Ghostbusters
The era of equity – or striving for it – is not about rewriting history. Nor is it about righting history’s myriad wrongs. History has happened. History is toast. History is, erm, history – in the most literal sense imaginable.
The most we can do is learn from history, while forging ahead with a compelling new un-put-down-able chapter.
In a sense, we are busting ghosts of the past, but emphatically in the context of recruitment, opportunities and a bold realisation that diference equates to a substantially better pharmaverse.
As the world wakes up to gender disparity, however, it must continue to be mindful of ‘crossing the streams’. The 2016 version of Ghostbusters serves as a warning to those who think employing women in senior positions is simply a box-ticking exercise.
The aforementioned flm recklessly believed that giving it the same outfts, premise and name, but replacing the personnel with women, would make it a zeitgeist-seizing study of modern female empowerment. In reality it loses the plot and totally misses the point.
You see, women are not simply slotting into established male roles as a means of retrospectively ‘making up’ for past misdemeanours. Women are creating these positions in their own image – composing a new narrative in the present – while delivering diferent perspectives and alternative visions.
The distinction between recreation and creation may seem small but, in the shaping of a new culture, and the embracing of diference in all its dimensions, it is absolutely essential.
Ghostbusting has a place, but igniting individuality is the future
