Kenough about the "Oscar snubs"
this time the internet said Oscars Not White Enough
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If you’re a little bit online, you’ve probably noticed a bit of, well, outrage at the Oscar nominations this year.
That on its own is nothing new. And as a hater at heart, I love tuning into the Academy Awards exclusively to bitch about the nominations or the choice of winners. Watching when the cast of La La Land had to hand the Oscar over to the cast of Moonlight was so gratifying I felt gleeful to see it live. All this to say, critiquing the culture rewarded and revered in Hollywood is something I greatly enjoy.
That’s not what’s happening here. To explore what’s actually happening here, let’s take a look at what came up when I searched “Oscars2024” on Instagram:
Even Hillary Clinton chimed in:
But Gerwig and Robbie weren’t ignored by the Academy for their contributions to Barbie–which, beyond sets and costumes, is a questionable choice for Oscar noms anyway. It was certainly a fun movie that was a box office success1, but even stacked up against only Gerwig’s own previous filmography (Lady Bird, Little Women), it was a sloppy, incomplete and inconsistent narrative on girlhood and growing up, meant primarily to raise the value of Mattel stock.
And rather than being snubbed, Gerwig was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay2 and Robbie was nominated as a co-producer for the film.
You’ll notice, with the exception of one picture of Greta Lee and Charlie Melton, the complaints about the Oscar noms this year is not what we’ve seen in previous years with the #OscarsSoWhite movement–but that there were actually more deserving white people who should have been up for more awards.
It’s notable that a movie widely celebrated but fairly criticized for it’s perpetuation of white feminism is focusing only on the exclusion of two white women from additional nomination categories, eclipsing the fact that America Ferrara was in fact nominated for the female equivalent award as Gosling–as well as the Best Leading Actress nomination for Lily Gladstone, who is the first Native American woman to be nominated for leading actress ever.
Instead of celebrating that as a feminist victory–or the seven out of twenty nominees who are people of color, all being nominated for the first time–white feminists are choosing to focus on the fabricated exclusion of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig. Take this quote from the Los Angeles Times by Mary McNamara3 (emphasis mine);
If only Barbie had done a little time as a sex worker. Or barely survived becoming the next victim in a mass murder plot. Or stood accused of shoving Ken out of the Dream House’s top window. Certainly millions of “Barbie” fans are currently wishing they could push someone — perhaps a member or two of the film academy — out of a very high window. How on earth does the list of 2024 Oscar nominations not include Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, who, respectively, directed and starred in a film that defied all critical expectations and made moviegoing fun again?4
Yep, you clocked it! That was a white woman claiming feminism by describing the historical abuse and murders of Native American women as a cheap true crime plot. I love to talk about how important women’s stories are while reminding everyone explicitly, I only mean pretty white women.
More pointedly, how did voters justify giving “Barbie,” with its very clear message that women have to dance backward in heels to get half the validation their male peers get, a best picture nom while ignoring the two women who made that picture possible?
They didn’t. Gerwig and Robbie were both nominated for Barbie.
The idea that the Academy turns its nose up at Girl Movies is only true if you lock girlhood into one, specific5 narrative. And if you ignore the Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Adapted Screenplay, (two) Best Original Song, Costume Design, and Production Design nominations Barbie received.
And if you ignore that how the characters function within the story makes the Barbie movie, at heart, Ken’s movie. While Barbie herself spends most of the movie reacting to the consequences of the actions of others, Ken and Gloria’s actions drive the plot forward.6 Is it surprising then that those are the more compelling, memorable character performances?
On the flip side of this outrage, people are also upset at the “snub” DiCaprio received, in not being nominated for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon, rather than celebrating an Indigenous woman’s nomination in a movie dominated by white men. Ironic?
Everyone’s anti-capitalist until a blonde woman makes a billion dollars, huh?
There is notably no equivalent outrage for Celine Song who directed Past Lives, and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay but not Best Director.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2024-01-23/barbie-oscar-snubs-greta-gerwig-margot-robbie-movie-point
No, sorry, that was Bottoms that made movie going fun again.
White.
You’re right, it is sexist! Take it up with Best Adapted Screenplay nominees Gerwig and Baumbach who gave Ken more autonomy than Barbie in Barbie.