The Weinstein scandal is changing Hollywood for the better

IN OFFICES around the world, the scandal over Harvey Weinstein’s depredations has obliged men to rethink their interactions with women. Many are struggling to decipher where the bounds of propriety lie (handshake or kiss?). In Hollywood itself, the furore has ruined reputations and ended careers. And film executives have been forced to reconsider not just workplace mores but the stories they choose to tell. It is a disorienting moment, but a promising one—for female artists, the studios themselves and for their viewers.For such a faddish industry, Hollywood can be amazingly ossified. Female characters may no longer be tied to train-tracks and rescued by mustachioed heroes, but they still tend to be stereotyped and marginalised. Male actors do most of the talking; women are far likelier to take their clothes off. That is in part because conventional wisdom among decision-makers holds that big-budget films with female leads are liable to underperform. Not coincidentally, from boardroom to writers’ room to director’s chair, the vast majority of those decision-makers are men. That the Academy Awards on March 4th will feature a woman nominated for directing is a rarity; that a woman has been nominated for cinematography is a first.