Demi Moore is a Victim Too

I’m not going to go into The Slap Heard Around the World at this year’s Oscars Ceremony. We’ve heard about it enough. The real victim here is Demi Moore. I’m sure her feelings are hurt because the comparison Chris Rock made to Jada Pinkett Smith caused such a storm. I bet she thought she looked fabulous all these years since the 1997 release of the film GI Jane. She’s right. She did look fabulous and Demi did not deserve to become collateral damage in this fiasco.

The word iconic gets thrown around a lot these days but Demi Moore’s look in GI Jane is iconic. I never saw the movie and I’m not sure it was critically acclaimed or popular. Demi Moore as a Marine is what made the film memorable. She was sexy, beautiful and bald and that’s all anyone remembers about the film.

She looked gorgeous and I’m not sure why Jada Pinkett Smith was upset by the comparison. It was a compliment. It should have got her wheels turning. The light bulb should have gone off. She should have gotten her movie star husband to produce a remake of the film and put her in it. But instead the Smiths decided to be their messy, dramatic selves.

Jada Pinkett Smith is a part of a very small club of women that go bald and look beautiful. Mrs. Smith says that she is sensitive about her baldness due to alopecia which I can understand but I don’t think her insecurities should have been made the center of an international media event like the Oscars. Besides that a woman with her resources can afford the best wigs available if she doesn’t like going bald. If Will and Jada had a problem with what Chris said they should have settled it in the parking lot. I didn’t care for the dramatic outburst.

Anyway, it’s not fair to Demi Moore that her look in GI Jane is seen as so bad that someone deserved to be slapped over it. A bald head certainly isn’t traditional femininity but she made it look good as does Jada. Here are a few others that made having no hair a fashionable and sexy look. I don’t know what all the fuss is about.

If Jada asked me for my advice I would tell her to embrace her look. She has a beautiful face and a great figure. She’s still feminine and sexy. The bald head gives her kind of an edgy look which I thought she liked. But if she wants a more traditional feminine look invest in a good wig. She can afford the best. If I was advising Will I would tell him to keep his professional game face on when at high profile events and settle differences in the parking lot.

“Parasite”: My Review

I watched the film Parasite over the weekend. Parasite has received several awards including Oscars for best picture and best director. The film is highly enjoyable and I recommend that you take the time to watch it. It is a South Korean film with subtitles. I know that subtitles are a turn off for a lot of people. But I watched the movie with my suitor who doesn’t typically like movies with subtitles and he enjoyed the movies as much as I did.

I can’t go into much detail about the plot because I would spoil it for those that haven’t seen it. All I will say is that the film centers around a South Korean family that is down on their luck. The son gets a job offer to work as a tutor for a wealthy family. That opportunity turns into a chance for his family’s fortune to turn around.

Parasite has a lot of surprises, twists and turns. The line between morality and right and wrong is blurred. No one in this film has a moral high ground and everyone’s actions can be justified or criticized. I haven’t seen anything else like it. It’s a great story that keeps viewers wondering what will happen next and how it will all end.

#oscarssowhite – Shannon in Kansas City

Gold Trophy ca. 2000

#OscarssoWhite is a trending hash tag that is meant to bring attention to the lack of diversity in the work that the film academy recognizes as excellent. All of the nominees for acting awards that are nominated are White. To this I say so what. Hollywood is not special. I think that people perceive Hollywood to be liberal and progressive but if you pay attention to the work that they put out and recognize as excellent it is clearly seen that they have a very narrow scope of how they view people of African descent.

The film industry is a vehicle that White people use to affirm themselves. Hollywood is there to tell White stories. Even when they tell stories about a person or group of people that are not White they still manage to make a White person the protagonist of the film. Good examples of this are “Dancing with Wolves” starring Kevin Costner and “The Impossible” starring Naomie Watts.

Most industries that create celebrities i.e. movies, films, music, fashion are White affirming. They put White people on a pedestal and tell the masses how beautiful, talented and brilliant they are. This happens even when they mimic Black culture. Sometimes the object of the admiration and attention deserves it but other times their fame is a product of social media hype and gossip magazine stories. The only exception is athletics and that’s because it is mostly objective.

I’m sure there are Black actors that deserved to be recognized for their work this year but did not get the proper accolades. But that is what happens to Black people in the American work force at large. It’s happened to me more than once. The American work force affirms White people and I am not White. Sorry, but I don’t have time to feel bad for Idris Elba or Ice Cube’s son. They are certainly better off than I am.

Black Americans really need to grow up and stop being so surprised by racism. This country has never seen us as equal and it may never. Please stopping begging for acceptance. I feel that the desire to be validated and accepted by mainstream culture is one of the biggest burdens that Black Americans face.

Art is a subjective thing and there is no way to argue what is worthy of recognition and what is not. To complain about the Oscars lacking diversity is a petty, first world concern. People of African descent live with a lower quality of life than their peers in almost every category. That is true of Blacks that live in industrialized prosperous countries as well. Let’s set our priorities straight and let pampered actors have their evening to themselves. My life is not going to be changed in any way if Idris Elba wins an Oscar.

http://www.tmz.com/2016/01/18/jada-pinkett-smith-academy-oscars-video/