The essay by Dr. Carole Lieberman—a self-proclaimed “Dr. Freud of modern times”—was published in The Hollywood Reporter’s annual “Women in Entertainment” issue.
Dr. Lieberman, who has also worked as a script consultant for The Young and The Restless, claims to know why Hollywood’s women “naturally gravitate” towards roles where they “take orders from men.” And no, the answer isn’t institutional sexism.
As with everything else, it begins in childhood. When girls are raised to be people-pleasers, and in particular to want to please Daddy, a pattern is formed that steers grown women into jobs where they continue pleasing their boss, a Daddy substitute (and bosses in Hollywood indeed are, for the most part, male), instead of striking out on their own. Typically, these women, stuck in this early phase of psychosexual development, become personal assistants, production assistants, wardrobe assistants and stereotypical eye candy onscreen.
Dr. Lieberman has an even better reason for women going into film editing:
Little girls are raised on fairy tales, so when their real-life story endings disappoint them, some may become editors, where they can focus on what went wrong with the story and fix it.
If some of this sounds like a bad way to explain an industry’s systematic misogyny, ask yourself: How could you not trust this medical professional?
