by Deborah Lipp
One of Oscar's best moments. Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari accepting on behalf of protesting Asghar Farhadi
If I may use this year’s vernacular, Oscars are woke. Except, well, they can only be woke about one thing at a time. Last year after the Oscars, I wrote about the powerful “spotlight” (see what I did there?) the Oscars brought to the issue of rape and sexual violence. And I’m going to acknowledge, that yes, that was amazing.
But rape is so last year.
This year was all about diversity and inclusion. Those are wonderful topics, those are topics that matter to me. The diversity was beautiful to see. The powerful immigrant voices—from Iran, Mexico, and Italy, among other nations—moved me. It was important that people of color were not merely supporting characters—even though the winners were in the Supporting categories, they supported other people of color...
But it’s only been a year, and hey, Collective Oscars Consciousness, rape is still with us. Violence against women is still with us. And you know where it is (among other places)? In the Oscar audience, and on the Oscar stage.
Yes, I’m talking about Casey Affleck, who settled two sexual harassment lawsuits out of court, and yet was wildly applauded by the same (more or less) audience who cheered for Roman Polanski, convicted rapist, not all that long ago, and who clamor to work with Woody Allen.
I’m talking about Mel Gibson, with his domestic violence conviction, sitting in the audience, applauded and praised and nominated.
It all started when I got an IM from my sister:
I can't help but be disappointed that the creator of the OJ documentary give a lengthy shout out to victims of police violence and racially motivated crimes, but not a word about victims of domestic violence.
Once you notice that, you notice Affleck. And Gibson. And you notice that an issue that was front-and-center exactly one year earlier was effectively disappeared. My sister suggested that caring a lot about violence against women with those two men the subject of some of the evening’s adulation would have seemed…tacky. That maybe people just decided to sweep it under the rug out of a strange sense of politeness?
But I’m bitter enough to toy with the notion that caring about sexual violence never mattered to the people who forefronted it last year.
That’s not quite true. Brie Larson, who was so supportive of victims of sexual assault a year ago, hasn’t forgotten.*
But here’s the world we live in: We elected a self-admitted sexual abuser, and accused rapist, president. We give Oscars to convicted rapists, accused child molesters, and sexual harassers.** We nominate convicted spousal abusers and welcome them as great, warm-hearted members of “our community”.
I don’t think Oscar forgot about violence against women. I think they got too close to the fire and jumped back, lest the heat force them to take their ideas seriously enough to consider the consequences. Because the real consequences, if you think about it really hard, might be not inviting your buddy Casey over for the celebration.
*You’ll see articles saying Larson refused to hug Affleck at the Oscars, which is untrue, but she definitely didn’t applaud.
**As long as they’re white.