WOMEN IN HORROR: A Month-Long Look into the Ladies Crafting the Worlds of Fear Day 31 – Thank You to All the Ladies of the Horror Community!
When I came up with this idea, I honestly never expected to receive the response that I did. I mean, who am I? I’m just a random podcaster and writer who enjoys promoting the stuff I like, the stuff that’s important, and the people I think are awesome who pour their heart and soul into their work and deserve to have as many people know about their projects as possible. Many of the women who participated in this project are far more successful than I am and certainly don’t need my promotion. If anything, they’ve done me a favor by participating, and even thanked me for the opportunity or for including them.
Honestly, every single one of you has honored and humbled me by taking time out of your very busy schedules, in the busiest month of the year for the ladies who I was hoping would participate. It means a lot to me that you dedicated some of your precious time to answer questions from me, and in many cases, we’ve never met in real life! Like in the case of Aimee Stolte putting me into contact with Emily Sweet, or Michael Darwin putting me in contact with Chloe Carroll, who then introduced me to Brittany Snyman. Of those five people, I’ve only met Michael and that was only briefly at Scare-A-Con.
My main goal for this project was not only to highlight some incredible ladies and the work they do – because it’s amazing – but also to have these ladies help to promote the future generation of ladies in horror. I certainly learned a lot about different industries and what goes on, as well as finding a ton of new content to consume. Because of Kaylee Williams, I’ve found some awesome projects that I’ve backed on various crowdfunding sites, and this is just one example. If you’ve followed me on social media lately, especially on Facebook, you’ve seen me share lots and lots of different projects that these ladies are putting together or are already out in the world for you to consume because these various projects are so vitally important. I’ve been sharing this stuff to facilitate the second part of my idea. If there are ladies out there who are intrigued with some aspect of the horror genre, whether it’s writing, acting, cosplaying, makeup and special effects, filmmaking et cetera, and they get any inspiration or motivation from the words of the women who came before them in their desired field, then I think that the project was successful. I take no credit for this. I only asked the questions, they provided the words that came from their experiences in their specific fields and areas of expertise. It is their mark that they’ve left on the genre that we’re concerned with for this project.
I just want to take this opportunity to not only thank the many women who participated in my project this month. I will absolutely be doing this again. There are many, many women who did not have the chance to participate, and many more whom I’ve not yet met or been introduced to that I am sure would be amazing inspirations to not just future generations, but also to the other women who are currently in the various fields that make up this genre. This is also true of the women who did participate. One of the things I learned from the questions I asked is that the women I interviewed did not look at other women as their competition, but as contemporaries whose success they actively root for; they don’t care if someone else does well, or rather, they don’t view other women’s success as their own failure.
Another thing I’ve learned is that they each view themselves as unique individuals, as I learned from my “Who do you consider to be your horror twin?” question. Many of the ladies were adamant that there was no one else like them, and they’re right, of course. There are things as a man that I don’t have to deal with the way women do. They and their contributions are constantly compared to those of men and to those of other women. I did not take this into account until it was brought to my attention by one of the ladies. I felt very bad about this because my motives were to do right by these ladies and here I am, not understanding a fundamental issue facing them and I’m just feeding right into it. Obviously, this was not my intent and as soon as this was brought to my attention I altered the wording of these questions for future use.
I learned so much from these women, from the way they have persevered against the stereotypes and the odds that have been stacked against them to the things that I have still left to learn, no matter how much I think I know or how supportive I think I’m being. I still have a lot to learn and need to change my outlook and mindset when it comes to certain things. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn and the fact that these ladies are willing to take the time to enlighten me. It’s something I believe more men should be open to doing. So let’s support not only these ladies, but every woman who is creating and putting herself out there because she believes in herself and in her skill and her talent. That should be celebrated.
To all the ladies who participated in this project, and those who are doing things that they believe in – thank you for everything that you do. Keep creating, keep writing, keep drawing, keep doing all the things that you want to do. Get better, branch out, tackle more challenges and be proud of your successes. I believe in you.
Your sisters believe in you too.
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