ColumnWas this year’s Oscars an exercise in sexism? Or is that just how Hollywood is?

There was a great moment on E!’s Fashion Police Oscars edition when Sarah Silverman made a rape joke. Joan Rivers followed with: “My first sexual experience was a rape…” As she trailed off looking forlorn, then the two women caught eyes and said nearly simultaneously, “But did he press charges?” and then tumbled over in hysterical laughter—and so did I.

One could argue that Sarah and Joan’s joke was no worse than what happened at the actual Oscars, that it was, in fact, a direct extension of the mean-spirited nature of the show and proof that the cool girls are in on the joke.

Yes, we live in a culture where mean is the new cool. Example: The existence of Tosh.O. And, even the always eager-to-please Anne Hathaway mentioned to a red carpet interviewer that she loves Cards Against Humanity, which is easily the meanest, funniest game I’ve ever played. I play viciously and to win because, in many ways, I am a fan of the culture of mean. I revel in a snide remark. Dorothy Parker is one of my personal heroes, and I actually use the word cunt on a comparatively (to almost anyone) regular basis.

The trouble with what happened at the Oscars, and after, is that the mean wasn’t funny; it was sexist. The cool girls weren’t making the jokes; they were the butts.

We all know the basics by now, but here’s the quick recap: Seth MacFarlane opened the show with a campy song and dance about whose boobs he’d seen in what movie—the level of joy he expressed at glimpsing Jodie Foster’s breasts during the rape scene in The Accused was especially disturbing. Amy Davidson broke down the real message of the song best in her extremely dead-on New Yorker piece: “You girls think you’re making art, the Academy, through MacFarlane, seemed to say, but all we—and the “we” was resolutely male—really see is that we got you to undress. The joke’s on you.”

He then went on to insult gay people, Jewish people, Quvenzhane Wallis, George Clooney, Rihanna, Latinos (the men got a shout-out here as well), and our intelligence.

Later in the show, he sang a song, omitting the second half of a rhyming couplet, the first half of which ended with “Helen Hunt.” In that moment, he opened the door for the tweet. This one. The one in which The Onion called a fist-pumping, genuinely just happy to be nominated, nine-year-old girl a cunt.

In what I think was a direct response to that last song of the night—and actually a jab at MacFarlane’s stupid joke rather than a comment about Wallis herself—The Onion referred to a little girl who brought a puppy purse to the Oscars a cunt. It happened, and regardless of why, it was a terrible mistake, one the paper apologized for in the best way possible.

What bothers me most about all of this—which is saying quite a bit, considering—is that as a “cool” girl who tosses words like cunt around on the regular, I am supposed to see that I am in on the joke and laugh along or risk being labeled as an uptight prude.

A blogger on Low Boredom Threshold took the opportunity to shame us into being okay with sexism cloaked in humor by writing: “I honestly believe there were two completely different Academy Awards programs telecast … To be blunt, I think one show was streamed to people who are intelligent, knowledgeable, self-confident and culturally tuned in and a second one that was streamed to people who are as dull as a stump [sic] with a poor sense of self, a minimal sense of humor and absolutely no sense of irony.”

You know who’s super into irony? Nine-year-olds.

If you’ll allow, here’s my “stump” speech: Ohhhh… irony—yeah, I get it. Sideboob is one of this year’s biggest fashion trends and we’re all suddenly incensed by a song about boobs? Women show up to the party with slits up to their, uh Hunts, and we’re not supposed to sexualize them? A man takes the opportunity to put down women for close to four hours on TV and we’re all supposed to think it’s funny so we don’t seem like militants. That’s not irony; it’s bullying.

In a country where elected officials think a baby is a woman’s biggest organ and that some rape might be legitimate, and in a world where girls (and boys) from New York to Thailand are subjected to sex trafficking, I admit it’s a little lame to be spending this much time debating an awards show. However, when you have the chance to talk to hundreds of millions of people, even as a comedian, you might want to do better than make boob jokes.

