Maybe We All Missed The Point Of The Oscars
Jamie Lee Curtis winning the Oscar is a victory for all women. But is it a victory for all women in the same way?
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Ah yes, the Academy Awards. Every year, the Oscars carries the potential of historic opportunities.
Just so that in 2023, two women were nominated for supporting roles in the Academy-Award-winning movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. Either woman’s victory would be a stunning step forward.
And yet I wish Stephanie Hsu had won the Oscar, and not just because she has my favorite name.
All Things Have Never Been Equal
During her years as a Huffington Post blogger, Jamie Lee Curtis wrote as strong a rebuke of the 2013 Oscars as has been written about every other year the Academy pinched a loaf.
“I am sorry,” Curtis wrote, “that this is what we are talking about and not Argo’s lovely win or Jennifer’s amazing performance or Daniel’s eloquence and humor and grace.”
The primary distraction she was referencing, the sequence that’s so memorable you can’t believe you forgot it (but you’ll soon wish you would), was Seth MacFarlane’s infamous “Boob Song.”
I can’t remember the last time Variety published an article shorter than Braveheart, but this time even they didn’t need more than a paragraph.
Seth MacFarlane opened tonight’s Oscars telecast with a song about the majesty of cinema that celebrated all different kinds of accomplishments while righteously skewering the hubris of the whole endeavor. Just kidding! He sang a song called “We Saw Your Boobs,” all about which actresses’ bare breasts have been in movies. This is your Snow White number, Seth. (As a fun game, count how many actresses he mentions in this song who are portraying rape victims.) Ha, ha, ha, ha, breasts — it’s not like women in film do other things, right?
Christ.
Is this anything new?
In 2003, Adrian Brody rightfully won for his performance in The Pianist — except he grabbed Halle Berry on-stage and kissed her. Unlike several of the actresses who supplied pre-recorded reactions to MacFarlane’s “Boob Song,” Berry was not in on the joke. She did not consent.
In 2012, Billy Crystal hosted by showing up in blackface and offering some of the strangest racially-charged jokes I’ve ever heard. WTF?
In 2016, the Oscars found itself in an unusual position amidst #OscarsSoWhite by having Chris Rock perform for a second time, except Rock punctuated the night with a racist joke about Asians that barely foreshadowed how offensive and outright dangerous his comedy about women and trans people would become for his Netflix Live Comedy Special seven years later.
Despite Rock’s terrible joke, 2016 should still have been a new benchmark for diversity. But while the first out transgender composer was nominated for Best Song, rather than inviting her to perform, the Academy instead invited Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters, who wasn’t even nominated.
These are EASY opportunities for the Academy Awards to use to make the world a better place for more than men. For more than white people. For more than cisgender people. For all marginalized, invisible people who need that opportunity to see themselves outside of their own mind.
Representation forms the boundaries of existence
Or rather, representation forms the boundaries of what we perceive as possible.
That is why it hurts so much when the Academy looks at all of the low-hanging fruit and goes with Dave Grohl. And I love Dave Grohl but wtf lol.
That’s why when Jamie Lee Curtis won for her incredible performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, I found myself thinking about the other person who’d been nominated from the same movie: Stephanie Hsu.
The absolute majesty of Jobu Tupaki, aka Stephanie Hsu
I love Jamie Lee Curtis. After her own daughter came out as trans, Jamie became a fierce champion for trans rights. I wrote about her destroying hot takes on trans people as fiercely as she destroys hot takes on the Halloween franchise. I would die for this woman (okay lol), and I believe she’d die for me (I actually think she would?).
Since winning her Academy Award, she has spoken out over and over and over again in support of everyone who is queer, everyone who is of color, everyone who is not an extension of the privilege she knows helped her get to this point.
My god. It’s tempting to stop the article here, but I have a point.
Jamie Lee Curtis winning the Oscar was a victory for how far we’ve come. It is a victory for all women. But is it a victory for all women in the same way?
All things have never been equal
For all from which I benefit by a white woman winning the Oscar, my heart is with all that would have been achieved for people who are not me if the acclaimed queer icon Stephanie Hsu had won.
So when people say things like well the Oscars has no obligation beyond giving the award to the best cast, crew, and movies, you are missing why stories rooted in cisgender white male culture resonate so powerfully beyond our control.
But more than that, you’re missing the point of the Academy Awards.
It’s literally the reason for the Oscar’s existence
The point of the Oscars is not to simply ask which movie you like most.
The point of the Oscars is to look beyond whether a movie simply resonates with people.
The point of the Oscars is to ask bigger questions about the quality of who or what the award should recognize.
