This week, editor-in-chief of Mxogyny, Maisie Palmer interviews Chloë Leeson, the founder of Screen Queens. The blog was created and written by young women and members of the LGBT community and acts as a safe space to critically discuss film and TV, old and new, with a strong focus on the exposure of women-centric and women-made films. The site posts a wide range of content ranging from feminist criticism to playlists, letters, and everything in between.

Maisie: What was your main motivation for founding Screen Queens?

Chloë: I started Screen Queens back when I was 17 in 2013 after I’d been doing a self-directed project in college about ‘Strong Female Characters’ (looking back now I was very misguided about the subject) and came across a statistic that said that something like 80% of film critics were men. This really irritated me so I began to start looking for places where women could write about film from a feminist perspective. At the time the few sites I found were largely written by women with degree level education or higher (and I was just in my A-Levels) so I decided to start my own site that was aimed more at teenage girls who were starting out in their writing careers to try to get them involved early and allow them to build a portfolio.

M: Film criticism is largely dominated by men (who are most commonly white, middle/upper class), why do you think this is and how does the site seek to counter that dominance?

C: Its no unknown thing that publishing specifically is a huge boys club, largely down to the old white millionaires that dictate our newspapers. But with printed media on a decline it still shocks me that so many of the major online film criticism sites are written by largely men, when I’ve seen 16 year old girls with no experience come up with vastly superior writing than some of the 50 year old men writing for Variety, Hollywood Reporter or Rolling Stone who get paid to write a plot summary pulled off a press release and call it a review. 

In terms of class, working class writers are excluded from education, from internships, from personal connections, beneficial locations (London) and most importantly: money. The middle/upper classes will continue to dominate as long as mummy and daddy know a guy from a magazine that can let their kid work an unpaid placement for 6 months with no merit needed. 

Screen Queens counters that dominance by exclusively working with women and members of the LGBTQ+ community only, to prioritise those voices that might often go unheard and provide a safe space for them to nurture their voice and interests, with a ‘free-for-all’ approach where no film/TV show/topic is off limits, regardless of whether or not its ‘relevant’ at the time of publishing.  

M: Screen Queens is an important platform for women and members of the LGBTQ+ Community, why do you think this space is necessary in a field of visual art?

C: I just find media to be so easily accessible and in the case of mainstream film and tv, not exactly hard to digest. Through something so simple as an openly LGBT character in a Marvel movie, or a hijabi doctor on a soap opera, people can connect so easily with a different walk of life and understand it and bridge that gap between Me and Other. Also with our site we regularly screen short films by up and coming women and LGBTQ+ filmmakers to promote their work to a wider audience, we help promote their fundraising campaigns to a wider audience, share their screening events, review their films and offer them interviews, so the site has become about more than just critiquing films but also helping push forward the filmmakers from a grassroots level.

M: Why do you think TV and film is a particularly important outlet to criticise from an intersectional perspective?

C: I feel like in the modern world that film, TV, and even music, can be so easily accessible on an international level just with a quick Google search that it should be held up to the highest scrutiny. Film and TV, especially with the rise of Netflix and ‘binge culture’ are an integral part of our culture. We go into school or work and talk about what we saw on Stranger Things or on 13 Reasons Why and share countless memes on social media related to the MCU and Game of Thrones. The representation of those we see on our screens and how they are portrayed directly influences the way we interact with the real world. And as this culture grows and grows media such as film and television will be a vital vessel to convey messages about different races, sexualities, genders, disabilities, lifestyles and issues that will shape the minds of the young people that grow up in this up and coming generation.

M: How far do you think online communities have made writing more accessible for marginalised groups that may have not otherwise had a platform?

C: Right now the small, independent, young-people led publications are truly where its at. This last two/three years of so has been an absolute buzz on social media with sites like Much Ado About Cinema, Reel Honey, FilmEra, Flip Screened and countless others really pushing forward to have diverse teams writing at the highest level, and many of their individual writers have gone on to write for major publications like Sight & Sound, Little White Lies and Indiewire. It is so accessible to get yourself into a starting block site to build a portfolio and make the connections with people like yourself. Everyone is incredibly supportive and friendly and always raises each other up.

M: I can see that you have integrated a podcast onto the Screen Queens site, what was your inspiration for this? Do you think it has allowed you expand your audience?

C: The SQ Podcast was the creation of my assistant editors Millicent Thomas and Megan Wilson. They approached me with the idea and willingness to carry it on their own backs and I just said go for it! Podcasting is obviously just a huge thing right now and there are plenty of people out there who might not have time to read articles, or might even struggle to read them, and listening to a podcast on the go might be a more accessible way for some people to access our content. Typically, the girls review a recent release or riff off a theme we might have ran on the site, like Women in Horror for example. It’s expanded our audience for sure!

M: Do you have any advice for female/ LGBTQ+ writers who are struggling to find a platform to express their artistic views?

C: Twitter is the best resource to start with in my opinion. Get searching through #FilmTwitter or search the tags for films you like or Women Critics’ networks, find people who have your interests and follow them, find all the critics that write for your favourite dream publication and follow them. Read their work and listen to their advice. Make friends with them. Study these sites and find one that suits your niche. And if at the end of the day you find that you are still dissatisfied with what’s already available, create your own space, the resources are right there!

M: What are your hopes for the future of Screen Queens? 

C: Within the last year we’ve enjoyed a lot of success with gaining press accreditation for a handful of festivals and are getting offered more press opportunities in general. In the future I would hope that our Staff Writers could tackle some of the major festivals like Sundance, Cannes and TIFF as press. I also want to be able to pay our writers a fair wage for their work. Currently I am unable and pay the for upkeep of the site myself but it would certainly take us to the next level to be able to provide what our writers deserve. 

If you’re a budding/upcoming woman director wanting to share your work, Screen Queens would be more than happy to provide a platform for you on which to display it. Drop the team an email at girlsonfilm@outlook.com to become a contributor, pitch a submission or, to discuss just about anything else.