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Is there any mistake in the phrase?

At the Venice Film Festival, Red Sea threw a women in film event that attracted stars like Demi Moore and Kate Hudson.

Source: "Saudi Arabia Chases $64 Billion Hollywood Dream" by Sarah Rappaport, Bloomberg, 7 November 2021

muru
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haile
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    The event was about women in film and Red Sea organised it. Try looking up throw a party for a more common variant. – mdewey Nov 08 '21 at 13:47
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    If it helps you have to parse it like "Red Sea threw a (women in film event)..." – FeliniusRex - gone Nov 08 '21 at 13:52
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    The punctuation doesn't help. They could / should have put "scare quotes" around "women in film" to make it more obvious this phrase is being used *adjectivally* to describe the "event" that the Red Sea festival organisers staged (since the event was intended to promote women in film, it's appropriate that it should attract people like Demi Moore and Kate Hudson). – FumbleFingers Nov 08 '21 at 13:56
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    That is a very poor sentence. "Red Sea held an event on women in film". – Lambie Nov 08 '21 at 14:49
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    It’s almost what’s called a “crash blossom.” When I see the words, “threw a women in,” I get a very different image in mind. – Davislor Nov 09 '21 at 02:52
  • Thank you very much. – haile Nov 09 '21 at 03:16
  • @Lambie “on” or “over”? Why can’t we use “over” here? – Soner from The Ottoman Empire Nov 09 '21 at 04:34
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    @Lambie I think it's more intended to be parsed as "Threw an event for women in film" – nick012000 Nov 09 '21 at 04:41
  • @FeliniusRexm use [] instead of () ? – NotStanding with GoGotaHome Nov 09 '21 at 05:02
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    @nick012000 And I said I didn't like "threw" as in threw a party. Throw an event sounds like bad writing to me. "women in film" as in women involved in the film industry: producers, designers, etc. – Lambie Nov 09 '21 at 14:10
  • @snr Two reasons not to choose "over": It's more idiomatic for the subject of a quarrel than a party ("They went to war over a territorial dispute"). And if you keep "threw," the sentence gets even more confusing (they threw something over something? Like the cow over the moon?) – Andy Bonner Nov 09 '21 at 15:29
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    Rearranging the sentence would certainly help. For example, "Red Sea threw an event celebrating women in film, which attracted ...". There are alternatives to "threw" and "celebrating" that would color the message a bit differently. – John Bollinger Nov 09 '21 at 16:51
  • @FeliniusRex or even "Red Sea threw a ((women in film) event)..." – StrangerToKindness Nov 10 '21 at 10:11
  • @snr "on [event title]" is used to mean about/regarding, not above/over. – fdomn-m Nov 10 '21 at 10:29
  • @Lambie They filmed themselves standing on women? – Acccumulation Nov 10 '21 at 21:00
  • @Acccumulation No, they held an event on women in film. Women in medicine, women in construction, women in space. This is a very common trope nowadays. See: women in film//https://womeninfilm.org/ – Lambie Nov 10 '21 at 21:24
  • @Lambie I was pointing out that your rewording hardly eliminates ambiguity. There's the question of whether "on film" modifies "women" or "event", and whether "on" means "regarding" or "physically on top of". – Acccumulation Nov 10 '21 at 21:26
  • This is like the new "Binders full of women" to me – JacobIRR Nov 10 '21 at 21:30
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    @Acccumulation No, there isn't any. As I said, the trope is very common. An event on something. something here: women in film. – Lambie Nov 10 '21 at 21:34
  • @Lambie That an ambiguous phrase is commonly understood to have a particular one of its meanings does not mean it isn't ambiguous. And I don't think that's a correct use of "trope". – Acccumulation Nov 11 '21 at 04:11
  • Oh look, it's even on Wikipedia, fancy that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_film – Lambie Nov 11 '21 at 14:28
  • Did no one notice that "women" is plural and the article "a" is for singular? Nope, "Red Sea threw several women in film event" is not the right solution ;-) -- the article "a" refers to the word "event" – Klaws Nov 11 '21 at 15:07

3 Answers3

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This is a place where hyphens could help make the meaning clearer:

... Red Sea threw a women-in-film event...

This is because the sentence is treating the three words, "women in film," as if they're a single adjective modifying "event." In these situations, it can help communication to link those words with hyphens; otherwise we might start to parse the individual words on their own as we read. (As I first glanced quickly at this question, my first thought was "Wait, who threw a woman into what?")

But as Lambie notes, a rewrite that reorders the sentence would in this case be even better.

