Althouse: "It's a place where Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, and Sigourney Weaver could come onstage to offer the awful platitude that 'all women are superheroes'..."

February 11, 2020

"It's a place where Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, and Sigourney Weaver could come onstage to offer the awful platitude that 'all women are superheroes'..."

"... in the same evening in which Sound Editing winner Donald Sylvester got a round of applause for thanking his wife for giving up her editing career so he could pursue his."

Writes Alison Willmore in "The Academy Awards of Self-Flagellation" (Vulture).

Here. Subject yourself to the painful display:

67 comments:

Rocketeer said...: Superheroes? Hardly. The pavement helps them move, too, just like it does for you and me.; 2/11/20, 6:26 AM
TheDopeFromHope said...: Does that include Nikki Haley, Marsha Blackburn, Martha McSally, and the women at The Susan B. Anthony List?; 2/11/20, 6:27 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: I could get behind a woman superhero. If she bent over.

THEOLDMAN

No, "all women" are not. All men are not either. Ridiculous position. (and I'm in favor of ridiculous positions); 2/11/20, 6:28 AM
Todd Roberson said...: They need to make me hero sandwich.; 2/11/20, 6:33 AM
Todd Roberson said...: Check ... make that a superhero sandwich!; 2/11/20, 6:34 AM
gilbar said...: i TRIED to subject myself to that... I made it as far as "we are SO Honored.."

Brie Larson? wasn't she Envy from The Clash at Demonhead?
Wasn't that like TEN years ago?; 2/11/20, 6:36 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: Were they supposed to boo the guy thanking his wife? Or throw overripe vegetables at him?; 2/11/20, 6:39 AM
MadisonMan said...: It's a superpower to wear that hideous pink skirt.; 2/11/20, 6:43 AM
Phil 314 said...: I hope none of the Koreans were getting a translation as the ceremony went on so that they could blithely enjoy their moment.; 2/11/20, 6:44 AM
MayBee said...: Ha! Just as I'm watching a story on CBS this morning about a mother who has become obsessed with the end of the world, and her two teenage kids haven't been seen since September. Superhero!; 2/11/20, 6:46 AM
MayBee said...: In a somewhat related story. in the debate last Friday Biden said he'd been a single father. For some reason, he felt he had to add that wasn't as difficult as being a single mother. Why not? What terrible pandering to women.; 2/11/20, 6:47 AM
Quaestor said...: Why is it necessary to make this obvious point to Hollywood actors?

No, wait... Don't bother. I get it, I get it.; 2/11/20, 6:55 AM
Birches said...: So they put Ripley on stage. Does that mean we're acknowledging that there were Strong Female Characters before 2018? Or are we still pretending this never happened before?; 2/11/20, 6:56 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: But...but...they only PLAY superheroes in movies. And Brad Pitt DID take his shirt off.; 2/11/20, 6:58 AM
Birches said...: Brie Larson? wasn't she Envy from The Clash at Demonhead?
Wasn't that like TEN years ago?

I've come to realize that she wasn't really acting during that role. Haha; 2/11/20, 6:58 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Brie Larson? She's named after a cheese?; 2/11/20, 6:59 AM
Quaestor said...: There are so many superheroines shopping for nail varnish at Target that movies about superheroines (or super anti-heroines) are doomed to fail financially. Why plunk down 53 bucks for tickets, popcorn, and medium sodas to watch 2D fake superheroines wreck the shit out stuff when you can go to Target for gratis and stand behind 15 or 20 genuine superheroines in the Returns line as they exchange their regretted pomegranate vermillion nail varnish for Merlot red -- and in 3D!; 2/11/20, 7:13 AM
rhhardin said...: It's like valentine flowers. Your wife doesn't want them but you'd better get them.

Look at the sad line of flower buyers at Kroger after work on valentine's day.; 2/11/20, 7:14 AM
Birkel said...: Brie Larson's superpower is hiring a great plastic surgeon.
Gal Gadot looks amazing and natural.