The point of the Oscars is to assess the immediate and long-term impact of this film’s place in our cinematic future.
Maybe that's high falootin, but it's literally the reason for the Oscar's existence.
In a joint statement issued June 2020, former Academy President David Rubin and former Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said:
The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them. The Academy is committed to playing a vital role in helping make this a reality… [T]he Academy is committed to playing a vital role in helping make this a reality.”
Casual filmgoers are the ones who look at a movie and say, well I just point at the one that seems like the best. And that’s fine! I do that too! I am a film critic, but I also enjoy movies for the sake of them. I shoot from the hip when I’m just having fun.
But that’s when I’m just having fun.
The Oscars are supposed to look beyond opinions and feelings.
Thanks to new inclusivity standards taking effect in 2024, we’re one step closer to ensuring they will (more on those standards next time).
It’s oppressive even when it’s awesome
I understand why lots of stories and characters resonate with people and seem like they're the "best." White cisgender heteronormative culture is prevalent and oppressive even when it's awesome. And sometimes it is awesome! Regular dudes have great stories. But the reason they resonate with audiences by default and FEEL like a better movie to so many people is because of our bias.
We have to be deliberate about expanding our own awareness and experiences. We have to intentionally expand who we choose to elevate and what that brings us tomorrow.
Some of my favorite Asian film critics (Dave Chen and Walter Chaw) have discussed this at length.
They pointed out that while the Best Acting award is usually given as a recognition for a body of work rather than a single role, that excuse only holds up in principle.
Progress is slow and complicated to regulate
If you look at the history of the Oscars, there has been growth and progress, but they also take a seemingly annual opportunity to neglect unique opportunities for diversity and inclusion that simply will not become integrated and normalized if they don't consciously choose something other than stories and characters that resonate with white cisgender cultures.
Looking at the history and the actual facts of the Academy Awards gives bigots no room to argue except from a place of conviction.
Looking at the present doesn’t leave a lot more room, either.
In 2023, Asian actors received a historic high of four nominations. How is FOUR a historic high for any category?
In 2023, zero women were nominated for Best Director.
In 2023, only two black actors were nominated in acting categories. Nominations did not include Danielle Deadwyler in Till and Viola Davis in The Woman King. Speaking to Sky News, the director and two stars were quoted as saying:
Viola Davis, star of The Woman King: “As artists, and there were a lot of female artists and artists of colour working on our film, we want to be acknowledged for our skill, for our excellence, for our craft. These are people that have been working for years, decades, doing what we do, and not getting noticed.”
Gina Prince Bythewood, female director behind The Woman King: “It’s been tough for women to have our work valued in the same way… it’s not just about me but about a systemic issue that’s been there.”
John Boyega, co-star of The Woman King: “It shouldn’t just be about no one’s heritage or skin colour but the work also speaks for itself which definitely raises some legit genuine questions.”
One last Oscar-worthy point
Now there’s one thing I left out of the above article.
It’s the gay part. The part about lesbians. The part that gives me a word for the marriage between me and my wife. In one of the many universes explored by EEAAO, Jamie’s character finds love with another woman.
Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that worth celebrating?
I am proud Jamie Lee Curtis won the Oscar.
I just wish there’d also been one for Stephanie Hsu.
Hi! It’s Stephenie Magister
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Stef - I totally stand with you: it is not high-falootin' to think the Academy Awards should represent the best of the film industry's impact on society.
That said...I grew up in Los Angeles. I know people in the business. My mother worked as an actress's personal assistant for about 20 years and met many Hollywood personalities. I met a few when I went to visit her at work.
The MPAA is not about caring for society. It's about clapping each other on the back and rubber-stamping each other's decisions. The actress my mother worked for would give my mother tapes to watch and give an opinion for the actress to vote. It's horrifying to glorify these people.
It reminds me of academia, which is now falling victim to its bro focus as peer-reviewed journal articles are retracted for crappy data rubber-stamped by the primary investigator's buddies. It is ridiculous, and certainly not the way a civilized society is intended to act.
I hope David Rubin's opinion becomes reality. I guess time will tell.
Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing that about your history. I feel the same way about publishing. People think it is so liberal and progressive, but it is ridiculously right wing and conservative and plagued by just as much systemic nonsense as the movies.
And yet publishing, like the movies, has been the industry by which so many of our greatest works of art have found the mechanism to bring them into existence. Sometimes what is merely virtue signalling is then claimed as legitimate and used to empower those for whom authentic gestures matter.
I support the mission statement I quoted. Or rather, I support the Academy Awards, but not the Academy. I will applaud everyone of diversity who gets an Oscar, but I'll do so while pointing at the Academy and saying, "This happened despite you not because of you lol"