I find the Oscars tedious, and only watched a few minutes last night — I bailed shortly after Captain Kirk made his appearance — but apparently I should have stuck around, if only to watch the insufferable Seth MacFarlane’s award-winning performance as Unfunny Misogynist Asshole Host.
What, you say, he didn’t actually win an award for that? Well, yes he did: Having read a number of accounts of the whole sorry spectacle, I’m awarding MacFarlane the non-coveted Man Boobz Boob of the Day Award (Oscar Edition). In the wake of MacFarlane’s performance at the Oscars, in which he devoted a whole song to actresses’ breasts, I should note that I am using the word “boob” to mean “nincompoop.” Which, to be honest, is an undeservedly mild epithet for a guy who punctuated his comments with repeated jokes about rape.
A few of the highlights of MacFarlane’s night:
That song-and-dance number about how great it is to see so many boobs in films – including, specifically, in The Accused, and Monster, and Boys Don’t Cry. You know, during the rape scenes in those quie serious films.
MacFarlane’s animatronic teddy bear (from his movie Ted) joking about attending an orgy at Jack Nicholson’s house – you know, the place where Roman Polanski raped a 13-year old girl.
Oh, and then there was MacFarlane joking about how 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis would be too old to date George Clooney in about 16 years. (What, is Heartiste writing MacFarlane’s jokes?) And his bizarre domestic violence joke about Chris Brown and Rihanna. And on and on. (See here for many more examples.)
Getting into the spirit of the evening, whoever was doing The Onion’s twitter account decided it would be hilarious to refer to the aforementioned 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis as a “cunt.” The Onion later deleted the tweet and offered an apology for it.
Somehow I doubt we’re going to get an apology from MacFarlane.
Here are a couple more takes on the whole unfortunate evening.
Why Seth MacFarlane’s Misogyny Matters (Vulture)
Seth MacFarlane and the Oscars’ Hostile, Ugly, Sexist Night (The New Yorker)
Oscar Watch: Was That Awful or What? (NY Post)
EDITED TO ADD: Oh, joy! The Men’s Rights subreddit weighs in on the issue, in a thread sort-of-responding to that New Yorker piece.
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN: Actually, r/mensrights has two threads on the subject; here’s the other one.
And another thread there on the same thing:
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/197k3e/so_some_feminists_think_that_the_oscars_were/
Wow. It’s pretty sad when ThePigman is the most reasonable commenter on a r/mr thread. 0_0
Wow, that article is fucked up.
Oh, well, guess that makes brutally anally raping a little girl totally okay then!
I’m really glad I stopped watching the Oscars whatever year it was that The King’s Speech won all those awards, which I only did because it was sort of a “straw that broke the camel’s back” situation. It was apparently the perfect time too. I missed out on James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the following year but it also means I missed out on Billy Crystal doing his blackface Sammy Davis thing the year after that and Seth MacFarlane doing his douchebag thing this year.
Seth is laughing all the way to the bank.
Integral, yikes, that piece really is fucked up. Polanski raped a young girl, was going to get a slap on the wrist for it, basically, but fled the country. And we’re supposed to feel sorry for him?
Polanski was a great director — Rosemary’s Baby is one of my favorite films ever — but how the fuck do his supporters on this think that this in any ways makes up for the fact that HE RAPED A 13-YEAR OLD.
Shut up, NNY.
For all the MRA mewling about how a rape accusation will wreck a man’s life, Polanski seems to be doing OK for himself.
Was NNY the squeaking-frog troll? I can’t remember.
I think this translates roughly to “he couldn’t be a rapist, rapists are evil fanged creatures that attack from the shadows. Polanski is a nice, normal guy like me, and nice, normal guys can’t be rapists.”
Him or Arks, I think.
AKA “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo syndrome.”
NNY is Br__n. Who finally learned how to cloak an IP.
Was it Cliff who used to say that most of the MRA “horror stories” about rape accusations ended up with the guy being very nearly inconvenienced by the experience?
The fact that it took him this long doesn’t really bode well as far as the whole make sex tapes without your partner’s consent and encrypt them plan.
cloudiah: yup, that was Cliff.
kamilla1960, I’m not sure you’re doing World Trotskyism any favors by posting a piece defending an admitted child rapist here.
D/s: It’s entirely natural to posture on the Internet;
Is this a flash of self-awareness, or just an ironic statement of a truth obvious to the rest of us?
I read that stuff about the Polanski trial and it just indicates to me that nobody involved cared about Gailey, obviously not Polanski himself and apparently not the judge presiding over the entire thing. Which is kind of unsurprising in a very depressing way.
Why did Cliff stop posting here, anyone know? Too much else to do or was it getting zir down?
A few years back, a guy I know went to a swanky party thrown by Seth MacFarlane. There were lots of hot women wandering around, and he was pretty impressed–until he learned that they were all models hired by MacFarlane because he couldn’t get women to attend his parties voluntarily.
Slowly they turned, step by step, inch by inch…
LOL Shaenon, that’s perfect!
Oh Jesus Christ. The Slate comment section is overrun with assholes mansplaining that calling a 9-year-old girl a c***t is brilliant satire.
Kitteh’s: A bit of both I think. I saw hir in Jan, and zie’s doing well, but also busy with other stuff.
Good to know zie’s okay! I’ve been reading the Pervocracy – that speech in Chicago was really good. 🙂
Totally OT, but clairedammit, batten down the hatches. We’re getting hellacious wind in ATX, and I think it’s headed your way. We lost cable and I’m posting from my phone, so my typing will be shittier than usual.