Seth MacFarlane's Oscars Had a Deaf Ear and a Blind Eye to Women
February, 26, 2013 6:27 am | Comments On #Movies, oscars, Sally Field, Seth MacFarlaneAnd the Oscar for the most painful opening moments of an Academy Awards ceremony goes to ... Sunday night’s telecast.
Rarely has such a high-profile cultural event so boldly and blatantly turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the female half of the population. In an apparent attempt to reinvent the telecast to appeal to a younger audience, the producers stole a page out of Rupert Murdoch’s playbook, taking the show decidedly down-market.
Within the first 20 minutes of the program, the show’s host, Seth MacFarlane, sang a song called “We Saw Your Boobs” about films in which actresses go topless, demeaned Academy-Award winning actress Sally Field in what can only be described as a bizarre skit in which he impersonated the flying nun and pretended to come on to her, and for the big finish, hoofed with a...
Read MoreIf Women Ran Hollywood: 2012 Edition
July, 26, 2012 4:15 pm | Comments On #Hollywood, sexism, Television, Wanda Sykes, WomenTwenty years ago, the late producer/writer Julia Phillips and writer/critic Anne Thompson considered how the film and television businesses and their content might morph if women were in charge.
In an Entertainment Weekly article entitled “If Women Ran Hollywood,” the authors suggested that if women ruled, “Penelope Spheeris, who directed the $120 million-grossing "Wayne’s World," would be hired for the next Batman sequel” and, “Older male stars would be cast opposite women their own age.”
Fast forward to the summer of 2012. Men continue to dominate as directors of...
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Description
Dr. Martha M. Lauzen is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film and serves on the faculty of the Television, Film & New Media program at San Diego State University.
