The Oscars were Feb. 24. I might be a bit late on this, but my column only runs biweekly, so bear with me. I’m not going to talk about Seth MacFarlane as a host, per se – that place has been visited so many times in the past nine days that I really don’t care to go there. Instead, I want to address the smallest attendee, 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, and Hollywood’s reception of her.
Wallis was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (a fantastic film if you’ve got the time). She is a sweet, unimposing little girl whose parents run her Twitter account and who appeared at almost every awards show with a stuffed puppy purse on her arm. She was by far the youngest nominee at the Academy Awards ceremony that Sunday. So why did so many people feel the need to make jokes at her expense?
No one expected MacFarlane to be a tame host – the man created “Family Guy,” for heaven’s sakes – but when he made the comment that in 16 years Wallis would be “too young” for George Clooney, I thought he took well-intended jabs and humor a leap beyond into rude and insensitive. The room was full of adult celebrities, all of whom almost certainly deserved to be made fun of, and he chose a sexually suggestive punch line for a child.
The argument against this, of course, is the timeless question, “How far is too far?” To those who pose such a question, I will say this: ‘Too far’ is an innocent, young child who didn’t ask to be a part of such a political system. The least that notable adults could do is respect the fact that she is nine years old (and is therefore probably still full of wonder and curiosity regarding the world,) and try not to take that away from her.
Beyond MacFarlane, Wallis was used to further somebody’s twisted idea of ‘humor’ by The Onion, who tweeted during the Oscar show. Sandwiched between legitimately funny live-tweets such as “Klieg light 6A above stage left is absolutely radiant tonight! #Oscars2013” was one that made me sick to my stomach to see on my timeline. I won’t quote the tweet here, because you could probably find screenshots just by Googling, but it involved a disgusting slur at Wallis’s expense disguised as satire. The tweet was deleted after about an hour, and The Onion offered an apology the next day as well as firing the persons responsible – but the damage had been done.
I imagine it would already be difficult enough to be a young black girl in an industry mainly dominated by old white men without having the older actors you might look up to make jokes about you. Quvenzhané is a talented, smart girl, but even if she wasn’t, no 9-year-old child should be subjected to that sort of non-humor, especially when he or she is the butt of it. If I can’t ask Hollywood humor to be more sensitive, then I can certainly try to ask its perpetuators to avoid children. You would think that would be a given, but apparently not.
Beth Lindly is a sophomore majoring in journalism. Her column runs biweekly on Tuesdays. Follow Beth on Twitter @BethLindly.
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