Tuesday, October 17, 2017

I found this article bringing up Seth MacFarlane's 2013 Harvey Weinstein joke at the Academy Awards saying the supporting actress nominees would "no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein."

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/seth-macfarlane-harvey-weinstein-oscars_us_59df3449e4b00abf36466ea1

My personal reaction is an eyeroll, and I'm classifying it as a bad joke.  The literal content feels like an enabling and normalization of the dangerously hypersexualized atmosphere that I believe should change in the entertainment industry.  I believe the quote from MacFarlane that his castmate was assaulted.  The poor taste part is that he relied on sarcastic tone alone and also that in combination with his comedic voice it sounds extra chauvinistic because his persona is so very fond of old patriarchal Hollywood.

I also think maybe MacFarlane was taking a risk by broaching the subject at all, though as a gay male with wildly popular projects he was probably in a uniquely secure place to do so.   I also just read this article about an editor at Variety protecting and enabling Weinstein's predation, which illustrates the degree to which he had power and influence and what sort of a social spin machine he had on his side.

:/ I find it hard to be angry, excepting that this same comedian sang the "I Saw Your Boobs" song which I believe also normalizes and enables the rape culture with its literal content.  I'm actually more contemptuous of that as an audience member than of any one joke.  But he certainly pointed out the elephant in the room, and that hopefully led to a lot of conversations that maybe led to the 30+ charges of sexual harrassment all coming out at once.  Surely it took some organizing to take down a media mogul.

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