Sunken Place Magazine pic.twitter.com/HgqdXoYoLB
— Aminatou Sow (@aminatou) December 22, 2017
Before Christmas, we talked about the LA Times’ roundtable discussion for “the actresses.” ‘Tis the season for trade papers, newspapers and magazines to do their annual “roundtables” ahead of the Oscars. Most media outlets go out of their way to “force” some diversity within these roundtables – like, even if Octavia Spencer probably won’t be nominated in any given year, Octavia is invited to the roundtable (although Octavia is probably getting nominated this year, for Best Supporting for The Shape of Water).
The LA Times’ The Envelope roundtable didn’t force the diversity or inclusion message at all this year. They just went all-in with white women, doing a roundtable with Kate Winslet, Jessica Chastain, Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Annette Bening and Margot Robbie. Margot and Saoirse are frontrunners in the Oscar race, so I understand their inclusion (and I’m mystified as to Sally Hawkins’ exclusion). But the rest of this bunch? Not really. When we talked about this last week, I even pointed out how lacking-in-inclusion this roundtable was, even though the point of my story was that Kate Winslet cannot shut up about how much she loves Woody Allen, and literally no one at the roundtable would challenge her about it.
Now that the cover is out, people are really mad. They have every reason to be – we’ve suffered through too many years of #OscarsSoWhite for this bullsh-t to keep happening. Culture/film/TV critic Rebecca Carroll – a woman of color – specifically called out Jessica Chastain for participating in this nonsense, tweeting:
Honestly @jes_chastain as an outspoken voice for equality how do you pose for a photo like this and not feel absolutely mortified by the blatant exclusion? How is it possible to not understand the msg this photo sends?
It is literally the antithesis of “a shift in focus” — this is literally The Same Focus on White Women in Hollywood. To present these women collectively worth millions of dollars as change agents when black women with like regular jobs just saved an entire Southern state from a racist pedophile getting seat in the US senate is just beyond.
It’s not just abt assigning editors or photographers or the very obvious and well-known whiteness of Hollywood. It’s abt individual accountability. These are smart, outspoken, savvy women who are demonstrating a lack of self awareness or willful obtusity or both. I cannot help but to think of the young black girls and girls of color who see an image like this whether aspiring actresses or not and instantaneously getting the message that there is no place for them in mainstream, valued America.
@jes_chastain How do you work w an iconic actress like Viola Davis, who has been treated horribly by media re her appearance, and who herself is raising a young daughter, and not immediately issue some sort of corrective for an image like this?
Obviously structural change takes time but the collective power in this image — the platform, the agency, the privilege — could at least recognize the way in which the optics here double down resolutely on willful exclusion of people of color.
[From Rebecca Carroll’s Twitter]
Jessica Chastain responded directly to Carroll’s tweets, writing:
I agree. Major problem is the lack of WOC led films this year and EVERY year. A diverse group can't come together to promote their films if studios aren't inclusive in their storytelling. The industry has a lot of work to do, especially for WOC.
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) December 24, 2017
Its a sad look that there's no WOC in this pic of us promoting our female lead films. The industry needs to become more inclusive in its storytelling. What were your favorite WOC lead films this year? I LOVED @salmahayek in #BeatriceAtDinner https://t.co/tzoijwy88q
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) December 24, 2017
Its TERRIBLE that I can't think of at least 5 female lead films with woc this year.
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) December 24, 2017
In 12 months there's not even 5?!
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) December 24, 2017
Which… can I say? This is bullsh-t. This is bullsh-t from Jessica Chastain, to basically say “well, there weren’t many women of color in movies this year, isn’t it terrible?” She went to The Envelope’s actress roundtable. She sat there and participated in it. She posed for photos, she posed for the cover, she had the camera angled on her in all the videos. She did all of that and she only said this about diversity when she was publicly criticized. A room full of white actresses spent the day together, talking about art and feminism and Hollywood and none of them had any problems with the lack of diversity in that discussion. They didn’t have any problems with it until days (weeks?) later, when people called them out on it. If anyone was in a position to change things, it was literally every woman at that table. Annette Bening could have looked around and said, “wow, I didn’t know that only white women were being invited this year.” Diane Kruger could have stood up and said “this isn’t fair to actresses of color, I’m leaving.” None of them did that.
Photos courtesy of Getty, cover courtesy of The LA Times.
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