POWER GIRLS
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Women who work in development are not “D-Girls,” as Anna McDonnell so dismissively refers to them. They are “Development Executives” who work their tails off to be taken seriously in a difficult and demanding sector of the entertainment industry.
Development executives bear the more accurate titles of “Vice-President” or “Director” of Development. They are not the wishy-washy, frivolous, powerless, unskilled, lower-level fence-sitters McDonnell portrayed them to be, but professionals who deserve more respect.
The term “D-Girl” is not in common usage. And with 25% of all non-studio development executives consisting of men (using McDonnell’s own statistics), McDonnell’s repeated use of the term was only the most glaring example of a mean-spirited article that denigrated everyone in the development field.
What could have been a constructive, informative piece instead comes across as nasty and demeaning.
LAURA A. S. PHILLIPS
Los Angeles
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