POWER GIRLS
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
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
