Male violence at the Oscars

@NoNever

Will has that stupid smile on his face when he slaps a reported on the red carpet.
He's just a man who enjoys using his position of power to be violent. It is usually just a light slap, just a way of making the point that he has that power and they need to atop asking questions he doesnt like. But this one went much further, and he is still getting away with it. That smile is just his normal attitude when he has been 'alpha Male' over someone.

So, according to "a source," Chris didnt know about her alopecia. He doesnt follow them or what they're doing so didnt know. The joke wasnt scripted, and he just saw her sitting in the front row with her shaved head and made a joke. He didnt know the background. Maybe explains why he looked to Will and said "it was a G.I. Jane Joke" with that bemused look he had.

@NoNever @DontLikeCrumpets

Have you not watched the full video including Will Smith shouting afterwards?

There's no way his team would have agreed to this. There's no benefit in it to him. Or to Chris Rock.

And the Academy now needs to decide what action, if any, to take next. Whatever decision they make will be met with negative responses from many, many people.

As someone who has spent years and years working in PR, it's ridiculous to think this is an approved stunt / staged. It makes no sense at all.

“No wonder we have such an epidemic of male violence in our society.”

This 100%

I' might have felt justified in slapping him if he'd said it to me, so I don't really think Smith was out of order particularly. Though really those kinds of events are bound to make people cross lines. Chris Rock is a shit, though.

It’s quite ludicrous for people to suggest it was staged. Why would you stage something that makes you look like a complete arsehole?

He either thought it was a justified response or was unable to control his reactions. Neither of which are reasonable responses.

I only watched it once, and the casual, almost sauntering gait walking onto the stage was belied by the fuming, spitting rage of what he said back in his chair.

The slap was so casual and detached, it was odd. But the targeted rage back in his seat left no doubt that he was out of control, in my opinion.

And it did look drink fuelled, to me. That obliviousness of the optics.

@KimikosNightmare I was responding to the claim that "violence is always wrong".

Violence can be a very useful response to violence. And also to other forms of abuse and sometimes even to the threat of it. In my opinion.

Oh and when I was growing up the violence was not the worst thing. It did less damage than the emotional abuse.

Yes I grew up in a violent household w with plenty of examples of toxic masculinity and misogyny.

No I dont think Will Smith's actions were justified.

Neither do I think that all violence is wrong.

I heard about the hoo-ha on the radio this morning but didn’t see the clip until this evening. It was worse than I was expecting.

Because that drip, drip corrosive erosion of boundaries is what gives men the ability to punch their wives in the face and slap their children and still sleep at night. Because they tell themselves that it was justified.

It's what makes men feel that it's okay to punch and stamp on a bloke who made a silly joke.

This isn't self defence and it's not defence of others. It's just violence.

Staged surely

This whole event confuses me. I could see it being planned / staged but then surely they would have acted differently in the aftermath. Their post incident actions seem counter to this being staged.

I have no idea if Chris Rock knew about Jada's alopecia. I didn't. Quite a few women shave their heads and it is seen as empowering / personal choice. I know a few black women with almost shaved heads and that is their preferred style of hair. I didn't even know why it was an insult when said. GI Jane / Demi Moore was seen as a strong woman - not something connected to an insult. And if Chris Rock did know - was this common enough knowledge that it would be expected that everyone in the audience knew that Jada has a condition that causes hair loss and that no comments should be made about her style.

I looked at Jada's instagram - and it seems she has eyebrows and upper and lower lashes in all her pictures. Maybe that is all tattoo, make-up, fake lashes? Are we sure she doesn't shave her head? She has some pictures with short but not shaved hair in the past few weeks. Hard to know when pictures are taken.

And to resort to violence and go up and hit someone after laughing initially at the 'joke'. None of this makes sense to me.

Self defence and the defence of others doesn't just happen in a war. "All violence is wrong" is just such a limited argument and yes, a stupid one.

The meme is that "there's no such thing as bad publicity"; well, in reality, there is.

The question here is whether or not Will Smith has pulled a "Ratner" on himself and/or the Oscars.

As far as I understand it, the American entertainment world is weird about certain things: nudity, swearing (the f-bomb), and certain types of scandal, while they are not that too fussed about violence. In some ways, many elements of the US mainstream audience will be more appalled by Smith's bad language than the assault.

There was a long running story about a certain celebrity's failure to crack the US largely because of his indiscreet affairs. Hollywood A listers didn't like it because they don't want to be pulled into that type of scandal.

There could be words said by certain key players who just do not want to be at an event where something like that takes place again. These people pay millions to protect their wholesome public image; they won't want to be pictured at an event where a man aggressively swears on live television and hits a compare.

Addictions and rehab are different though. There's a redemption arc possible here that US audiences like.

The only way Smith can turn this around is through "rehab" of some description, and even then, I think he's massively damaged his career by the bad language.

I wrote a long response but I can't be bothered with the stupidity.