Opinion
Talks of social change unfitting for Oscars
By Julia Dailey ’18
March 10, 2016
Tags opinion
It has become an iconic pop culture moment when, at the 1973 Oscars, Marlon Brando refused to accept his award for his role in The Godfather as a stance against Hollywood’s treatment of the Native American community, sending a Native American actress in traditional garb—and a full face of Hollywood makeup—to the stage in his stead to deliver this social message to the Oscar crowd. Reactions to this gesture were mixed; some admired the courage and honor in taking social responsibility as a public figure, some were insulted by Brando’s pointed condemnation of their industry. Nonetheless, it has since become standard for the Oscars to incorporate some kind of muted social message as a meek acknowledgement of the overwhelming privilege of everyone in the room and behind the scenes, during which most audience members at home take a bathroom break.
The show last weekend, however, was different. It had its fun shiny Oscars parts—Leo won his first Oscar, Girl Scouts gave cookies to the audience, women wore pretty dresses—but calls for change seemed to mark the tone of the entire show. It started with host Chris Rock’s opening monologue which lightheartedly poked fun at both Hollywood’s racism and those seriously boycotting it, and remained throughout, ending with the host’s closing words: “Black lives matter.” Along the way Sam Smith dedicated his award to the LGBT community, Leo called attention to climate change, a video spoofed nominated films by adding black actors to them and, perhaps most startlingly, Joe Biden showed up to speak about sexual assault and introduced Lady Gaga’s performance centered on campus rape.
In many senses, this collective show of Hollywood’s sympathy for important social issues was appropriate and, indeed, inevitable. Issues concerning the injustice of the film industry have been bubbling to the surface in recent years. Articles, exposés and outcries from marginalized women, people of color and LGBT people in Hollywood have been breaking into the public sphere with increasing speed. This emergent dissatisfaction with the status quo came to a head in the weeks before the awards, as the twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite started trending and household names threatened to boycott the awards. Hollywood really could no longer ignore its long tradition of privileging white cisgendered people, male dominance and ignorance of important social issues. The Oscars had to acknowledge these issues for the film industry to remain at least somewhat in the public’s good graces, and it is probably a good thing that they were. Hollywood has been and continues to be a microcosm of society’s injustices and a recognition that change is needed there makes change look a little more likely for the rest of us. A show like the Oscars also reaches audiences who may not otherwise recognize the importance of issues like climate change and sexual assault.
But the attempted transformation of the Oscars into a venue to promote social change felt to me like a miss. I questioned the motives and genuineness of the celebrities speaking out, and feel less than confident that any change will ensue. I feel uncomfortable with the media engaging in some semblance of social justice as part of a trend, and celebrities using social images as a means to reinforce a positive public image. This sense of disingenuousness comes partly from the Oscars’ inability to incite actual change. Change comes from grassroots movements, persistence in the political sphere, dedication to widespread education—not 90-second Oscars speeches. Social messages at the Oscars seem to appropriate the hard work of real change-makers and discredit their efforts to some degree. They may even discourage involvement by making the audience feel that by supporting socially-conscious celebrities they are doing their part, and thus opting out of more meaningful civic engagement.
Change is hard, unglamorous and uncomfortable. If it can be put in a way that everyone can smile and clap for, I question its power. Is this glossy, camera-ready, crowd-pleasing activism the kind of activism we want and need? I personally don’t want to see Joe Biden in a tuxedo and TV makeup talking about sexual assault; I want to see our legal system change. I want climate change education mandatory in elementary school curricula, not Leo DiCaprio’s watered-down scientific assessment of our planet’s dire state on TV.
Most people probably never really bothered to understand what Marlon Brando meant in 1973 by “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry” because this act of defiance itself was part of the glamorized structure of popular media, and that is a problem. For the Oscars to pose as truly invested in meaningful change discredits both those affected by serious issues and those seriously working to mend them. Increased circulation of change-minded rhetoric is almost always a good thing, but not when entertainment begins to get confused with true activism. There will always be room in our society for beautiful celebrities and flashy spectacles, but rather than assimilating important calls for social change into that space, we should be granting them their own.