It's also worth noting, "threw" is used here with the meaning given as definition 5 here:

to give by way of entertainment (throw a party)

This use is almost always used with a celebration, so it brings a certain implication that the event was festive. (You would not "throw" an international summit or peace talks or a press conference.) In fact, even for a "festival" event, it's an unusual word choice if the event is long and involved. You "throw" a party, a bash, a shindig, a reception, but not a conference (even Comic-Con), a county fair, a holiday, or even, typically, a "festival." As Lambie also notes, it might be better to choose a more neutral word like "hold," or if the event was indeed a party, to just use that word or a colorful synonym.

Andy Bonner
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    +1 for recommending proper hyphenation — a little-used skill these days… – gidds Nov 09 '21 at 00:15
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    @gidds I use it all the time - very happy it gets noted. – NotStanding with GoGotaHome Nov 09 '21 at 05:02
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    +1 though you should also include a definition of "throw" in this sense for completeness, as it's not the primary/obvious meaning of the term... – Muzer Nov 09 '21 at 10:43
  • Perhaps a different question, but is there any real difference in using "...threw a women-in-film event..." Vs "...threw a "Women in Film" event..."? – BruceWayne Nov 09 '21 at 18:43
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    @BruceWayne One difference, to my mind: the quotes similarly help readability, but the quotes give the impression that the event was actually named "Women in Film." If that was true, it's a great option; if not, it's misrepresentation. – Andy Bonner Nov 09 '21 at 18:45
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    @AndyBonner that is my inkling as well. Either way the original sentence could certainly have been phrased better. "Red Sea threw an event celebrating women in film..." (Avoiding both scare quotes and the hyphenation) – BruceWayne Nov 09 '21 at 18:47
  • @BruceWayne It just so happens that in this case, the phrase would make a nice title. You could have imagine another sentence, though, in which it wouldn't work: "Red Sea put on a thrown-together-at-the-last-minute event..." Once again, rewording is probably better, but quotes really wouldn't be an option (and to keep that word order without the hyphens would be very confusing). – Andy Bonner Nov 09 '21 at 18:48
  • Event capitalizing the event title (assuming it is the actual title) would help a reader parse it better: "...threw a Women In Film event." – CCTO Nov 09 '21 at 19:01
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    @CCTO Yes, it's better than the original. But we have no reason to assume that it is in fact the title, and if it is, there are still better phrasings ("... threw an event titled 'Women in Film'...") – Andy Bonner Nov 09 '21 at 19:03
  • @gidds: I take it you've never had a nested-hypenation problem appear. – Joshua Nov 10 '21 at 17:33
  • I suppose it's also worth noting that "Red Sea" in this case presumably refers to the name of a company, and not the body of water between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. (Though the company itself is probably named after the sea.) – Darrel Hoffman Nov 10 '21 at 18:29
  • @DarrelHoffman The OP linked the article, and yes, that is surely the case, but the usage around it is even more confusing. It introduces the proper noun with no explanation, and worse still, the first appearance is another festival! "As part of the push, the kingdom is launching its first international film festival. The Red Sea Festival begins in December..." – Andy Bonner Nov 10 '21 at 18:38
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    @Joshua I did, but it's almost completely cleared up now, and I've nearly finished the tablets. – gidds Nov 10 '21 at 19:42
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    @VScode_fanboy Your hyphen should have been a dash. – Acccumulation Nov 10 '21 at 21:02
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    Rather than just re-ordering the sentence, it should be reworded so that "women in film" is treated as the noun phrase it is, rather than trying to jam it in as an adjective: "threw an event honoring women in film". – Acccumulation Nov 10 '21 at 21:04
  • @Acccumulation symbol? – NotStanding with GoGotaHome Nov 11 '21 at 06:09
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It would be better written as:

At the Venice Film Festival, Red Sea threw a “Women in Film” event that attracted stars like Demi Moore and Kate Hudson.

I.e. it’s a descriptive title. Without the quotes or capitalization, it runs together and doesn’t make sense. With both, it shouldn’t give anyone pause as to what was meant.

jmoreno
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    Thanks for a great suggestion! I have to note, though, that the capitalization works only if this happened to actually be the title of the event, since this certainly creates the impression that it was. If it wasn't, we could use quote marks without capitalization, though to my mind it's still a bit more confusing than hyphens. – Andy Bonner Nov 09 '21 at 18:51
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It means that they organized an event whose focus was women in film.

Peter Kapteyn
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    Thank you for explaining it without erroneously claiming the sentence is somehow flawed. – curiousdannii Nov 11 '21 at 01:38
  • @curiousdannii Doesn't the inability of some people to parse the sentence (and the extra time and effort needed for others who can parse it) count as a flaw (even if not strictly an error)? – gidds Nov 12 '21 at 10:05