Quvenzhané Wallis' Outrage, Should Be Our Outrage

[fiat_knox]

Originally posted by chesyaburke at Quvenzhané Wallis' Outrage, Should Be Our Outrage

As you've probably heard, Quvenzhané Wallis, the young actress from Beast of the Southern Wild, received some very insulting criticisms at the Oscars and over the internet last night. In case you didn't know, young Ms. Wallis is only nine years old, which makes most of the comments even more puzzling. Author Nora Jemisin sums it up nicely:

"[For some reason] half of Hollywood decided that it hated [Quvenzhané Wallis].

The reasons for that hate vary. Some of it’s just… Hollywood, land of the unbelievably hateful people who tear each other down to build themselves up. (Where I come from that’s called bullying, and it happens most often in a schoolyard.) There’s a billion snickering comments and articles online right now about the fact that one of the Oscar winners tripped. This is a professional culture of 12-year-olds.

Well. Except. Most of the ones with power are old white guys. They just have the sense of humor of 12-year-olds.

Here’s some things they did:

• The show’s host, Seth MacFarlane, made a joke that I guess was meant to be a jab at George Clooney. Except I don’t think Clooney has ever seen a 9-year-old as a sexual object, which MacFarlane apparently did when he made that joke. Well. Lots of people see little black girls as sexual objects, I guess. MacFarlane was just trying to put her in context. Right? Right?


• Multiple reporters struggled to say her name correctly, sometimes to her face. A few even tried to dub her “little q”. She’s the youngest nominee ever, and they can’t be bothered to learn how to say her name. Hint: it has as many syllables as “Galadriel.”


• Academy voters voted against her because of that name, and said so.


• Oh! And I almost forgot: The Onion called her a cunt. I generally try not to use that word in full, like the n-word — but sometimes it’s important to use it, to bring home the full power of just how ugly a word it is. Especially when applied to a child.

Oh, and it wasn’t just Hollywood misbehaving. The better-known chunks of the feminist community got in on the act, calling her “disgusting” and “insufferable” in the comments. Those people are getting told by quite a few people, but just goes to show you that even (sometimes especially) feminists can be racist fucks."

You should really follow the links and take a look at the insults that are being thrown at this child. And as for the feminist blog Jezabel, many of the comments can pretty much be summed up with, "this girl is just too uppity." In other words, she should know her place and be appropriately humble so she won't annoy the vast population who really only want to see a real life reincarnation of Ruby Bridges on screen for them to romanticize.

But I think we must ask ourselves why there is so much anger toward Quvenzhané. Why does her presence cause so much animosity that there are so many people talking about a nine year in sexually derogatory manner. LOTS of people. People in power who are using that power to subjugate this little girl. What is the message here? Why, we must ask ourselves, have these (usually, literally, open-minded) people felt that it was acceptable to behave this way.

As a commenter on Twitter stated, most of these same people were rightfully angry when Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a slut. But now they defend The Onion for referring to Quvenzhané as a c***. Could it be, perhaps, that Quvenzhané's race does not summon the same emotional innocence within our society, as a white woman's does?