Karla Sofía Gascón has made history by becoming the first trans woman to be nominated for an Oscar, for her performance in the musical Emilia Pérez. Though criticised for dabbling in clichés and stereotypes about trans people and Mexicans, the film and her performance seemed to please an Academy which is always keen to flaunt its progressive credentials. DEI considerations, naturally, have become an important part of deciding who gets an award and why.
But, as it turns out, Gascón is not the model of aspirational representation and progressive politics the Academy thought she was. After a series of unearthed social media posts showed her expressing unsavoury opinions, the star in consideration for an Oscar because of wokeness has now been cancelled because of wokeness. One tweet referred to Islam as a “hotbed of infection for humanity”, while others took swipes at George Floyd and Chinese people. In response, Netflix has dropped her from promotional material while the producers of the film have distanced themselves from the star.
Some of Gascón’s remarks are clearly unpleasant, and touch on uncomfortable subjects that many — especially in liberal Hollywood — would rather ignore. It is understandable that Netflix and the Emilia Pérez team would rather not deal with the hassle of being bombarded with awkward questions about Gascón’s views at every press event. Yet, it is an overreaction to completely exclude the lead actor from campaigns and the award circuit just to save face. All that was required was a public apology to address the controversy and draw a line under it.
Judging on the film alone, however, Emilia Pérez, and Gascón’s performance in particular, are hardly deserving of such high praise. The fact that Gascón’s Oscar chances only tanked because of her social media peccadilloes shows the film was never going to be judged on artistic merit, but instead on supposed political and social virtues. A lot of its support was centred more around how the film stuck the middle finger up to Donald Trump, rather than its cinematic strengths. As Scott Feinberg at the Hollywood Reporter has analogised, the Oscars is more akin to a political campaign than a considered competition between the best films of the year. As with politics, scandals will always be treated as public relations disasters to manage and popularity is not always deserved.
It is assumed that, being trans, Gascón ought to know better than to have criticised other “marginalised communities”. She has repeated this line, saying that “as someone in a marginalised community, I know this suffering all too well” and that is why she is sorry. But being trans is a matter of personal identity; it doesn’t denote a political worldview. Wanting the right to live as your “authentic self” doesn’t automatically equate to being a defender of all marginalised peoples.
It is absurd to assume that there is a trans “community” that is uniform in socio-political views, and that its members must have sympathy for conservative religious Muslims because they can both be subject to prejudice and abuse. The coalition of “protected characteristics” is an extremely arbitrary and loose one. But this is the mess you get with an industry which sincerely believes its stars are moral leaders who must set the tone for the rest of us.
If anyone thought otherwise, cancel culture is clearly still alive and well. Cancellations no longer know any bounds, and being trans is not a disqualifying factor anymore. This censoriousness might be even more frenzied under a second Trump administration, since it’s the only way for a wounded progressive liberalism to assert its taboos against transgressors.
Had Gascón or the film been judged on merit, this would all seem trivial, or at least less relevant to the considerations at hand. But Emilia Pérez is a political artefact, not an aesthetic one. We shouldn’t be surprised that it is being treated as such.
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SubscribeOne of the most annoying things about being involved in the arts community in the UK is the assumption that because you create something, you must automatically be a left-wing “right-on” woke warrior.
The example in this article presents a similar failure to understand the complexity of human nature. Thinking that being trans makes you sympathetic to Islam, for instance, when the most likely outcome of seeking gender transition in a sharia-led country would be death.
This, ultimately, is what’s causing the woke worldview to break down: a simple lack of basic intelligence.
Find myself completely agreeing with you for a change.
Also ignores the fact that the beliefs and interests of one marginalised group can be completely at odds with those of another. Shouldn’t really be a surprise, even different racial minorities don’t get on with each other.
Not being a person who mixes with EDL type folk, I can assure you the biggest critics of Islam I know are 2nd generations Indians. Most of them highly educated and well remunerated.
Actually, quite ironically, in the Iranian theocracy gay men are forced to have surgery to make them “women”. Otherwise your point is correct.
Only upper middle class (mostly white) liberals and above still have this somewhat stupid worldview that any minority (other than white males) will automatically side with other ‘marignalised’ groups?
Why would 10000’s of hard working, largely areligious law Hong Kongers mainly who came to this country over the last 3 years invited due to unusual circumstances immediately identify with a couple of million hard working Catholic Polish people who came here 10-20 years ago?
The marginalisation is in the head of said liberals with their Luxury Beliefs
“One must have a heart of stone to read of the cancellation of Karla Sofía Gascón without laughing.” With apologies to Oscar Wilde.
In modern Russian there is a very crude but very precise expression that characterizes the described conflict between the nominators and the nominee: toad was f..king a viper
Thank you, I think I still prefer the Wilde.
Me too, but not in this case. Neither Karla Sofía Gascón nor Netflix are up to Wilde or you (I’m not giving you a compliment, just don’t get me wrong).
What delicious irony! The Woke trans darling of the Woke Oscar elite cancelled by the Woke Establishment for expressing unWoke, bigoted views. Just brilliant!
‘his’
All the valid criticisms of ‘woke’ and ‘DEI’ in the article and the comments are undermined by the deliberate referring to this man as female.
This is a man. Hired by men. Employed by men Promoted by men. Behaving like a man.
Women have no part in this.
Own him. He’s yours.
it is OUTRAGEOUS that a male pretending to be a female is in the female category of awards. I’m glad he is being cancelled. Nothing more satisfying than to see a Wokey Jokey delusional moron get the same cancel treatment.
And of course it doesn’t stop you noticing that the members of other marginalised groups may not really be the best allies of your own!
I support the Woke mindset as it provides endless humour. It is the personification of running up ones own ar**. No more so than with it’s defence of trans ideology.
Live by the sword. Die by the sword.
Read the tweets. There is absolutely nothing woke about this person! Here she is on the Oscars.
8M is International Women’s Day March.
Nothing sums up the idiocy of the Oscars, and the woke mindset, than this story. We love you for being your “actual self” until we dump you for being your actual self.
Well written and makes so excellent points. DEI once again demonstrating its utter hypocrisy.
He is a man.
Everybody knows this full well.
“One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.” – Franz Kafka, Zürau Aphorism 58
Just as Stalinism, Maoism, Castrism and the like eventually ate their own children, Wokism – the postmodern incarnation of those totalitarian ideologies – does the same: pathetic.
Hollywood is not in great shape at the moment.
Or maybe if you get between Demi Moore and an Oscar, you sleep with the fishes.
Aside from being trans, sounds like she would fit right in at Unherd:
And her opinions on Covid, the Chinese vaccine and George Floyd would fit right in. If her acting career stalls Unherd should give her a call.
But Islam clearly is incompatible with Western values. The reason that leftists skate over that undeniable fact is their fondness for the totalitarian aspects.
I actually wasn’t being sarcastic.
Read the tweets!
I completely support and agree with his opinion about Islam. It’s not a “religion of peace”. It’s the blight of the current age.
Surely, that’s give him a call.