Last year, it was #OscarsSoWhite that was calling for a boycott of the Academy Awards. Now Donald Trump supporters are taking their turn.
A Facebook post demanding a boycott of Sunday’s event has been circulating among conservatives on Facebook and Reddit over the past week, seemingly originating from a Facebook page for a women’s GOP group in Tempe, AZ. The post calls on the “backbone and decent people of America” to stand up against the “bitter people of the entertainment industry.”
It also specifically calls out celebrities who have made headlines by speaking out against Trump via various platforms, including Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Lawrence and Cher. The post particularly targets Madonna, who drew the ire of Trump’s base with her Women’s March speech last month, in which she admitted she thought about “blowing up the White House” after the election.
“From Madonna and Miley Cyrus parading on stage with little to no clothing while grabbing their crotches and allowing fans to do the same…”the post reads, “to the deplorable speeches of Madonna and Ashley Judd talking about their periods in a vile manner and talking about blowing up the White House, we must send these people a strong and distinct message that they do not speak for the women of this country and they are not the role models of our young daughters.”
The GOP group calls on conservatives to find something else to do on Sunday night and hopes that their boycott will lead to a drop in ratings for the Oscars. Last year’s ceremony, which was hosted by Chris Rock amidst complaints that the Academy had only nominated white actors and filmmakers in all the major categories for the second straight year, drew 34.3 million viewers. That was a 6.3 percent drop from 2015 and the third-lowest viewer total since Nielsen began tracking electronically in 1992.
“This will only be effective if we show the same unity we exhibited during the election,” the GOP post reads. “Yet how powerful will it be when the ratings for the Academy Awards fall in the toilet.”
“When this happens, the entertainment industry will understand just how insignificant and powerless [they are.]”
You can read the call to boycott in full below.