“We Saw Your Boobs.”
Sung with operatic volume and a “Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles,” this is how host Seth MacFarlane chose to open this year’s Academy Awards—with a musical number listing the names of A-list actresses who have shot topless scenes in movies, and the respective movies they shot them in.
It was ridiculous and over-the-top, in part meant to parody the theme of the night, “Music in Cinema.”
However, there were those who didn’t take to the performance so lightheartedly.
Elizabeth Cantillon, vice president of production at Sony, condemned the song for “objectifying” powerful women, while bloggers everywhere called it “sexist” and “demeaning.” Two California Assemblywomen wrote in a letter to the Academy that it “crossed the line from humor to misogyny” and was “degrading women as a whole and the film making industry itself.”
As a female and self-proclaimed feminist myself, upon hearing this reaction, I couldn’t help but wonder: is it just me, or did they not get the joke?
The cleverness of the song centered around MacFarlane taking on the persona of an immature American moviegoer. He was critiquing the way we tend to sexualize and dehumanize women in entertainment by turning them into nothing but objects and body parts.
By purposely referencing films in which actresses had put forth dramatic performances in serious roles—including ones where nudity appeared in the context of rape—he only emphasized the absurdity of it all, in how much we focus on a woman’s appearance instead of her acting capabilities.
In short, MacFarlane wasn’t demeaning women—he was demeaning the people who don’t take them seriously.
And there are plenty who don’t. A few weeks ago, when the Grammys were held, CBS issued a memo to all attendees and participants requesting a number of things: that “buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered,” no “see through clothing,” and other details about improper wear that seem too vulgar to put in print.
Yet no one seemed to be offended by the dress code, or thought it crossed a line. No one criticized CBS for weighing in on how much skin an artist should show while doing her job, the way “feminists” criticized MacFarlane for weighing in on partial nudity when an actress is doing hers.
No one acknowledged that both actions, both at Hollywood events, essentially told women that they are their bodies. Only one was a satire, and only one was slammed as “sexist.”
As self-imposed critics of American pop-culture, we are surprisingly quick to attack something that is provocative for being “inappropriate,” and at the same time, slow to pick up on the subtleties that really are.
For those who were “offended” by MacFarlane, you need to get over yourselves, and recognize that the truth is crude sometimes, but what matters is that there was an incredible amount of truth to what was sung that night.
I don’t know about you, but that bothers me much more than the word “boob” ever will.