemporary. In our conversation he refers repeatedly back to Nancy Botwin from Amazon show Weeds; written of course by Jenji Kohan who is the producer of Glow and producer/writer of Orange is the New Black. When I ask him what Nancy has in common with the other female characters that have inspired him he says, “they’re smart, intelligent, they’ve got charisma. But what’s interesting is how they have to navigate a male dominated world to rise to the top. It’s honest.” When I go on to point out the obvious – that a woman wrote Nancy – he is quick to acknowledge that fact, explaining that it doesn’t have to mean that men can’t write women. It just makes their journey to becoming a ‘gender cyborg’ even more important if the women they write are to be interesting, complex and recognisable to their audience.
Towards the end of our conversation Levi questions why it is that in programmes such as Game of Thrones or even Fargo, strong female characters are often either surrounded by ‘dumb’ male characters or men are absent altogether. SheCurates points out that perhaps this is in order to make it easier for audiences to identify with a woman rather than a man – that these programmes aren’t quite brave enough to write their female characters onto a level playing field. And anyway, what does ‘strong’ really mean? Don’t we actually mean ‘complex’? We finish by agreeing that continuing to see women as binary i.e.: good vs. bad, strong vs. weak will only lead to on-screen representations continuing to be one-dimensional.
In his own words Levi wants women to “change the fabric of society”, a sentiment we could not agree more with. We find it heartening and exciting to know that there are male scriptwriters such as Levi, working to bring us the female role models that could inspire future generations of change-makers. While creating more space for female scriptwriters to gain access to the TV and film industries remains essential, nonetheless this should not exclude the reality that we need the existing male scriptwriters (of which there are plenty) to be #maleallies in the fight for on-screen equality. In fact we all need to be on board with changing on screen representations in order to change off screen minds. On screen mainstream stories shape the minds of those we need to join the fight for equality.
Look out for Levi’s Angela on your screens in the near future; to contact Levi for further information or to submit a script for editing visit www.screen-time.co.uk or email levi@screen-time.co.uk.
#representationmatters #genderequity #feminism #feministactivism #maleallies #notenough #answerthefeministcall
