Watching the Oscars has always been one of my favorite TV nights of the year. Until last night.
I was just going to chalk up my disgust over last night’s show to my raging hormones and decreasing tolerance for mean-spirited humor, but then The Onion sent out a jaw-dropping Tweet calling 9-year-old nominee Quvenzhane Wallis the “c” word (you can read it here but I’m not posting it on my site).
The Onion, which is usually very clever and on-target, totally crossed the line there and, although it’s absolutely inexcusable and they’ve since apologized, it’s easy to see how the writer could have considered it “humor,” given the sexist, misogynistic tone of the night.
Host Seth McFarlane set that tone from the opening number, “We Saw Your Boobs.” Really?? This is the Academy Awards, not Family Guy. You’re talking about well-respected actresses in important movies like Monster, Silkwood and The Accused – not Ted – and you’re reducing them to their breasts? This is funny? And getting some of those actresses on board to play along and pre-record “shocked” reactions is like getting the popular girls in high school to shrug off giving blow jobs as no big deal. It makes it hard for the women who want to be known for something other than their body parts to be taken seriously.
Even Sally Field, a two-time Oscar winner who was nominated this year for her portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln, allowed McFarlane to reduce her to her “hot” younger TV roles as Gidget and The Flying Nun. Doesn’t she realize she didn’t need to do that? We already like her. We really, really like her.
I’m not blaming the “victim” here. I just think it’s time to stop letting this male power play be excused as humor. It’s not funny to objectify someone, and the consequences of these jokes go well beyond the cheap laughs. It’s why the ERA still isn’t passed, it’s why the Republicans let the Violence Against Women Act lapse, it’s why rape is taken so lightly by male lawmakers. We need to stand together as women.
As much as it’s fun to watch the stars arrive on the Red Carpet and see what everyone’s wearing, it’s not fun to see talented actresses ripped to shreds by catty comments over their clothes or how they look in them. Yes, they’ve made the choice to become public figures but they’re there to be celebrated for their acting ability. We don’t do this to men.
These Red Carpet shows have made it commonplace – and acceptable – to judge professional women on their looks. Rather than celebrating the fact that there are women going glamorously green and others talking about their blood-free diamonds, we have turned the Red Carpet into an opportunity to become mean girls. Because of that, Rex Reed felt no qualms about calling Melissa McCarthy “a female hippo” in his review of her latest movie, which opened the door for Seth McFarlane to nonchalantly quip, “Rex Reed will be out here to review Adele’s performance of Skyfall.” Adele, whose performance was a bright spot in McFarlane’s ugly show, won an Oscar for the song, and Melissa McCarthy, who was a presenter, has been an Oscar nominee – yet both were quickly reduced to their weight.
What does this show our children? Not just our girls, who lose self-esteem hourly by the messages they are bombarded with, but our boys, who are encouraged to laugh at their female classmates and now see nothing wrong with looking for opportunities to say, “We saw your boobs!”
One billion people watch the Academy Awards, which ABC advertised as, “Finally! An Oscars the guys can enjoy!” So, basically, we’re telling boys all over the world that it was never manly to simply appreciate excellent movies with strong, sensitive performances; instead, they should be watching Ted. It’s time to raise the bar for men.
According to Miss Representation, girls’ self-esteem peaks at the age of nine – a fact powerfully brought home by what happened to young Quvenzhane Wallis last night. She started the evening with a confident grin and fist pump, and ended it being referred to by one of the most degrading names a woman can be called. This is devastatingly sad to me.
Early reports show that ratings for last night’s show were up from last year, and of course everyone’s talking about it today so McFarlane and the producers are probably patting themselves on the back and feeling pretty cocky and self-congratulatory. But to resort to such juvenile humor when the movies and live performances were so strong just makes them, to quote their own tasteless finale, losers.
Here’s to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting next year. Or maybe even Melissa McCarthy and Quvenzhane Wallis.
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Didn’t find the show that rewarding on any front. I also find children actors usually so indulged and just feel bad that they will not have a childhood. I often wonder whose vision it is, the child’s or the parents. But that being no one should be so mean or disrespectful to women, children, men or losers. Although while watching the last musical I thought it was funny. The others in the room thought it was tasteless but isn’t it just being nominated????? NOT!!!! Just find actors so overrated and over paid. I want teachers to have annual awards and get swag bags worth $47,000 with no taxes to them. The tax alone would cost too much for most people. Sickening, all of it.
