The Oscars post.

[nenena]

I don't want to be one of those people who complains about the Oscars every year. But I've actually NEVER complained about the Oscars on my blog before, so I think it's about time I cashed in some of that restraint and indulged myself in a little Armchair Quarterback Kvetching this year. Because everybody needs to get a little bit of Armchair Quarterback Kvetching out of their system every once in a while.

To wit:

Seth McFarlane was boring at best, unfunny most of the time, misogynist at worst.

The media's treatment of Quvenzhané Wallis was horrid. I expected some level of badness, since she's black, female, and a child nominated in the Best Actress category, but I was totally unprepared for "I'll just call you Annie" and the Onion's twitter actually calling her a c*nt. Holy shit people. Is this really 2013? And this on top of everybody saying that she wasn't "really acting" in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Because children can't act or something. I suspect that at least half the people criticizing her for "not acting" never even saw Beasts of the Southern Wild in the first place.

Argo was the only one of the Best Picture nominees that I felt didn't deserve to be nominated, so of course it won.

And goddamit, I really did enjoy Brave on a lot of levels, but Wreck-It Ralph was a superior film in nearly every way. Including from a feminist perspective. And that is really saying something.

I think I would have liked Brave a heckuva lot more if it hadn't been marketed and praised as some great feminist film or whatever. As a beautiful piece of animation it's great, and as an adventure story it's great, but as a feminist narrative it just falls right the fuck apart if you really start to think about it, and with that on top of all of the sexism that went on behind the scenes it's just ugh. I'm tired of "feminist" stories that denigrate femininity and (intentionally or not) enforce the idea that the only way for women to be strong/free/happy is for them to be more like men because things like bravery and bodily autonomy and wanting to change your fate are somehow inherently masculine. Somehow.

Welp. Glad I got that out of my system.

Comments

[icysnowdrop.livejournal.com]

I should probably use my dreamwidth account so I can comment on your posts more but

OMG I cannot agree with you on Brave more. It is my least favorite Pixar movie ever and even my friends who have pretty feminist views seem to hate it. I guess the writers wanted to have the main character identifiable to little girls because I remember when I was little I was at the age where I thought being girly = weak. I guess I was more annoyed with the main character's antics than anything else.

[the_sun_is_up]

I didn't watch the Oscars - my parents watched it and I just overheard some bits of the first half-hour or so while I was washing the dishes - but I'm now reading some articles on the genderfail, and apparently ABC was concerned that their Oscar-watching audience was getting so female-dominated and they were losing the coveted young white male demographic, so they way overcompensated in the opposite direction, what with the Seth McFarlane and the boob song and getting Shatner to play Captain Kirk (I had a moment of vicarious nerd-shame when I overheard that part, I mean seriously, y'all are dragging that guy out again after how many decades?)

And did you hear about the anonymous Oscar voter who admitted that s/he voted against Wallis because s/he couldn't pronounce her name? What century are we living in again?!?

[(Anonymous)]

I personally am also tired of the "Females Must Have Male Characteristics to be Strong" trope, but I didn't see Brave as pushing that entirely down my throat-- I thought it also portrayed the mother in a good light as well, even with her feminine characteristics. While Brave isn't my favorite Pixar movie, one characteristic that endears it to me is the portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship in there, because it felt quite realistic in my perspective. But yeah, I can understand your disgruntlement over it winning before Wreck it Ralph. f^^;;

[lavannah]

I didn't watch the Oscars. Seth McFarlene is NOT my cup of tea in the normal media, much less in this kind of spotlight, and after reading about the night I was glad I didn't. I know everyone has different tastes, my own boyfriend for example, loves that kind of humor and loves everything Seth has done. At least he might have enjoyed the Oscars if he hadn't been working. Maybe next year I'll watch it.

As for Brave vs. Wreck It Ralph, visually, Brave kicks Ralph out of the park(imo). Storyline wise, Ralph was a hundred times better. Either way, it's still a Disney Pixar win. I need to go find the list of who won what, I only know best picture and now best animated feature lol.

[(Anonymous)]

Popcorn42 here. Fwiw, I'm glad I didn't miss anything from the Oscars since I was watching BBC's "{2nd} Doctors Revisited" during the same timeframe (which was yet again very enjoyable, if I do say so myself).

About Brave, that and Wreck-it-Ralph are both movies I need to see but, I remember one of my earliest thoughts about the former (when I saw a trailer in theaters before Arrietty) being a redux of Mulan; not that I hate Mulan, quite the opposite, but it seemed similar in my head.

[ivan_henley]

Whew. Glad I stopped watching the Oscars some time ago. Sounds like I did myself a favor.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't agree with you more about Argo. I watched it late, after it won the Oscar, and it didn't hold a candle to Zero Dark Thirty.

Quite randomly stumbled across your blog through a SnK search. I love the few excellent entries you've done about the series, please blog more about it!

-vesperlynd