Shut up, George Clooney. Go make another Good Night, and Good Luck.
So, like everyone else on my dashboard, as I cannot help but follow trends, I watched those Oscar roundtable clips, which is strange in and of itself, because I do not care for those roundtables, and what caught my eye was the discussion on Viola Davis and her lack of leading roles. And, as always, that comes with unpacking the issues with race and gender, two things that affects specially Viola Davis, who the conversation was focusing on, — so please explain to me why after a couple minutes, George Clooney started to dominate the conversation? Explain why George Clooney started listening off television programs while a largely, if not all, white casts and concluded there are just no roles written for women anymore? Because, no, nah — stop doing that.
Yes, there are marginal roles for women in Hollywood, but let’s not sit up here and say it affects white and women of color equally. Like, don’t erase Viola Davis’ race from the conversation as if there is not correlation, because her complaints were valid, they will continuously be valid, and it shows how much you do not understand, George Clooney, because as soon as you opened your mouth, you shifted the conversation away from the original place. I suppose I should be happy they attempted to discuss it. I suppose I should be happy they did not pull a director’s roundtable silence like they did with Steven McQueen, but ah! I am so, so annoyed right now.
didyoublush: I wish the hatred for The Help was directed to production studios that fund these movies or the writers who write these narratives that exploit legit stories of poc and force them into a white agenda instead of the woc who give their all in a role they're happy with and receive rightful acclaim for. Even if performance isn't sole motivation for a nomination, in Octavia or Viola's case, it's WELL deserved and will only propel their career further. All the awards for the women of The Help, idec.
Right? Maybe I am viewing this from the wrong perspective, and I won’t be upset at any fellow person of color for seeing things differently than me, of course, but when the nominations came down, I sighed in relief that, at the very least, Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis were getting the recognition, and not Emma Stone or Jessica Chastain, because that would have pissed me off frankly even more. It is completely unfair a lot of Tumblr criticism has specifically came down on Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for playing the game they were unfairly locked down in, something they could not help, and I am not going to participate in it. Am I upset their respective talent was only recognized through a white savior lens?—yes, duh. But I am not going to wish failure on them for that. Uh, fuck no. I would be more polite in declining, but I am not feeling particularly charitable in that respect.