Sigourney Weaver has, by far, the superior film credits.; 2/11/20, 7:16 AM
rehajm said...: Kroger has good flowers. Great hydrangeas...; 2/11/20, 7:21 AM
Leland said...: Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, and Erin Gray say thanks for blazing the trail.; 2/11/20, 7:21 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: What an idiot thing to get up in front of people and say. Not everyone has to be out there discovering quarks and all--we're not all intellectually gifted--but it's not that hard to just shut your piehole and not say stupid things on a stage. I don't expect much of the bimbos up there but Sigourney Weaver is a pretty talented and accomplished person and she was too blinkered or too cowardly so say "Actually I'm not going to participate in saying something so asinine?" A reasonably bright fifth grader could point out that if all women are "superheroes," then no women are "superheroes." Duh?; 2/11/20, 7:30 AM
gilbar said...: Amadeus 48 said...
Brie Larson? She's named after a cheese?

I'd Always Assumed, that she was named after the lead character in: The Budding Of Brie
One of the best films, from the classic era of films; 2/11/20, 7:32 AM
Temujin said...: I can't even consider watching that video. I don't know Gail Gadot or Brie Larson because I don't watch 'movies' based on comics or cartoons. Heros? Seriously?

I've seen strong women in my life. I have strong women in my life. They are not catered to actresses, getting paid enormous amounts of money to read others peoples words. They've created real lives, from the ground up, affecting thousands (literally) of lives for the positive, one person at a time, for decades. They do not do this putting on comic-book hero costumes, reading other peoples lines, and then preening in front of a camera asking the world to acknowledge that they can play heros because others before them also played heros.

Real heros are out there every day. Not on TV. Not in the movies. Just doing life and actually making a difference.; 2/11/20, 7:35 AM
MadisonMan said...: Brie Larson? She's named after a cheese?

What's wrong with that?; 2/11/20, 7:41 AM
Michael P said...: Showbiz people being melodramatic and pompous during an awards ceremony? Fetch me my fainting couch!

But it's also dumb to criticize it in the context of someone thanking their spouse for sacrificing career advancement for their spouse's sake. I passed up on a better job for better pay in a better location because my wife had a job offer where we ended up moving. I would do it again in the same situation. It's not a matter of being a superhero or not, or of dumping on a spouse because of their gender. And it is a good thing for the successful spouse to publicly recognize what their spouse gave up to make room for that success.; 2/11/20, 7:47 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: I can think of a lot of women who live extraordinary but quiet lives. I hate the whole superhero/comic book thing so I don't like that comparison but think of the women you know who make the right but difficult choice over and over again. An acquaintance of mine lost her husband to an aggressive brain tumor when their children were 8, 6, 4 and 9 months. She gets up every day and parents them well and follows the Lord and is building her small business back up. Do the next right thing; that's what "heroes" do and it's widespread but not ubiquitous. There are plenty of women who choose to have a bunch of kids and then let their boyfriends molest them and drive around drunk with them with no carseats and give them Cheetos and tablets as a substitute for parenting. Lots of women are venal and stupid and conniving and never lift a finger to do the right thing. Lots of women are shitheads.; 2/11/20, 7:48 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: hillry lost n they lost their minds; 2/11/20, 8:03 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Gag.; 2/11/20, 8:16 AM
alanc709 said...: Of the 3, I could maybe buy Gal Gadot as a superhero. She was a machine gun instructor in the Israeli army, you know.; 2/11/20, 8:16 AM
stlcdr said...: They do know that they are in movies 'cos they are pretty hot, right?; 2/11/20, 8:18 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Brie's latest superhero is called Side Boob. Hers shimmer, dazzle, and disorient the bad guys, interrupting their criminal intentions.; 2/11/20, 8:41 AM
JML said...: Speaking of female orchestra conductors, what ever happened to that young lady featured on the Orson Bean "What's my Line" show posted a few days ago?; 2/11/20, 8:41 AM
William said...: Lt. Ripley wasn't a superhero. She saved the day using only her native intelligence and strength. I particularly liked the first movie where she took on the monster wearing white panties. I guess those days are over. We'll never again see a heroine taking on the dark forces of the universe while wearing panties.....Over the course of the Alien films, it was the monster who showed the most character development. When the monster first appeared, we assumed it was a he--a phallic symbol even. He was like the frog in the fairy tale. Kiss the frog and get a prince. I believe the frog is some kind of metaphor for oral sex on the wedding night.....Anyone Ripley didn't kiss the frog. She kicked his ass. But, as it turns out, the Alien isn't a he. It's a she and a worried mother at that. It seems ironic that Ripley should kill this super female and claim that she's doing so in the interests of female empowerment.; 2/11/20, 8:48 AM
Sebastian said...: "the awful platitude that 'all women are superheroes'..."