I enjoyed your blog and I thought it was very well written. You brought up things that some choose to ignore because they just don’t give a damn anymore! That’s reality and it’s sad!
I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, Lois. I am not a prude and I actually appreciate Seth’s sense of humor, but not last night. He crossed a line and made the evening uncomfortable for many. Not only was the humor lacking, the writing in general was pathetic. Truly the worst Oscars I can remember.
YES! You are right. Are you saying that those actresses were pretending to be disturbed? I found it tasteless and I’m pretty open minded.
Agree agree and agree–one of the best assessments I’ve read, if not the best. Yes.
Couldn’t agree more…I thought “Ted” was funny, but you are absolutely right – MacFarlane bombed as a host and the jokes were tasteless, and not at all funny. When the “We Saw Your Boobs” song first started, I kept thinking they were saying a different word, because I couldn’t believe they were actually singing that, at the Oscars no less. I’m with you — my vote is for Tina and Amy next year all the way!!
I find it hilarious that anyone would be offended by such immature, yet ingenious humor as Seth’s. The guy is harmless, and the actors obviously agreed. He makes jokes out of ridiculous, horrifying things that have happened and people have said, such as the Rex Reed issue. Seth McFarlane KNOWS they’re ridiculous, and that’s why he uses them for his topics. He is so politically incorrect in a humorous manner, so he gets away with it. People need to take the stick out of their ass if they were offended, and learn not to be so uptight. It’s HUMOR, get a sense of one!!!
Louise, do you think The Onion’s comment was funny?
It’s great to see you responding to what I was feeling. I’m hoping to see more media coverage supporting these views. Seems the clocks keep turning back.
You cannot ascribe The Onion’s poor choice on Seth McFarlane. And I do believe his song about boobs was actually a joke aimed squarely at boys with 8th grade mentalities which unfortunately those same idiots will not get and some kids probably will be using the phrase to horrify young women. But it was a comment on the sexism that was already there: he was just calling it out. The objectification of women is not arcane secret. I would rather focus on the lack of women’s voices in the industry.
You know, I work in a field with a lot of beauty-centered people, and I’ve never been half so offended at their treatment as I was during the Boob song. The realization that the shocked/embarrassed/disgusted reactions were prerecorded didn’t help, since I’m pretty sure that most of those actresses would not have had that reaction unless told to(Kate Winslet, in particular, is pretty proud of her comfort with her body. Why didn’t they include her applauding herself, instead?) It seemed like the whole reaction was scripted to say “Yes, it’s fun/funny for us to look at your naked body, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ashamed for displaying it. Look how we shame you, for our own entertainment!”
I wouldn’t mind the humor, had it not been directed AT the victims of this double standard, and had they not had a tremendous amount of pressure to play along, and been basically a captive audience. Do you think anyone in that audience would leave or demand the joke be removed ahead of time(if they had the clout), because they thought he was being demeaning? No. It’s their careers. Not just theirs, but every person who has supported them up to that point.
McFarlane’s humor was incredibly exploitative, and no matter how often those associated with the event, or those justifying its contents may claim “they were amused, too!” that doesn’t mean it’s not a hostile environment for other female entertainers, even children, as we saw as well.
I’ve known a lot of women and men who’ve posed naked, who would respond to “I saw your boobs” with “So what? That’s all?” Censoring that reaction down to one actress fist-pumping their inability to attack her, and a number of others looking humiliated doesn’t do ANYTHING to promote any kind of healthy ideal in society, particularly to young people.
The Onion was wrong to do what they did. No excuse. Seth McFarlane is talented and the Family Guy show is funny. It didn’t work for the Oscars. I don’t think the First Lady giving out an award worked either. I think it diminished the White House and made Hollywood look ridiculous. The “boob” song was just stupid.
However, there is no denying there were lots of boobs on view last night. If we really want the Oscars to be about talent and celebrate the hard work and intellectual genius of the movie industry, then perhaps office attire would be more appropriate for the awards show. But it’s all about the dresses and the more revealing, it seems, the better. And the hair. And the nails. These are intellectual role models for little girls? Ask any middle schooler next week who won this or that award, their most memorable female “character”, the most talented…they won’t remember, but they’ll remember the dresses.
