This week, did the Emmys put women on a pedestal, or did they knock them off of it?
Thanks to Queen Bey’s VMA performance this past Sunday, feminism is the f-word on everyone’s lips. A word that normally warrants skeptical and dismissive looks, Beyoncé and other celebrities are making it “trendy” through efforts to mainstream it. With that taste still fresh in our mouths, Sofia Vergara being displayed on a rotating pedestal during the Emmys Monday night was just plain unsavory.
What was apparently meant to be a funny distraction for viewers (as the President of Television Arts and Sciences Bruce Rosenblum delivered the notoriously boring annual speech about the Academy) translated as a blatant display of sexism and objectification of women. This clashed pretty violently with Beyoncé’s feminist message from the night before.
Many angry feminists flocked to Twitter to air out their grievances, and expressed that this Emmys debacle negated Beyoncé’s well-intentioned nod at women empowerment and gender equality at the VMAs.
But in a way, even though it was horribly objectifying and wrong, the skit united many people in mutual outrage, and helped start the national conversation that Bey planted the seed for.
It’s not cool for women to be used as props! It’s not cool for a woman, and one so respected and accomplished as Vergara, to be publicly objectified (not that objectification behind closed doors is okay). Sexism is not okay and not to be tolerated, plain and simple.
So many women, including Vergara herself, seem oblivious to the depth and seriousness of how sexism has infiltrated our society. She even said herself that it wasn’t objectification, but rather showing “that somebody can be hot and also be funny and make fun of herself.”
This incident directly following Beyoncé’s feminist proclamation, prompted people to have open discussions about and think more critically about feminism. More women are beginning to realize that sexism is still alive and well, and that there is in fact still a need for feminism. And thanks to women in the public eye like Beyoncé changing the face of feminism and making it more digestible for the masses, a whole new group of people who were formerly resistant or not as keen on feminism can now be equipped to combat sexism in their own lives. Read the full story, and get a sample of viewers’ reactions via Twitter here.
Photo via Life & Style
