Last night Hollywood's biggest celebrities put on their fanciest outfits and glitziest Time's Up tattoos for the Academy Awards. As the first Oscars since the Harvey Weinstein allegations, many stars seized the spotlight to make a statement. After winning for Best Actress, Frances McDormand brought the house down during her spontaneous speech. She called for all the female nominees in the room to stand up, and then ended it with two words: "inclusion rider," a contract that insures diversity on film sets.
While everyone appreciated Frances' inspiring words, Emma Stone made a statement on stage that has gotten a backlash. Emma introduced the nominees for Best Director: Jordan Peele for Get Out, Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom Thread, Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape Of Water, Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk and Greta Gerwig for Ladybird. As you may have noticed, four out of the five nominees are men, and Emma highlighted that at the end of her speech.
"It is the director whose indelible touch is reflected on every frame. It is the director who, shot by shot, scene by scene, day by day, works with every member of the crew to further the story. And it is the vision of the director that takes an ordinary movie and turns it into a work of art.
"These four men, and Greta Gerwig, created their own masterpieces this year."
At the Golden Globe Awards last January, Natalie Portman made a similar statement. She presented the award for Best Director, in which all of the nominees were men, and said flatly, "Here are the all-male nominees."
Females in film are severely underrepresented. According to the ACLU Women's Rights Project, women make up only 7% of the top grossing Hollywood releases, and this was the first year a woman was nominated for Best Cinematography. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, which exposed how frequently women are harassed and denigrated in the industry, it's understandable why Emma would want to draw attention this cause.
However, some people found Emma's glib comment to be disrespectful to the other nominees. All of the directors who were nominated did incredible work, and two of the men nominated were people of color:Jordan Peele and Guillermo Del Toro. You would think that's something diversity advocates would celebrate. People accused Emma of "peak white feminism," which is defined as "feminism that fails to decenter white women as sole bearers of the various sorts of systemic oppression."
Also, people were irritated because of Emma’s controversial whitewashing incident. In the 2015 movie Aloha, Emma played a fighter pilot who was one-quarter Chinese and one quarter Native Hawaiian. Why is a white actress playing a character of mixed race? Although it isn't the most egregious example of Hollywood whitewashing, it was a bit weird. As someone snarked on Twitter, "Noted Chinese actress Emma Stone gets woke all of a sudden."
Well, it wouldn't be the Oscars without drama, would it? In case you're wondering, Guillermo Del Toro ended up winning Best Director for The Shape Of Water. I hope one day a slimy fish monster will finally score a nomination.