Pretty Strong: A Continued Conversation

One week has passed since the launch of the Pretty Strong trailer and announcement of the World Premiere on January 10, 2020. We are thrilled about all the excitement surrounding the film, and we are so grateful for the support we’ve received over the last 2.5 years. In response to some of the media and early promotion of the film, some women in our community have expressed criticism about the language we’ve used and the way we’ve talked about the movie thus far. Important topics have been brought up, and we want to say: We are listening, and we hear you.

After ample discussion amongst ourselves, friends and mentors in and out of the climbing community, and those working with underrepresented groups, we’ve tried to process what is being said and figure out a way to move the conversation forward. We wanted to face the discomfort of these past few weeks and take the time these issues deserve to craft a thoughtful response. While there’s still a ton of work to be done, we are happy these conversations are happening and appreciative of the perspectives being shared with us.

Much of the conversation has been focused on quotes and language about the film that say things like “this is not a film about gender” or “this is not a film about gender imbalance or the sexualization of women.” Looking back, we see that this wording makes it seem like we don’t believe gender politics to be relevant and important, or that gender politics can be completely separated from the conversation. By following the stories of 10 women and their approach to rock climbing, we thought the film would share the women’s climbing experience. We thought we could “show it, not say it.” We thought celebrating the fact that we could “finally” make a film with the topic of gender as a side note was a win for women. That’s where we were wrong.

When we started this film project, we didn’t set out to shatter the gender binary in climbing. Originally, we wanted to make an apolitical movie with the goal of creating and building all-women climbing-hard psych. But since that day, a lot has changed. We have been aware of the expanding landscape of the women’s movement to be more intersectional with LGBTQ, BIPOC, and other marginalized communities. However, in the pursuit of making the film, we stuck to our original vision to focus on ladies climbing hard. Thanks to healthy critiques from fellow climbers, we now realize that such a singular focus might have been short-sighted and naive.

This idea of “progress” came from our privileged position as cisgender white women. Many women have a vastly different experience. What we’re hearing is: “Hey congrats, but we’re not all there yet, and we have a long way to go. This rhetoric from Pretty Strong seems to disregard the fact that many women in this country absolutely cannot separate their gender and race at any time.”

Our language showed we lacked a sense of the greater community, and it added to the pervasive and hurtful mentalities that contribute to the oppression of underrepresented groups. We’re here to say that we’re listening, we got it wrong, and we want to do better. To everyone who was hurt or angered by this insensitive language, we are sorry.

When we look back on the last few years, so much has changed since we put out the Kickstarter in July 2017. We have changed, climbing has changed, the world has changed. As a result, we continue to learn and grow. What we hope comes from this is knowledge, not just for us but the community as a whole. We hope it gives people the strength to tell their stories, share their vision, and not be afraid to not get it right the first time. We hope it educates others on how and why many women’s stories are not being told, and how we can work together to change that.

We know one blog post will not change the hard realities for many out there, but we do believe these conversations are necessary to bring broader definitions and greater insights into what “success, progress, and empowerment” look like for ALL women. A trusted mentor told us to focus on what this film is, not what it is not. This film is about women. This film is about women’s experiences through the medium of climbing. This film is imperfect, as are we. Thank you for pushing us to have difficult conversations, and thank you for supporting our work.

Colette McInerney, Leslie Hittmeier & Julie Ellison
Never Not Collective