Thursday, February 28, 2013

This Just In, Some People Care About The Oscars

So apparently watching the Oscars is a thing that people do, go figure.  I didn't watch it, because seriously, it is the Oscars, who gives a fuck.  But apparently a whole bunch of people on my Facebook newsfeed did!  And are talking about somebody tripped or something and the host made some sexist or racist jokes?

The host thing is annoying, to me.  Not that he made the jokes, not really.  But like three or four people on my newsfeed are all up in arms because those damn feminists are making a big deal out of it because geez, it's only a joke, calm down, why are you wasting your time talking about jokes some dude made when there is real oppression to fight and actually hurting people to deal with, GEEEEEEZ.

Well, fuck off.  I don't know what jokes this guy made, but if somebody was offended by it then they have the right to express that.  If somebody thought what he said was problematic, they have a right to talk about how and why that is.  And the fact that there are bigger problems in the world doesn't mean that everybody has to ignore the smaller day to day injustices that they face, and telling someone that they shouldn't talk about something that upsets them because, say, some Muslima has it worse.  Guess what, people don't have to devote every second of every day fighting only the very worst oppression in the world until it's all gone before they can start paying attention to the small acts of oppression that happen to them every day and affects their life whether or not people on the outside can see it.  Different people have different priorities, and those priorities are always in flux.  Objecting to a rape joke today doesn't mean that they weren't advocating for a women's shelter yesterday or aren't picketing for a union tomorrow.  And if you really have a problem with how people obsess over what you consider to be minor, ridiculous things instead of the big problems, then actually do something about those problems.  Write letters and stage protests and volunteer and prove that you think that it's important to fix them, rather than just using big problems you don't really care about as an excuse to silence people who are fighting different problems that you also don't care about.

Also, is "somebody fell down on camera" really such a big deal that everybody on my news feed has to make jokes about it?  Dang, no wonder I don't watch the Oscars if that's considered to be a high point.

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