Yesterday morning I woke up to find the online world talking about the Academy Awards presentation the night before, which I did not watch, as I had no interest in doing so. It was more than the fact that I hadn't seen a single movie last year, but an active disdain for watching the broadcast. How far things have changed from 2008-2010, when I first started writing this blog, when I could claim to have seen nearly every movie (including shorts) nominated for any award.
Of course everyone was talking about how one of the Best Actor nominees physically assaulted a comedian who had been bantering about him and his wife, who were sitting in the front row, awaiting their award presentation. Having not watched a single moment of the broadcast, I listened to several hours of live streams on Youtube of my favorite culture-commentators, like Gary @Nerdrotic, who hashed over the event with his guests, including discussing the question of whether the event was real or a publicity stunt. Consensus seems to be on the latter.
In the evening, Ginger and I sat around discussing it, having fun with it. I went through a long discussion of the precepts of classical honor (as portrayed in classical Hollywood movies) in regard to conditions under which a man is allowed to strike another man on behalf of a woman. This situation was not one of the conditions.
Among other things the woman in this case (who is also a famous Hollywood actress herself) is, in classical terms, completely without honor, as she is living in open, notorious violation of her existing marriage. This is different than infidelity, or an honorable separation. She is an unrepentant Jezebel, expecting applause for having multiple sexual partners in addition to her husband. If this were an old Hollywood movie, we would expect a very severe ending for her. Among other things, her behavior is destructive to the very institution of marriage in our culture.
One thing that made me laugh in hearing the discussion on Gary's Nerdrotic Youtube channel was when someone suggested it was ok for the actor to strike the comedian because it was a slap and not a punch. A slap, said the guest on Gary's show, was like saying "you sir are no man!"
I laughed because of course that is true in a classical honor sense, but only as a prelude to mortal combat. A slap to another man is effectively an invitation to a duel.
How far we come, in losing our sense of honor. The women in the audience at the awards later gave a standing ovation to the actor who struck the comedian. All of them are disgusting. They effectively said that if any man dare criticize their appearance (the sacred hair), then that man deserves to be physically assaulted.
When I watched the clip later, it occurred to me that the worst was not the physical assault on the comedian, but the follow-up, in which the aggrieved actor lashed out at the comedian after taking his seat, using angry profanities. Why was this worse? Because the rules of honor dictate that by his physical assault of the comedian (as wrong as it was), the actor's sense of grievance should have been fully satisfied. It was an insult to the woman's hair, after all! Effectively by his follow-up words he stated that the assault did not go far enough in satisfying his wife's non-existent honor.
I could probably write a Ph.D. thesis about the concept of honor in classical Hollywood movies, and how it differs for men and women under various circumstances, including the conditions under which physical violence is condoned. The rules are subtle but ironclad, once you understand them. I think they exist in our souls still, even though we have, within Pop Culture at least, lost the very idea of the existence of honor.
Having written all this, I can now deliver my own comedic punchline. Here it is. At the end of the day yesterday, having absorbed all of this, I realized that except for the Best Actor award (given to the assaulter), I did not know the name of a single winner of any award, including Best Picture. I still don't know. I don't want to know any of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment