It’s a pretty huge accusation/assumption to think someone is a wife/child beater because they were the physical aggressor with another man. You’re way overreaching with this one. First, Smith doesn’t have a history of engaging in physical altercations, so it’s reaching to assume that’s a regular part of his life and personality, but then even assuming it is, it’s a pretty big leap in severity to assume he also is violent against those he loves/who are under his protection. There are a lot of men who are part of that macho culture that do not use violence against women or children. They would consider it to be a huge demarcation between those things. I don’t know what the numbers are - but I suspect they are heavily influenced by culture.
I’m also not going to concede that corporal punishment is the same thing as an impulsive assault on someone. It often is, but that, too, often isn’t.
I obviously don’t know what the pre-Oscar dynamic was between Rock and the Smiths, but I was surprised a guy who had made a movie explaining why you should never fuck around when it comes to black women and their hair decided to fuck around with regard to a black woman and her hair in a globally televised event.
Assault charge should be at Rock’s discretion (and Rock should be supported if he decides to pursue that course) and Smith’s Oscar win has nothing to do with the slap.
But booted or suspended from the Academy? Hell yes.
No, it shouldn’t. Assault (hell, battery, actually) is a crime that shouldn’t depend on the victim pressing charges (for a whole host of reasons) but should be for the State to prosecute.
It happened after - he should have had his nomination revoked immediately. He hadn’t won it yet.
Well, he had won it. It just hadn’t been announced yet.
This incident tests my stance, previously stated and defended on this board, that I separate art from artist. The list is long: Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Roman Polanski…I have maintained that I whether I enjoy their art is independent from what I think of them as a human. Many cannot or will not do that.
I watched the incident as it happened. Like many others I thought it was a bit. Once I recognized that it wasn’t, I was appalled. I think Smith’s behavior was repulsive and inexcusable and he has serious issues that should not be ignored.
That said, I thought his performance in “King Richard” was outstanding. And he should not be stripped of an award that he legitimately won because he acted like an asshole.
Awards like the Oscars aren’t like winning a race and the Academy is just certifying that achievement, the award is the Academy granting recognition. It’s not a prize he’s entitled to before it’s announced, just because it’s in an envelope. It’s the awarding of it that makes it so
And it’s not that he acted like an asshole. If he’d slapped Rock at a party the night before, I can see the argument that it shouldn’t affect his award. It’s that he assaulted someone at the event itself. That makes continuing to award him a reflection on the Academy itself.
You are trying to be sarcastic but yes, yay. He, like my wife’s uncle, has the least common most severe form of alopecia. At that level there is a journey to embrace your appearance. My wife’s uncle and my one patient (a girl who has dealt with it from early childhood and is bald and proud) do have to wear hats in the summer. My patient also has a mild immune deficiency and has had more than her share of sinus infections. And of the spectrum of autoimmune diseases yes it’s a Bud Lite. Now compare your spouse’s condition with Ms Smith’s. She does not have what your spouse has. Of the spectrum that is alopecia she has a case so mild (or so unusually responsive to treatment) as to be unapparent. Much less than mine. (Again duly noted that my buzzed patchy now with male pattern too bald and embrace of cueball jokes is without the cultural and therefore possible psychological impact that hair has for women and apparently for Black women in particular). She has eyebrows but sweat getting in her eyes? Darling she only glows and dabbing those drops? She has people for that.
Her horrible disease is akin to someone with a pimple (after all there are those with severe cystic acne and scars so that pimple deserves huge sympathy). Her drama over having her scalp look how it looks, pretty damn good, is beyond being a first world problem.
She had been publicly (to those of the public who follow her) embracing her baldness (if you could call what she has that) not as disfigurement but as an acceptable even beautiful way for hair to be. I agree. The power couple then playing it as horrible disease that justifies violence in response for being noted, undermines that message.
There is much more to the Smiths reactions and specially to Mr Smith’s punk ass slap than just having her buzzed do pointed out with a lame joke.
Considering Smith was nominated and won his Oscar by having the members of The Academy vote on it, perhaps the way they should decide if someone should be stripped of their Oscar is to have the same members vote on it.
I’d agree with you, if it wasn’t a storm-the-stage live slapping of a presenter. It was just too prominent of an attack to allow him to collect his win and give a speech. But in my world, the oscars wouldn’t be as popular of an event I guess.
I don’t think it’s valid to compare the two things. They are two completely different kinds of acts. You can criticize Chris Rock for his joke, but not in the same conversation in which you’re talking about Will Smith’s hitting him. There’s no “but” or “on the other hand” here.
Lupus is famous for House MD - it is never lupus except for the episode where it was lupus. Pretty much everybody has heard of lupus. MS is also fairly famous, I think almost everybody knows someone or has a friend who knows someone with MS. I could have gone with Crohn’s and as an ostomate I have tons of friends with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis [I had cancer and will probably end up with it again if I don’t get an annual colonoscopy and forgo my bloodwork. I suppose I could have used cancer.]
And yes, it can always be worse. I went to the doctor figuring it was a gallbladder issue. Oops.
Then you would have to go and boot a fuckton of winners - rapists, pedophiles, ephebophiles and crooks of all sorts of types.
Hell, casting couch anybody? The actuality of casual rape of both adults and juveniles was absolutely rife in Hollywood - hopeful starlets were used as party favors by the studios. The studio system worked with the LAPD in covering up all sorts of crap, there were fixers that could take care of pretty much everything from pregnancy with forced abortions to accidental homicide.
Haven’t see the film, saw a clip online a few weeks ago and it is on my list. But I agree, either he nailed the performance or he didn’t and the award is not about him personally, but about his performance. Again, the question is now currently after the show, can you separate the man from his performance or not. Going forth one can make the decision to avoid watching him perform in the future or to watch him understanding the image on the screen [or in person if it is a stage play] is not the man himself. Just like Charlize Theron is not Eileen Wuornos, a sex worker or a murderess.