The Slap Heard ‘Round The World
So the Oscars were on Sunday. If you know me, you know that my entire personality is rooted in my love for all things drama, pop culture, and Hollywood. Since I can remember I have sat on the couch with my mom through every award show during award season. I have heard monologue upon monologue and seen the internet get broken and then broken again. I have spent so many years perfecting the craft of loving Hollywood and the stars that is houses. So imagine my utter disgust when a man who I have watched, admired, and listened to my whole life, slapped another man I have also seen in the media my entire life on live television, on Hollywood’s biggest night. I know that many people are taking sides or remaining indifferent, but I want to bring up another conversation other than, “Well, Jada and Will Smith have a bad relationship”, “Jada has alopecia”, “It was just a joke Chris made, he might not have known”. Sure, maybe all of those things are true, but what about this, Will Smith got up and walked on stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face, and then sat back down and shouted profanities at him. I don’t care what Chris said, nor do I really care how it affected Will or Jada (hate me for that if you want to). What I care about are the kids like me who are growing up watching these people, and see violence be treated like it is an okay thing.
This act by Will was inappropriate for many reasons but, the reason that sticks out to me the most is this: Will Smith is a so called “Preacher of Love”. I don’t know about you, but my mom taught me that hate and anger solves nothing, that LOVE conquers all. I would never think to express my emotions by publicly assaulting someone. As he himself said in his acceptance speech for Best Actor (an extremely high honor might I add) he wants to ooze love and that it is what he values most. Riddle me this Will: is violence love? Incase you can’t think of the answer, it is no. Never. The next thing that bothers me the most about this whole situation, is he wins the award and EVERYONE gets up and applauds for this man and his SIX MINUTE speech like he didn’t just ASSAULT somebody on live television. He should have had the award taken away before he even got it. I actually brought this up to a friend of mine, how I think his award should be taken away, and he brought up something far more interesting. Harvey Weinstein.
As a woman I could say A LOT about the academy award winning serial sex offender, but I will keep to my point. In a recent Vogue article, they touch on the fact of the Film Academy never revoking someone’s award. Not even Harvey Weinstein, who raped several women. Instead he was expelled from the association. Even though other associations such as BAFTA and the Tony awards revoked his awards and expelled him. Tell me I am not the only one who sees a problem with this. Yet the Oscar given to Will smith, which was rightfully earned for his role in “King Richard”, might be revoked. Although I think it should be, it seems suspicious to me, but that could be a totally different conversation. However, it still seems to me that violence is being celebrated by the press, by the Oscars, and by the audience in there that night. How are we supposed to move into an age of acceptance and forgiveness and love if we cannot celebrate artists without one of them assaulting someone else.
This brings me to my final issue. Celebrities like Jim Carrey and Zoe Kravitz both spoke out about the situation in their own ways. Jim Carrey confronting the issue in an interview basically saying that even if what Chris Rock said was wrong, violence (public violence at that) is NEVER the answer, that Will Smith should be beyond embarrassed and apologetic of his actions. Kravitz was a little more subtle with a simple Instagram caption saying “here’s a picture of my dress at the award show where we are apparently assaulting people on stage now”. Because of this, viewers almost instantly took to twitter and started bashing these actors for not only their personal opinions, but for not supporting Will and his impulsive actions. I just find it hard to respect people that condone such violence and public disrespect from people who are supposed to be highly acclaimed professionals. I don’t want this post to be read as some sort of gossip article or hate towards either party involved. I want this to be a wake up call. So much violence and physical harm is ignored and/or praised in order to spare feelings or to simply avoid further problems, but the avoidance is a problem in and of itself. We need to do better. Hollywood needs to do better.
-Miss O
