We'll be opening this week's class with some images and clips from Sunday's Oscar ceremonies. To be honest with you, if I don't teach this course someday solely through Calvin and Hobbes or South Park, it will be through current events and Louis CK alone. I digress.
Check out this essay, one of myriad analyses of the text and subtext of Sunday's ceremony. We'll be talking about gender, race, intersectionality, satire, and what Sunday shows us about the chinks in the armor of our society.
And what does this have to do with schooling? Structure and agency - so we must talk about societal patterns to think about how schooling reflects, refracts, rejects, and jams those messaging systems.
I really appreciated this piece because I too felt anger after watching the Oscars, for so many reasons. For one, so many of the Oscar nominees were white males (and many of the winners were white males with long hair. What's up with that?) Where were the women? Where were the people of color? I know that there are many people involved in film who are not white males but very little of them were recognized by the academy. Second, I was quite offended by Seth Macfarlane's "I saw your boobs" stunt. It is not lost on me that he tried to skirt responsibility by having William Shatner of the Future criticize the song. Seth Macfarlane still called out these actresses on air. I was also extremely upset when Seth sexualized Quvenzhané by saying that in 16 years she will still be "too young" for George Clooney. This "joke" also had a major element of sexism. When women have young male partners, they're criticized as "cougars" However, when men have young female partners, they are lauded. As for the treatment of Quvenzhané Wallis, it was all despicable. On the red carpet, at the awards, on the internet. As for her name, I don't find it particularly difficult to pronounce. As the article noted, her name is particularly harder to pronounce than Arnold Schwarzenegger, Zach Galifianakis, Renee Zellwegger. I can think of many more: , Maggie Gyllenhaal, Shia LaBeouf, Anna Kournikova. These white celebrities' names are deemed worthy enough to pronounce correctly. I wonder if Gabby Sidibe (the lead actress in "Precious") does not go by Gabourey because her name is "too difficult" to pronounce. There is much more to say about the Oscars. I for one am saddened that Quvenzhané was the victim of racism and misogyny, and especially at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteOoh just reread this. Quvenzhané's name *ISN'T* particularly harder to pronounce. Oops
DeleteWhat I find to offending is not the difficulty of pronouncing a name but the pretentiousness of people to "blame" the young girl for having a difficult name to pronounce instead of humbling themselves enough to admit that they lack the worldliness to know how to pronounce it or at the least admit their ignorance of having the ability to pronounce it. There is nothing worse than being that person or teacher who stands up in front of the world or class and can not admit when they don't know something? What are we teaching the world about what it is to be human and have flaws! God forbid we are not all perfect!!!
DeleteMy favorite part:
ReplyDelete“Give your daughters difficult names,” Warsan Shire wrote. “Give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn’t allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right … Give your children difficult names, so the world may learn how to unfurl its tongue in the direction of our stolen languages.”
Such a powerful, powerful statement and concept.
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ReplyDeleteOk, I am guilty of being a fan of the Oscars. I love the dresses, the excitement, the speeches, the glamor, and the whole idea of people having their dreams come true. Of course I notice the offensive things, the insults the racist/sexist/agesit/whateverist jokes that sometimes go too far. But I never give them much thought, "It's the way of the Oscars...whatever".
ReplyDeleteBut this year, I realized something that affected me personally. It has nothing to do with race or gender. It has to do with how religion is treated in the Oscars. I mean, it's really rather obvious, I just never gave it much thought. It's as Seth McFarlane noted, "Jews control Hollywood". When he was voicing Ted the bear, he also told the Catholic Mark Wahlberg that if he "wanted to work in this town" he could not be Catholic. I've noticed that in the past couple of decades, Christian movies, especially Catholic movies barely (or should I say, almost never) make it to the Oscars. Sure, not all Catholic movies are "Oscar worthy", but I have seen some that greatly surpass a good amount of movies that do make it to the Academy Awards. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch "For Greater Glory", you'll know what I mean. If that movie had been about any other religion, Andy García and Mauricio Kuri would have at least been nominated this year.
And I know you might think that I am taking this way too personally because I am Catholic but there is an underlying truth as to why Catholic movies do not make it to the Oscars, and it's not just about the fact that the event is mostly "run" by Jews. It's about a collective sentiment of dislike of the Catholic Church. It is so evident that most of today's American society tolerates and even embraces attacking the Catholic faith. Poking fun at Judaism or Islam is unacceptable, but hey, let's hate on the Catholics. We see this everywhere, on the internet, in TV, in day-to-day conversations. Or like Nicki Minaj's performance at the 2012 Grammy's???? That was SO OFFENSIVE!! So why is it ok for her to insult Catholicism??? Why do we allow it and at times, encourage it??
While the article on Quvenzhané talks about race and gender, I think religion is also very important when we look at the Oscars or any other award ceremony in the US. There are so many subtleties, so many ideologies ingrained into the Oscars that truly reflect overall truths in America's conception and treatment of religion.