Steve Martin, who knew Carrie Fisher for more than 30 years, tweeted this when she died:
[QUOTE=Steve Martin]
“When I was a young man, Carrie Fisher she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. She turned out to be witty and bright as well.”
[/QUOTE]
It caused such a backlash he deleted it. Many called it sexist and objectifying and reductive and other such [del]bullshit[/del]adjectives.
I must admit that I can’t see a thing wrong with it (other than the fact he says Carrie Fisher she, I’m guessing a typo).
I posted about it on my Facebook and was surprised how many people did find it offensive. Roughly half those offended were men, and Martin’s biggest defenders were women, though some women were offended as well.
I meant to include a poll with this one, but for whatever reason the poll didn’t take. Any way a mod can adjust it?
Otherwise, just talk amongst yourselves.
The options were
-I find this outdated and sexist.
-I can see why others found it outdated and sexist, though I don’t think he meant mean it that way.
-I do not find this at all outdated and sexist.
-Shit like this is why we’ll be saying “President Trump” in a few weeks.
I don’t think it’s offensive but I can see how some would. He has a male perspective, which is colored by his attraction toward her appearance. (I hope I didn’t offend people by just saying that!) I’m sure he genuinely meant to compliment her.
I’ve always thought she was beautiful and witty and bright.
Steve Martin was Carrie Fisher’s friend. They may have been lovers, briefly–I’m not sure about that–but they were at least close friends. Let him grieve how he sees fit. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what he said. He does not merit the condemnation of a bunch of clueless morons. This kind of crap is not why we have Trump, obviously, but a lot of people are tired of having to tiptoe on eggshells. There are real examples of sexism out there. Stop being annoyed by a harmless charming tweet from an all around good guy and a person who is mourning a close friend.
I wish he’d left the tweet up, but I understand why he didn’t. It probably wasn’t worth it to him to endure the ankle biting of idiots.
Martin said that she was the most beautiful creature that he had ever seen. What’s wrong with that? We’re a visual people. We usually see people before we get to know them.
I think that Fisher would have been flattered. I think that most people would have been flattered. It’s flattering for Og sake.
I mentioned on Facebook that Debbie Reynolds her self referred to Carrie fisher in tweets as “my beautiful daughter” on Twitter and asked if this made her sexist and reductivist since she could just as easily have praised Carrie’s intellect or wet instead. The result was not pretty.
A heartfelt missive about a dear friend–not offensive at all.
There are a whole lot of people who wake up every morning just looking for something to be offended by, and the internet will happily provide it for them.
I don’t find it offensive but I’m not Carrie Fisher and it’s too late to get her views. He knew her and appreciated her and he is trying to share his grief the best way he can. I’d give him some space to do so. His tweet was a little inartful but grief doesn’t lead us to be our best selves.
Others might be offended on Ms. Fisher’s behalf because:
He focuses on her physical appearance before he discusses her other worthwhile attributes. This could be seen as reductive objectifying.
He says, “She turned out to be witty and bright as well.” Is this implying there there was a period of time when she wasn’t witty and bright? Not everyone would agree with this. Perhaps it really suggests that there was a time when he failed to appreciate her wit and brilliance because he was only ogling her and not actually paying attention to what she had to say. This is not a model way to think about or treat women.
The juxtaposition between “beautiful” and “turned out to be witty and bright” seems to suggest that’s an unusual combination. There is nothing about pretty that precludes witty and bright too, so the contrast fails. Whether or not he intended it, it manages to reflect a stereotype of women as not witty and pretty women as not bright.
If anything it was self-effacing about how we, men and women alike, often first only see the superficial then later, sometimes, realize the depth of a person.
A generation had that same experience of Ms. Fisher. We saw her in Star Wars and did not respond primarily to her wit and intellectual depth. But she certainly had lots of both, even if many fans never went farther than the gold bikini poster.
I know where these comments against Martin are coming from. Either from ugly fat girls with no personality or brains, or the guys who no longer have a pair and knuckle under to the previously mentioned ugly fat girls with no brains or personality
It sounds like it was an honest representation of how he experienced perceiving her the very first time he saw/met her:
!) He saw her first from a distance and found her beautiful.
2) He found himself wanting to know more about her, so he moved closer to pay more attention.
3)Then… paying close attention… his mind was blown by just how amazingly bright she was.
Look, if people want to say that 1976 was sexist, fine.
If people want to say that Steve Martin is sexist, that’s on them.
But if people want to say he was or is LYING about how he felt inside the very first time he saw her… they better be able to spout a hell of a lot more data than just 21st century dogma and rhetoric to convince me.