Shaming creative women who express an opinion belongs in the past

This should have been the month for a celebratory column looking forward to theatre doors reopening and productions going back into the works. It should have been the time for a long-overdue dose of hope after a vicious year. But then last week happened.

Bookended as it was by International Women’s Day and Mothers Day, we should have been celebrating women. Instead, what I saw take place was the systematic dismantling of the voices and rights of women in public debate.

I don’t feel it’s my place – in this column – to venture into the tragedy of Sarah Everard’s death. It is every parent’s very worst nightmare and I cannot imagine what her family and loved ones are suffering.

But what I do want to consider is the narrative thread that circled around two actresses prominent in last week’s media, attacking them for being duplicitous, attention-seeking and publicity-hungry.

Both Meghan Markle and Patsy Stevenson have been shamed and discredited, their opinions negated by virtue of them being actors. I will be honest: I was significantly triggered reading some commentary on Twitter and YouTube. Yes, I am aware that these are hardly the places to go to for balanced debate, but it was still galling to see those views set out in black and white, and to realise how much fear and bile is still generated by the female actor.

Of course, it was always thus. The church considered us impure until 1660 – the proximity of performers onstage and the itinerant life of theatre troupes meant that religious leaders decreed it was unsuitable for women. Because, of course, only men can chastely stand close to other humans or travel for work.

Such views still exist – certainly there is resistance from some South Asian communities to girls going into a performing career. It is often considered ‘dirty’.

This narrative is everywhere and takes us back in time

The toxic condemnations of Stevenson being a "twirly" and Markle’s "performance" effectively cancel these women’s right to speak. And I’m not defending or promoting the actions or opinions of either; I am just very aware that this narrative is everywhere and takes us back in time.

I think of the incredible women I have worked with, of the extraordinary artists I interviewed for Act for Change’s Women of a Certain Age campaign in 2015. Wise, politicised, talented women all, who are still woefully under-represented on our stages and screens. Does the fact we tell stories or pretend to be other people mean that we are not entitled to speak out against injustice or hold and voice challenging opinions?

I think we need to do so even more and even louder. It is a relief to see Equity backing Acting your Age and tackling gendered ageism. As a whole arts community, we need to self-police and be sure not to silence one another, especially our under-represented colleagues.

We need to be able to speak out, through the work we make, the communities we engage with, through acts of activism, however large or small.