Recap: NerdHQ A Conversation with Badass Women Mystery Guests!

Zachary Levi’s NerdHQ panels are usually pretty big highlights of SDCC. They’re streamed live online, allowing many more fans to tune in and watch for themselves, rather than rely on the tweets and blurry photos of the panels in Hall H or Ballroom 20. This year proved to set the new standard for SDCC’s going forward with the panel, “A Conversation with Badass Women Mystery Guests!”

Who were these mystery guests? Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck, 24), Retta (Parks and Recreation), Missy Peregrym (Rookie Blue, Heroes), Jennifer Morrison (Once Upon a Time, House), Ming-Na Wen (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, ER), and Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones).

So yeah, it was a pretty freaking kick-ass panel. I tuned in 20 minutes late (as I was foolishly, furiously, reading the Marvel live blogs, learning nothing as I was missing this) but I watched the last 40 minutes of it live then went back and watched the beginning. That’s the beauty of YouTube live-streams, they’re automatically ready for playback the moment they end. I’ve embedded it below, it really is worth a watch.

They talked about the tropes they don’t like (for Yvonne, it’s the gratuitous shots of women in their underwear when the scene gains nothing from it), to women who inspire them. Across the board, they said their mom, or someone in their family.

Jennifer Morrison also mentioned How I Met Your Mother director and executive producer, Pam Fryman. For fans of the show, you’ll remember Jennifer Morrison’s guest role during season 6 as Zoey Pierson, Ted’s nemesis and eventual girlfriend, for twelve episodes. 

I think it really speaks to Pam as a leader and strong female in this industry that she was so influential on Morrison. At that point, she had already been on House and went right into Once Upon a Time after her HIMYM appearances, but she saw something in Pam she didn't see while working on other productions (that she mentioned whilst on the panel.)

All of these women were so well-spoken about the industry and the world that they have grown up in (even Sophie Turner, who is only 17!) I think there is finally - sadly finally - a shift in the industry where women are seen as equals to men. They're no longer sex symbols or housewives. They're fleshed out, real human beings who mirror real-world women. Imagine that! 

However, I did read on Tumblr that all these shows these women are currently on, are run by men. Despite the fact that Joss Whedon, Mike Schur, Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz etc. can write strong three-dimensional female characters, there is still such a boys club when it comes to the behind-the-scenes worlds in film and television.

In 2013, according to the 16th annual Celluloid Ceiling report, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, only 10% of Hollywood writers in 2013 were women. Maybe that percentage is a little better in television (where I'd like to be) but that statistic is still abysmal. 

Thankfully, there are women like Mindy Kaling, Tina Fey, Linda Yaccarino, and Shonda Rhimes who are fantastic at what they do, whether its writing, producing, acting, leading, advertising or managing. These are the women I look up to as I aspire to work in this industry (or adjacent to it - I’ve got many women I admire at Vulture, BuzzFeed, the A.V. Club and the like).

There is a point to all of this somewhere. Maybe it’s just that I am so thrilled to see more attention rightly being called to these badass women in the industry and I hope to see this panel again next year (maybe I’ll be in the audience?!)