Is it any more awful than all the other feminist platitudes? Why?

And what does it say about the actual agency of women, their actual confidence in actual equality, that after more than half a century of second-wave feminism this platitude still needs to be spouted, that even an actually accomplished woman like Weaver gets sucked into it?

It's almost as if progs don't believe their own BS.; 2/11/20, 8:50 AM
William said...: Gal Gadot was not just credible as superhero. She was appealing and fun. I only saw Brie Larson in Endgame, but, in that appearance, she came across as joyless and a little smug. It's hard to save the world in a fun and appealing way. Gal does it. Brie not so much.....On the plus side, Brie wore the most eye catching dress of the three. I think on some level Brie knows wherein her superpowers lie.; 2/11/20, 8:56 AM
Two-eyed Jack said...: My first thought: Superheroes do not actually exist.

My second thought: If everyone is a hero, no one is a hero, so they must not exist either.

My third thought: Ripley looked really hot.; 2/11/20, 8:59 AM
Sally said...: Does Brie kill spiders in her house or does she get her boyfriend to do it?; 2/11/20, 9:07 AM
Roughcoat said...: I'd very much like it if Gal Godot gave me some self flagellation.; 2/11/20, 9:09 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Gal Gadot is distractingly attractive; Margot Robbie and Naomi Watts have/had the same problem (it was tough to "buy" them in any role without focusing on how attractive they are).

If you're going to wear one of those fancy capes you need to have very good posture--a cape with shoulders slumped or rolled over really ruins a woman's shape. Probably a guy's, too, I guess.

Do you still check out Tom & Lorenzo, Professor? There used to be so many fun fashion-snark blogs, but that doesn't seem like a thing anymore.; 2/11/20, 9:09 AM
Jupiter said...: The chick on the left has a nice rack, but not nice enough for me to care what they're jabbering about. Make me a sammie.; 2/11/20, 9:18 AM
robother said...: Feminist Super-Her-os. But Trump and Gervais are their kryptonite, reducing them to sobbing victimhood with a single quip.; 2/11/20, 9:19 AM
narciso said...: Larson really has no personality, even going back to king kong, it's interesting when weaver played the villain, in 'cabin in the woods' and sort of in 'avatar'; 2/11/20, 9:24 AM
Seeing Red said...: What is up with the severe, school Marm hair?; 2/11/20, 9:25 AM
D 2 said...: I think in Bowie’s song about Heroes, he is noting that all Men are imperfect, fallen, unfinished creatures ... that we are not the stuff of legend and nobility. But that - through positive conscious choices - that we might aspire to act like such, even only briefly, just for one day. Or maybe swim like dolphins.

He notes the shame is on the other side..... That is: the ideologues who read the communist manifesto, who are on the right side of history, who expect you to fall in line, police your speech. Don’t think for yourself, where people are not considered individuals but broken into set classes, ranks, strata, victim groups, etc

The truth is we are all imperfect, fallen, unfinished creatures, and the arrogant righteousness of thinking you are better than others, simply because you are X, is part of the rot of our times.

