Art by Mariana Crottollini (Argentina)
We can’t just be offended on Sunday nights.
By Guillermo Cides
Mr. Will Smith’s slap at Mr. Chris Rock during the Oscars is fake. It is based on the principle of offense within a framework that he never realized. Hollywood has been and continues to be a gigantic meat grinder. Flesh of women, flesh of money, and flesh of people who will do anything for a little fame. The Oscars, of debatable quality and justice, are the high point of a mountain of an empire based on North American culture, where money is boss. Dubious comedians who are hosts of the night have for years had the mission of making the audience uncomfortable to the limit; one need only remember Ricky Gervais’s interventions at the Golden Globes. But while the world is divided between those who say “he deserves it” and those who say “it was a sexist action”, the real wars and bombs in the world lose color before the television slap. While “Me Too” imprisons Harvey Weinstein, revealing a cake that is still being eaten in Hollywood, a dubious hero, although the best actor, wins an Oscar and decides to distribute violence for violence as an example to end the night. Either we put bombs in or we don’t. Either we take part or we stop acting. Either we stop making sexist jokes, or we make them. But we can’t just be offended on Sunday nights while the world is falling apart.
G.C.