Great post Lois. Sorry that it ruined the Academy Awards for you. I tend to focus on the fashion but I did watch the awards portion. I guess I expected that people who are in the public eye tend to take these things in stride. For people to be so up in arms today is sad. I enjoy the awards and wouldn’t like to think they’d be effected by poor taste. Thanks for sharing,V
It is too bad that a year filled with such great films was diminished by a show that was frankly boring and lame. I couldn’t believe that they devoted the first 20 minutes to such ridiculous time-wasting material and then rushed people through their acceptance speeches. I would much rather they spent the time concentrating on the films and actually showed longer clips of some of the nominated documentaries, for example.
You can have an outstanding sense of humor, an exquisite appreciation for the ridiculous, even accept that frat boy humor has its place in a too-serious world. You should still be able to identify the line. You can be a crazy-ass, wild and funny twenty-five year old who thinks everything is hilarious. You should still be able to identify the line. But people will defend the most tasteless humor, because it is apparently worse than anything to be considered humorless. As for the tweet, I am done-ion with the Onion.
I had not given it this much thought, although I was unimpressed enough with the boob song to take a potty break. The slur to Miss Wallis is unforgivable – I do not read the Onion, and certainly will not now. I do not participate in the twitterverse. All that being said – taken as a whole I agree with Louise – it is humour, poor humour, but humour nonetheless. One of those times you can just turn off your set if you do not care for it.
My favourite outfits were: the woman who had on bright blue spandex and a tuxedo jacket with her hair all wonky and the guy in kilts.
And now I am going to go and give it more thought….
I’m glad you mentioned “Miss Representation” and maybe “The Invisible War” was worth noting too to make your point. I never have high expectations for the Academy Awards program to begin with so hard to say I am disappointed…more so bored and not amused. The media, the military and yes Hollywood need to be more sensitive to sexism in this country and what “in good tast” is all about. Thanks.
Thank you for your insightful article. It really bothered me to see so many accomplished women who should have been acknowledged for their remarkable contributions, reduced to T & A. Humor at the expense of anothers sense of worth and self esteeem, in particular, one group / gender of people is certainly not funny, nor equitable. It was totally sexist. I did not notice any receding hairline, paunch or “package” jokes. What I did, is exactly what others could have done. I turned the channel “off “.
This was spot on. The stand outs for me were Jennifer Aniston who was stunning as usual, Adele and Barbra Streisand. The rest of the show could have left the building and just rolled in the credits.
It was a very confusing show. Seth MacFarlane is such a talented singer and dancer, and the musical numbers were outstanding – they made the show – but the humor was so NOT funny. The highlight for me – other than the musical numbers – was the charming and delightful acceptance speech by Daniel Day Lewis. I hope the powers that be will give thought to a more sophisticated host next year – bring back Steve Martin!
What a great post and a great discussion. Here are some other interesting posts on the subject
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/02/seth-macfarlane-and-the-oscars-hostile-ugly-sexist-night.html
http://www.vulture.com/2013/02/why-seth-macfarlanes-misogyny-matters.html
http://bitchmagazine.org/the-oscars-five-things-that-need-to-change
Thanks you for this ! I had this very discussion with my coworker yesterday! I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who felt this way! We have a lot of work to do to over come this.
Like you, I look forward to the Oscars each year, my one, consistent television obsession I enjoy. After Monday night, I’m not so sure I’ll be tuning in. Seth went back and forth from being cute and engaging to tasteless and rude (Boob song, fat jokes, Jewish bigotry, etc.) The ending was the nail in the coffin. Michelle Obama, really? Let’s just prove even more how the media and Hollywood gushes over anything Obama. Please keep politics out of my once a year indulgence.
I don’t usually watch the Oscars & skipped them again this year…I havent found them worth my time or even remotely entertaining for many years now…It sounds as if Seth M. was inappropriate at times. I think within his genre he is comic genius at times, but it sounds like this platform for him was a bad fit. Has anyone part of the Academy even seen his shows?? They must have known what was in store by having him host.
Overall no excuse for The Onions poor taste, but geesh she is a little girl for heavens sake!! Totally repulsive on their part.
I am glad I didn’t even consider watching. Ugh!
Oscar night is just days away, Lois. I wonder how you will feel about this year’s show? How do you think Ellen will be as host?