I agree completely, absolutely, with Ms Misplaced Pants. So many people should stopping looking out in judgement and get on with their own affairs. It’s what you get up and do each day that matters, not what you say

Look around and see where people everyday are doing what they can to be good everyday people. Not perfect people, but good people who do what they do without ceremony and acclaim. No one is expecting an awards banquet. But if they work hard, they might get paid at the end of the week, so they can take the kids to a show.; 2/11/20, 9:28 AM
richlb said...: Just to be clear, Gal Gadot is the hottest woman in Hollywood right now.; 2/11/20, 9:29 AM
Ice Nine said...: Aileen Wuornos and Susan Smith would like a word with you, girls.; 2/11/20, 9:57 AM
narciso said...: I would say so, cherlise almost disfigured herself to play Megyn Kelly,; 2/11/20, 9:58 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Dang me. Somehow I missed Fauxcahontas and The Hildebeest as "super heroes". My bad.
But Lizzie Borden had her chops back in the day.; 2/11/20, 10:12 AM
hombre said...: All in good fun except for the lurking suspicion that Hollywood elitists believe in superheroes and believe they are them. Also, it’s tough to swallow millionaire movie actresses whining about how they are treated, particularly when their looks usually account for their success.; 2/11/20, 10:12 AM
Paul said...: What was the film about? I was distracted by Gadot on one side and the boobs on the other....; 2/11/20, 10:16 AM
J. Farmer said...: Didn't watch the video, just wanted to say that Sigourney Weaver is still a goddess. I don't know about superheroes, but Ellen Ripley remains the gold standard for the female action heroine.; 2/11/20, 10:30 AM
Rory said...: "Lt. Ripley wasn't a superhero"

Thanks, I was wondering if she had some other movie.; 2/11/20, 10:41 AM
Real American said...: why do females need this constant affirmation that they're good enough, smart enough and doggone it people like them? seems odd to me.; 2/11/20, 10:58 AM
Seeing Red said...: “Lt. Ripley wasn't a superhero"

She was to me.; 2/11/20, 12:04 PM
Seeing Red said...: why do females need this constant affirmation that...doggone it people like them?

Biology and societal expectations.

Should we start singing “Popular” now?; 2/11/20, 12:06 PM
William said...: Footnote to above: The first female superhero was Dorothy in The Wizard. Her superpower was making men brave, smart, and kind. That's the best female superpower. Interesting to note that Renee Zellweger won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Judy Garland. Renee has Judy's power of being vulnerable in such a way as to attract your sympathy, support, and admiration. That's another pretty cool feminine superpower.; 2/11/20, 1:42 PM
walter said...: MadisonMan said...Brie Larson? She's named after a cheese?
--
Definitely cheesecake.
I appreciate her taking the plunge.
Gal Gadot is a L'oreal construction.
Lotta gals in lockup were high five-ing over "All women.."
Oh yeah..Go Team Vagina!; 2/11/20, 2:27 PM
rcocean said...: I hate "Strong women characters" they're super fake and boring. Or absurd. They're nothing more ridiculous that seeing some 120 lbs Cutie beat up a 170 lbs. man because...girl power.; 2/11/20, 2:37 PM
Bilwick said...: I suspect the "all women are superheroes" would not apply to Ayn Rand, Isabel Paterson or Rose Wilder Lane.; 2/11/20, 3:02 PM
Ann Althouse said...: If I had to be named after a cheese, I would be Mimolette. Or Colby.; 2/11/20, 3:30 PM
Kelly said...: I like Sigourney Weaver usually. She told about getting Botox and after going home both her son and husband hysterically laughed and made fun of her. She said she’d never get it again. If she were a superhero she would have used her laser beam eye powers to zap them, but maybe the Botox interfered with that.; 2/11/20, 5:08 PM
Rory said...: "Colby"

Seems to be a popular name for dogs nowadays.; 2/11/20, 6:08 PM
Amadeus 48 said...: Althouse--I sorta see you as Délice.

If we are going with British cheese, Stilton has a nice ring. Then there is Caerphilly.

But like Wallace and Gromet, we can always come back to Wensleydale.; 2/11/20, 6:41 PM
Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...: “And when everyone’s super...no one will be.” - Syndrome; 2/11/20, 9:02 PM
Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/11/20, 9:02 PM
veni vidi vici said...: They need to up their super power ability to choose a wardrobe consultant. Who the hell dresses these three, their toddler nephews? The Queen Mother? wtf this is awful.

No wonder nobody watches the awards anymore.; 2/12/20, 12:12 AM