mekka okereke :verified:
The people that vote for the Oscars, don't look like the people that watch the films. The Academy is much older, whiter, and dude-ier*. Oscar winners, are the inevitable outcome of Oscar voters.
The question isn't "Has the Academy changed enough to where filmmakers from marginalized backgrounds have the same chance to win an Oscar yet?"
The question is "Will the Oscars have the same relevance to society 10 years from now, that they do today?"
(*In 2022, 81% white, 67% men.)
Peter Bindels
> Men who knew less about Lumumba and Navajo people, liked it more.
Can you help me like it less? I like to learn about the real background behind things where possible.
mekka okereke :verified:
Lumumba:
Most of the high quality uranium came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo was recently liberated from France, but France was still doing colonial stuff. The prime minister of the DRC asked the US government for help not being bullied by France. The US government said "But we like France more than we like you, so they can bully you, it's fine! LOL!"
Lumumba said "Please? The only other superpower I could ask for help is the USSR."
So we said, "🤬"
mekka okereke :verified:
Something people are reluctant to admit:
How good you thought Barbie or Oppenheimer was, depends deeply on how much of the underlying referent system you carry into the movie.
The more you understand about US consumer toy culture, contemporary US sexism, and the Barbie toy... the better the Barbie movie was for you. Men who knew more about sexism and the Barbie toy, enjoyed the movie more.👍🏿
Oppenheimer was the inverse. Men who knew less about Lumumba and Navajo people, liked it more.
🙂🙃
mekka okereke :verified:
So the question I think we should be asking is not:
"How do we get more 60-year-old white men to vote for Barbie than Oppenheimer?"
But
"Why, in 2024, is the Academy still so gender skewed? And when should we expect equity in racial representation?"
mekka okereke :verified:
If you constructed an Academy that was 81% Black folk who had grown up in a majority Black country like Nigeria*, and 67% men, with an average age of ~60, and ask them to pick Oscar winners, you'd have a similar problem, but in a different direction.🙂🙃
(*Being Black in a majority Black country like Nigeria, is very different than being Black in the US. A Black person in the US, has much better cultural understanding of majority US culture).
mekka okereke :verified:
The Oscars is a bunch of old white dudes, voting for things that old white dudes like. 🤷🏿♂️
This isn't necessarily intentionally malicious! People vote for what they understand and can relate to.
Which is why a civil rights movie can win! But only if that civil rights movie is made for the white eye:
* There has to be a white savior in it! Non-negotiable.
* The white racist is often forgiven at the end of the movie!
* There is often a "Black people are racist too!" character.
mekka okereke :verified:
Anyways, Lumumba was assassinated and the DRC has been in turmoil and violence ever since. Many times more people died in Africa so that the US could get uranium for the bombs, than died in Japan when the bombs were dropped.
5.4 million people died in the Congo, because Patrice Lumumba was assassinated, because he asked the US for help in a way that made the US feel that if they didn't help, he would sell his uranium to the Soviets. And the US had no intention of helping.
db
@acm_redfox @mekkaokereke @icastico Speaking as the daughter of a single mom, who worked in male-dominated fields most of my life, and didn’t marry until my 40s, I think the condescension to women who loved Barbie is a bad look.
It’s a fun movie that makes some valid points, which resonated more than a billion dollars’ worth with all kinds of people who could relate to Barbie’s (and Ken’s) experiences, one way or another. (1/2)
Dana Fried
@bittersweetdb @acm_redfox @mekkaokereke @icastico
100% agreed.
I remember when Wonder Woman came out and women were allegedly weeping at the scenes with the Amazons. I didn't get it, but I was an athlete - for me that was just Tuesday.
Same with Captain Marvel; the flashbacks and constant self-doubt seemed super heavy-handed to me, but for some people, it was validation of a struggle they'd experienced their entire lives - one they might not have even been able to put words to before that.
Dana Fried
@bittersweetdb @acm_redfox @mekkaokereke @icastico
I think when we put down Feminism 101 stuff like Barbie we forget that a lot of women never even get that far. They've been swimming in an ocean of patriarchy their entire lives. And one day you pull them gently out of the water and ask them if they're okay being wet and cold all the time and it's one of the biggest revelations they've had in their entire lives.
I'm glad movies like Barbie, Wonder Women, and Captain Marvel are there for that.
acm
@icastico @mekkaokereke Agree. I was like "this is what revved people up about Feminist Truth? this remedial level of exploration?!?" So there's a kind of bell curve, but that middle probably covers plenty of the population. The A Little Knowledge folks.
icastico
“The more you understand about US consumer toy culture, contemporary US sexism, and the Barbie toy... the better the Barbie movie was for you. Men who knew more about sexism and the Barbie toy, enjoyed the movie more.👍🏿”
Just listened to a long information heavy rant from my wife about how terrible the movie was if you understand anything about sexism and the history of feminism. So, I am guessing this trend (if true) peaks at a pretty low-level of knowledge about sexism and then reverses.
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