Oscars: am I hard-wired to be Drawn to the male violence drama in spite of myself

[Verysadatwork]

Did anyone else find themselves drawn to the Will Smith drama, only on reflection to realise how much it overshadowed others’ achievements including those of the women? (As per other thread)?

Anyway it made me wonder: is it an evolutionary thing to focus most of your attention on the male violence dramas (to stay safe)?

Or were we trained to put our focus there because of childhood training/the stories we read/heard/watched....?

I don’t think so in this case - if it had been a woman smacking another woman I would also have been drawn to it. If by drawn you mean it would have got my attention. It’s objectively the most interesting thing that’s happened at the oscars for years - not a high bar to be fair.

I think it's fairly sensible to pay attention to a physically large man making his angry point by slapping someone, in any scenario. Then factor in that the man in question is one of the worlds most well known actors, and about to win the most prestigious acting award in front of a global audience of many millions, then it is inevitably going to be the focus. I don't think it's worth over analysing that reaction.

After the initial surprise at reading about this incident, it did immediately occur to me that now no one will be talking about the film he won the Oscar for, about two great women sports stars. Also when learning that Jane Campion had won Best Director, that this would also be overshadowed. It's another side effect of entitled, violent male behaviour.

I think in this case its also because its celebrities and most people are drawn to celebrity scandals, rather than any deep seated conditioning about male violence.

interesting, I expected the opposite response. always good to check in here, I'm frequently surprised by the answers I get.

So, I guess what I've been thinking about a lot over the past few years is how boring the endless dramas about male violence are - how predictable - and yet how much we are forced to study them in life and in art/at school. There's only so many times you can make a teenager worry about what Macbeth (etc) is thinking without wishing you could spend a bit more time on more interesting stuff about the women.

last night everyone was forced (literally, the case of the people in the room, especially the man on stage) to put all their attention on to How Will Smith is Feeling and Is Will Smith Justified. My hunch is that this is more than a side-effect of male violence, that it goes deeper than entertainment - perhaps that we are primed to watch for it, pay attention to it (and therefore neglect other stuff).

Also, if a woman had done this people would be laughing at her primarily.

I think it's just that it's a bit of drama in an otherwise very boring awards show. I didn't even watch it and I don't condone violence at all but it's quite nice to have something mindless to talk about that isn't covid, war, rising cost of living etc

One film always wins best picture every year, someone always wins an award each year. They're not really achievements and the films are becoming more niche, the Oscars with their quotas have lost a lot of interest.

If Will Smith didn't do what he did, no one would be talking about the awards show, as the show keeps getting lower audience figures.

Also, if a woman had done this people would be laughing at her primarily.

If she'd hit a man, all the MRAs would come out and say that women are just as violent as men, and nobody cares about female violence etc etc ad nauseam.

If she'd done it to another woman, there would be an enormous amount of glee, and more sermonising about how violent women are.

OP. I think you might be on to something about the narrative of male violence being protective. I admit that when I first heard about it thought, "must be a joke. Will Smith is a decent man" to "omg. It's for real. Why?!?" To "Chris Rock made fun of Smith's wife so of course! He's defending his wife!" I immediately thought how I'd appreciate my own husband standing up for me. And then I started thinking this through more rationally and realized Will Smith, despite him slapping a physically fit male of similar social standing, still committed assault in the middle of an awards show. So now I'm at, "speech should never be met with violence."

But what influenced that instinctive part of me that felt a woman was vindicated by male protective violence? Maybe millennia of my female ancestors knowing better than I about physical dangers in less than civil societies? I don't know enough about epigenetics to make that kind of claim.

Scandinavian sagas identity different female archetypes including the incitor- a woman who urges her male relatives into avenge killings. If course, this is blaming the woman, but it also shows women in powerful political roles, so there's that.

“But what influenced that instinctive part of me that felt a woman was vindicated by male protective violence? Maybe millennia of my female ancestors knowing better than I about physical dangers in less than civil societies? I don't know enough about epigenetics to make that kind of claim.”

Yes, that’s it.
Or at an even simpler level, men hog our attention because they are dangerous.

Or at an even simpler level, men hog our attention because they are dangerous.

Yes!!! Agreed. We are watchful for explosions.

The main thing that crossed my mind was that he was laughing along until he realised Jada’s reaction was to not, and that her reaction was just as much caught on camera as his was.

And what would people think if his wife managed a dignified refusal of the joke while he effectively had been seen to join in the laughter?

So for me it seemed a lot less like ‘protecting his woman’ and a lot more like he was ashamed that his laughing along was in such sharp contrast to Jada’s dignified but definitive eye-rolling response and he was just plain old embarrassed.

Cue violent over the top reaction to ease his loss of face.

I came here hoping for a film recommendation or a discussion about the Bechdel Test, I didn't realise it would be about Smith and Rock.

I haven't seen the incident. However, I've now inadvertently seen enough commentary about it to know that it's excited a fair amount of heat and light that hasn't coalesced around any shared agreement.

Sorry :)

I think we all look at train wrecks when we pass them. If Penelope Cruz had popped JPS one we'd all be agog over that too.

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus

I came here hoping for a film recommendation or a discussion about the Bechdel Test, I didn't realise it would be about Smith and Rock.

I haven't seen the incident. However, I've now inadvertently seen enough commentary about it to know that it's excited a fair amount of heat and light that hasn't coalesced around any shared agreement.

I don't think the Bechdel test is all that useful.