The sequel to the “Crazy Rich Asians” film has been delayed because of a pay dispute. Adele Lim, a female Asian writer, was offered 1/8 the pay as her male (white) co-writer. This is an enormous disparity and even more egregious when you consider what she brings to the table (which he cannot): an Asian perspective to an Asian film.
Here are some of her words on the matter:
“Being evaluated that way can’t help but make you feel that is how they view my contributions,” Lim said. She also feels women and people of color are used as “soy sauce.” In other words, they’re only there to add a cultural flavor to the project.
Kismet 
And yet, not to diminish her in any way, she may actually BE soy sauce. If she is a research conributor and not a co-writer, it makes sense in the ridiculously weird world of pay allocation for movies/music etc. The person who writes the theme, say on piano, gets the credit and most of the money as opposed to the educated musician who orchestrates it. One associates the orchestral “Pictures at an Exhibition” with Mussorgsky when in truth he was a piano player who sent his manuscript to Ravel for orchestration. Ravel = Soy Sauce. Unfortunately, without a specific, quantifiable amount of intellectual input this not a gender specific right to rant. Heck, the guy could have interviewed a waitress or somebody’s mom and tipped them $20 or bought dinner with a “thanks.” I programmed commercial synthesizers for the manufaturers. Sounds that later were heard on recordings and television and I have received about 1/8th of nothing for that. Lets see her proof. All I’m sayin’ is my wife has a PhD in Rhetoric and makes a difference almost every day, as you do, and is underpaid. Let’s fix that before we worry about Hollywood.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree about the teaching pay, of course. But I think we can work on pay equity in a variety of occupations at the same time.
Women have always been paid way below scale when it comes to writing. Indeed, women have often worked double time to support their husbands’ writing.
Of course, it is not strictly a gender inequity, but we have such a long way to go in writing and sports. Teachers are still paid poorly and the vast majority of teachers are women.
LikeLiked by 1 person