Lexi Alexander Quotes

I don't think of being a woman in an industry of men. I didn't walk into the kitchen and go, 'Ooh, I'm a girl!' I didn't get into my chosen profession. I wanted to be good at something.

It's scary to become a woman in this world. We have to understand that some of the messages we get, messages that we are not enough, are there to keep our power in check. We can't buy into these messages.

Even before I went to the UN, I often would want to say something in a meeting - only woman at the table - and I'd think, 'OK well, I don't think I'll say that. It may sound stupid.' And then some man says it, and everybody thinks it's completely brilliant, and you are so mad at yourself for not saying something.

To say you want to be a director is to risk sounding obnoxious, pretentious, arrogant, and I think women are more fearful of sounding that way than men are.

Almost without exception, the talented women I have known have believed they had less ability than they actually had. And almost without exception, the talented men I have known believed they had more.

Men tend to feel threatened; women tend to feel guilty.

But alas, I'd have to find a way to be opinionated without being too opinionated, authoritative without being a bitch about it, smart without being elitist, fair without being a pushover. If the boyfriends of my youth found me too authoritative when I should have been cheering on the sidelines as they kicked and tossed and smacked balls toward the vanguard, the male colleagues of my adulthood kept reminding me of my lack of authority as they unconsciously displayed theirs. I was always failing someone's standards of legitimacy, as a girlfriend, as a producer of opinions. It was an eternal no-win.

The men couldn't understand how I could be so successful and so insecure at the same time - because it doesn't really exist in the same way in the male psyche.

I've always been sure of my vision, but I've been in meetings where men have been talking about me like I'm not there... I've been told I should be a certain way, and I wondered if that would have been the case if I was a man.

In America, nobody's boyfriend wants them to be smarter than he is, and no one wants to admit it.

As a woman, sometimes when I am in discussion with a director or producer, there is some kind of a different politics happening. Basically, 'I know more than you'. I am always on the lookout for that. I don't want to get sucked into that. I am very quick to respond to that.

And I would say that the main thing that I faced as a female in this industry was being underestimated. But being underestimated isn't always a bad thing. It's nice to get out there and blow people's minds when they think you're not gonna be any good.

I think young men and boys are taught to fail. It's nothing to them; they do sport, they fall over, they shout, 'I'm all right,' and carry on. But with girls, they're so appallingly embarrassed to fail, it's like it's considered unfeminine.

I truly believe that if I would make a bad film, I might be walking into director's jail and never out. And that I think is probably a little more true because I'm a woman.

I feel like in our society there is definitely still a lot of underlying sexism. It's funny how many guys are surprised when you pick up an instrument in the studio, or write your own songs.

When women wear jeans people are tempted to pay attention to what is beyond it thus forcing them to do undesirable things.

The truth is, none of us is OK, not really. The best, most dear, most thoughtful and engaged and open and feminist men in my life have occasionally come out with some statement that's made me gasp. Then again, so have almost all the women.

In general, the threshold for a woman becoming worried at how she's coming off in terms of asserting her power, that threshold is continually lower than it is for men.

I know it sounds like I'm playing all these wives and girlfriends, but they're not waiting at home. I wear the pants.

Guys are more apt to test me than they are to test a Charles Barkley. I think I have to go out and prove myself all the time, and that's fine, because I've had to prove myself my whole life.

I thought that I wouldn't be able to make it because I'm a girl, but I think it was just a subconscious feeling. Pretty much every gig I went to was a band with four dudes.

The minute you step into a job where you have to be at all tough and assertive, that's when the mischief happens. And you're not allowed to be assertive and feminine.

I've always had really wonderful people around me. But early on, I remember I would walk into a session or go do something with some musicians, and they viewed me, basically, as their chick singer.

Where a man is forceful, a woman is shrill.

I'm not saying this is all men, but in my experience as a woman, I'm not taken as seriously in a leadership role regardless of how good I am at what I'm doing.