The Duck of Minerva

8 Unanswered Political Questions from the Oscars

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by Megan MacKenzie

9 March 2014, 0523 EDT

I know it has already been a week, but I’m still thinking about the Oscars. Not the fashion (boring!! predictable!!), or the hostess (boring!! predictable!!) or the winners (boring!! predictable!!), or the speeches (ok you get my point)- but rather a short list of questions I still need help with. Answers welcome.

1. Was bell hooks right? Was 12 Years a Slave “sentimental clap-trap” that “negated the female voice?” What were the politics of white washing, white guilt, and white erasure at the awards?

2. How the hell did Joaquin Phoenix NOT get nominated for ‘Her’ and how DID Leonardo DiCaprio get nominated for ‘WOWS’? Does this tell us anything about hegemonic masculinity….or more about pity for Leo?

3. Why were so many of the best pic nominations fixated on some distorted nostalgia (about slavery, HIV, they ‘golden era’ of American history/finance) and what does this tell us about our (in)ability to cope with the present?

4. Are strapless peplum dresses and backward necklaces ironic now?

5. If Mathhew Mcconaghey hadn’t lost weight, would we care about his performance? Would he have won the Oscar? As Ted Kerr noted in his excellent post 47 Things I Talk about When I talk about the Dallas Buyers Club, “It is interesting how Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto get rewarded for losing weight, and acting sick, while people living with HIV have to fight to be well, appear well and be recognized. #everydaysurvival”

6. What are the politics of silencing Woody Allen’s sexual abuse accusations so thoroughly on the night of the awards?

7. Who killed the war movie this year? Does 10 years+ of two hugely unsuccessful and largely unpopular wars make war movies ironic? Could ‘Dirty Wars’ really ever have won best doco?

8. Was the ‘Wolfe of Wall Street’ about Martin Scorsese’s vision of ‘the real’ dark side of 1990s Wall Street or was it DiCaprio’s vision of a role in which he could live out his nostalgic sexist fantasies? Or, was the ‘WOWS’ about they ‘hay day’ of Wall Street or about the ‘hay day’ of workplace chauvinism?

Megan MacKenzie is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her main research interests include feminist international relations, gender and the military, the combat exclusion for women, the aftermaths of war and post-conflict resolution, and transitional justice. Her book Beyond the Band of Brothers: the US Military and the Myth that Women Can't Fight comes out with Cambridge University Press in July 2015.

https://www.cambridge.org/ee/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/beyond-band-brothers-us-military-and-myth-women-cant-fight?format=PB

1 Comment

  1. ThusBloggedAnderson
    ThusBloggedAnderson on 10 March 2014 at 12.38 EDT

    Evidently, Christian Bale’s *gaining* weight was considered less of an accomplishment.