Before you read further, this guest post was written by a man. Here is the male perspective on this whole fiasco...
It was Oscar night and as people around the world prepared to be part of Hollywood's big shindig something shocking happened, The Onion, a satirical no holds barred 'newspaper' deleted one of their tweets! You may ask why this was shocking? The Onion has not once shied away from hurting anyone's feelings, and some of their most biting commentary comes around 9/11 which most feel is taboo to make light of. So what could they possibly have tweeted about that deserved the outrage and scorn that now dogged them?
It wasn't a joke about Mohammad, Jesus or the Other controversial targets they make light of so often. It was about 9 years old actress Quvenzhané Wallis who had stole everyone's heart in the movie "Beasts of the Southern Wild" As she walked the red carpet with an adorable puppy purse, the person live tweeting the Oscars for The Onion said "Everyone else is afraid to say it, but Quvenzhané Wallis is a bit of a c**t right?" As I read it I could here the jaws of parents and people everywhere drop open and wonder what the writer could possibly mean by such a disgusting remark.
Let me preface by saying I'm the father to a gorgeous 8 year old daughter and a massive fan of The Onion.
I thought long and hard about the remark. Obviously there was a point behind it, there had to be! Why would someone call a precious little girl something so vile unless it served a point. The answer came to me this morning while reading the apology offered by The Onion (the Onion apologizing is also earthshaking news as they have never to my knowledge apologized before). They used the word satire quite frequently in the apology and most of the satire The Onion does is very clever, funny and subversive. This however wasn't.
The conclusion I reached was that the writer was trying to make a point of misogyny and the portrayal of women in Hollywood. To be fair he/she has a point. Last night when Kirsten Stewart got up the amount of abuse she gets for being quiet and moody is amazing when you compare it to Keanu Reeves who has a similar disposition. He's viewed as quirky and offbeat, yet he gets nowhere near the same amount of abuse. Halle Berry has lot of relationship trouble but gets most of the blame unlike Colin Ferrell who we call a 'Lad'. Taylor Swift is dumb slut or a skank unlike John Mayer who's a ladies man. Sean Young's career was derailed because she was deemed too bitchy and difficult to work with unlike Edward Norton, Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer all who are awful people on the set but it never seemed to hinder their careers.
So I understand the point they were making but should they have? Absolutely not!! As mentioned in the apology satire is supposed to be funny and that tweet was in no way funny or humorous This poor girl didn't deserve to be part of the joke. She's too young to understand that it was a 'joke' and hopefully before this whole fiasco never been part of the misogyny that plagues our society. Yes she isn't like a normal girl her age but just because she wants to act doesn't give us the right to talk about her in such a way. I hope this blows over quick and doesn't effect Quvenzhané much and can keep her innocence for a few more years. The writers point could have been made with a host of grown actresses who could handle 'satire'.
This world desensitizes us all, I'm sure the writer didn't want to hurt Quvenzhané's feelings, but when you were 9 were you able to tell when someone was using satire or being sarcastic? When someone said something mean it really hurt. I see this all the time with a daughter who is taller and heavier than most of her classmates. I spend a lot of time teaching her self-worth and to ignore the taunts of bullies, but I still see the tears from time to time. I'm glad to see them that means she's still a sensitive loving girl. She'll be teenager soon and will soon be pushing those feelings down and getting more jaded with life.
Remember when you talk about a child in the public eye they are someones daughter/son, niece nephew, sister/brother and think how you would feel if someone said that about someone in your life. TMZ and Entertainment Tonight have turned us all into bullies when it comes to celebs and we generally feel that when they enter the public eye they are fair game but they are humans like us and feel the same way we do. Let us try and be better than the Hollywood machine. Misogyny has no place in our society from the smallest girl to the oldest grandma they all deserve our respect.
My name is Dave Sidhu, I tweet satire and nonsense @malwaexpress I'm an Indo-Canadian father of 3 beautiful children that keeps me too busy to blog but hopefully soon I can!
