So what really happened at the 94th Oscars awards ceremony put on by the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2022? As usual, a number of people hosted the event giving awards for best actor, best supporting actor, best film, best director, best special effects… But one specific event stands out and has hit the headlines, which is an incident between two men by the names of Will Smith and Chris Rock.
What happened? Well, of the big name presents including Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Hawk, Anthony Hopkins, Zoe Kravitz, Mila Kunis, Jason Momoa, Uma Thurman, John Travolta and the Williams sisters Serena and Venus, one person now stands out to me. Chris Rock. Having been paid a large sum of money to present the award for Best Documentary, he took pot shots at female members of the audience.
Penelope Cruz – wife of Javier Bardem – was called out in a sexist joke in which she was only referred to as “his wife”. She looked far from impressed, but took the joke as one must in the public eye. Rock then pointed out Jada Pinkett-Smith, adjacent to her husband Will and made a joke about her appearance stating that he looked forward to seeing her in G.I. Jane 2 – referencing her buzz-cut hair similar to that sported by Demi Moore in 1997’s movie G.I. Jane. This was his second sexist joke in as many minutes, and both times was directed at female audience members.
However, Jada’s short hair is due to a chronic condition called alopecia which is untreatable and causes partial or total hair loss. In 2018 she first spoke about her hair loss being “terrifying when it first started” but support from her family has helped her to come to terms with the condition. While Will Smith initially laughed at the joke, Jada looked deeply hurt by it and in the intervening seconds between the joke and Will walking on stage, it’s clear that Will saw and recognised the hurting in his wife and sought to protect her.
Notably, this was not the first time that Chris Rock had made derogatory and sexist remarks about Jada Pinkett-Smith, having insulted her boycott of the 2016 Oscars for a lack of diversity. Probably also worth noting, that Jada’s boycott would indirectly support Chris Rock, as a non-white artist / actor. At the time she said, “Hey look, it comes with the territory but we gotta keep it moving… There’s a lot of stuff we gotta handle, a lot of stuff in our world right now. We gotta keep it moving.” Sentiments echoed later that evening by Will in his acceptance speech, where he said you’re expected to accept whatever gets thrown at you and smile.
However, it also wasn’t the first time that evening that the Will and Jada or Javier and Penelope had been highlighted that evening. Regina Hall had earlier the same evening made comments about Javier Bardem being married and therefore ineligible for inclusion as one of Hollywood’s most desirable men. Will Smith was then called upon despite being married, but still being eligible on the grounds that “…it looks like Jada approved you…”. Making reference to the couple’s open marriage, which came about as they were “both miserable and clearly something had to change.” Even before this though, both couples were singled out in comments from Amy Schumer towards the beginning of the ceremony.
Please remember though, that being a single, straight male does not automatically mean that person will want to sleep with you if you are a female. Being a gay male in an open relationship does not automatically mean that all men are potential dates. We know this, yet it still seems to be open for joking with some people.
If you wanted my “hot take”, it seems that yet again, rampant sexism and sexist jokes are the root of all comedy. The only jokes that are told rely on putting someone or something down. In the opening ‘monologue’ alone, jokes were told targetting Timothee Chalamet and JK Simmons, Lady Gaga and Jared Leto, LeBron James, Mitch McConnell, Samuel L. Jackson, Maggie and Jake Gyllenhall, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron Sorkin… All this before the first award was presented. Before the three presenters Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes even took to the stage, DJ Khaled called out Will Smith to ask about Bad Boys 4.
There were some positive comments, highlighting changes that need to be made, but they far outweighed by these negative comments above. Schumer joked that three women were hired because it’s cheaper than one man, support for the gay community of Florida came to the front when Sykes stated “And for you people in Florida, we’re going to have a gay night”, and Schumer again, pointing out Will and Jada this time, for being involved in the creation of the movie about the Williams sisters “After years of Hollywood ignoring women’s stories”.
Some positivity, but vastly outweighed by the negative in my opinion and symptomatic of a culture in which HUGE changes need to be made so that we can thrive and flourish without anyone being singled out, targeted and hurt for a cheap laugh. Laughing with people is comedy, laughing at people is bullying. I saw a lot of laughing at people in the awards this year, and it has to change.