Image: Dave_B_

The post That Happened: Mean Boys: What Happened at the Oscars appeared first on EcoSalon.

There’s nothing like the big screen to bring home the message of green, namely that our home is in peril. Or, as Michael Ruppert forecasts in Collapse (2009), on the brink of total ruin.

Then again, even the small screen can make a dent with viewers if the message is as compelling as the gruesome one in the extraordinary documentary, The Cove. All eyes were on activist Ric O’ Barry as he strapped a monitor on his chest and barged into an IWC convention playing horrific footage of the dolphin slaughter in Japan. Shocking stuff, yes. That’s ecotainment!

Screen and green go together like popcorn and Junior Mints, and that is why several films in the running for the most coveted prize in Hollywood appeal to our sense of survival as a species – one that sprang from a simple and pure beginning before industrialization began eroding what we treasure the most.

Take Avatar, James Cameron’s 3D odyssey which is among 10 best picture nominees vying for Oscar at the March 7 Academy Awards. It follows the saga of a vicious military machine from an ecologically-destroyed earth setting its sights on the distant planet, Pandora, which possesses a desirable mineral that can provide an alternative energy source. The story mirrors the shameful Native American experience of decimation by conquering imperialists with 10 times the modern weaponry of bows and arrows, thirsty for land acquisition at any human cost. How many times have we seen the same plot relived on the global stage?

The astounding production shot by Cameron with virtual cameras was so far-reaching, it even moved Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem to dress up like the fictional blue Na’vi aliens to combat Israel’s separation barrier. No matter where you stand politically, this film resonates with the historic experience of the displacement of indigenous populations.

Among the other environmental message films getting the nod at the 82nd annual Academy Awards:

Up, an Disney Pixar animated adventure that takes off when a 78-year-old balloon salesman and a chubby 8-year-old boyscout ride a balloon-powered bucket to the South American jungle, navigated with the tools of  little Russell’s “Wilderness Explore GPS” and the old man’s good common sense. They end up outwitting the villain who is trying to harm a flightless mother bird the boy names Kevin, and in the end they return the bird to her chicks and save the species from extinction.

Two eco exposes, Food Inc. and The Cove, are up for best documentary. Both are raw, daring endeavors on the part of the film makers who went to great lengths to reveal foul cover-ups in food production.

Food, Inc., the product of a growing food justice movement in the United States, explains why we are “hungry for change.” It is considered one of the most talked about films of the year, a painful chronicle of the inhumane agriculture industry and a strong case for sustainable, ethically raised beef and farm food versus ignorance and greed.

The Cove reminds us that in “the Greek era it was punishable by death to kill a dolphin,” and begs the question, “What is going on here?” Here, is Taiji, Japan, where an annual bloodbath involving the spear hacking of 23,000 adult dolphins and their young is covered up by a government protecting the fishing industry and the $150,000 made on “show dolphins.” Fishermen trapping and killing schools of dolphins are told they are eradicating “pests” who are eating up the fish supply. Meantime, the Japanese public is duped into believing the mercury-laced protein is actually “safe” whale meat.

In seeking to inform the public about these appalling realities (most Japanese consumers don’t even know about the dolphin slaughter), the makers of The Cove tell us, “By destroying anything in nature we are taking away from ourselves, and we are losing it all at a horrifying rate.”

Will Oscar-winning films slow down that rate? At least, they probe deeper than the usual screen fodder – gratuitous sex and violence – by opening our eyes to our own culpability in allowing downer meat, dolphin murder, deforestation and displacement of indigenous peoples. Sometimes the subject matter is so engrossing, you are motivated to take action once the screen goes dark by writing a letter to your senator, the USDA or Prime Minster of Japan.

My own 10-year-old ran to her room after viewing The Cove and made a poster saying, “Save the dolphins, we want blue water, not red!” It gives a whole new meaning to the term moving pictures.

Imges: Oscars, Luanne Bradley

The post Oscars 2010: the Eco Message Grows appeared first on EcoSalon.