I’ve heard from every corner lately, and from quite diverse career environments, that women have to work harder than anyone else, harder than anyone ever imagines is possible, in order to get anywhere in their chosen metier. Once again, and in dramatic fashion, that sentiment has been brought home in director Amy Goldstein’s documentary, Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl. That’s it, isn’t it? It seems that every business environment assumes women, regardless of how hard they work, are just not enough to get where they want to go. They are not enough, unless they follow every rule that those in charge (mostly men) lay out for them.
Goldstein makes a strong case that it is possible, as a female artist, to be enough, all through the alternately inspiring and dispiriting story of Kate Nash. Through the trajectory of the director/actress/activist’s career, her choices, her challenges, and her insights about it all, viewers of Underestimate the Girl see just how difficult the music industry is for women. It gives the film industry a run for its money, and that’s really saying something. Much like young women working in front of the camera in Hollywood, the music world thrives on chewing young talent up and spitting them out, after they’ve made them a predetermined amount of cash, and before they get wise to just how badly they are being used.
