Did sexism, idiocy drive nominations?

TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2020

Gerwig on the cross: According to future experts, this was always likely to be the year which kicked off the global conflagration known as Mister Trump's War.

We didn't know that the commander-in-chief would start on January 2! But as we've been telling you, we'll guess there may be many more such deeds before this year is through.

Our tribe has already lost this competition, through decades of hapless behavior. As a group, we've persistently shown that we're too dumb to notice anything happening around us.

Once Donald J. Trump was elected, it was already too late. Now, it's pretty much all over but the shouting—or, in given our tribal proclivities, it's all over but the tribal name-calling.

Manohla Dargis offered a good example of that unattractive behavior in Sunday's New York Times. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Screen Actors Guild? Members of these groups were denounced as "idiotic" and sexist for their failure to honor female-directed and female-themed films in their award nominations this year.

Even as she dropped her bombs, Dargis was able to name only two such overlooked films—The Farewell and Little Women. But how strange! Dargis hadn't included The Farewell among her list if the 42 best films of the year! Meanwhile, the sexist idiots at the Golden Globes had nominated it as one of the year's five best foreign language films.

Why in the world would someone behave in the way Dargis did? Simply put, our war-inclined, floundering species is wired that way! Consider Dargis' apparent claim that it was the sexism of the groups in question which kept Greta Gerwig and her new film, Little Women, from getting their due this year.

It's true! Little Women didn't receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture or for Best Director. Meanwhile, Dargis had picked it as the fourth best film of the year.

Does that mean that Gerwig and her film got screwed by a gang of sexist idiots? Consider the way Gerwig's previous movie, Lady Bird, was treated by these same gangs of knuckle-draggers.

We'll quote from the leading authority on the fate of Lady Bird. Here's the way that female-directed and female-themed film was treated by the Golden Globes:

At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy (won); Best Actress, Musical or Comedy for Saiorse Ronan (won); Best Supporting Actress for Laurie Metcalf; and Best Screenplay.

Apparently, the sexist idiocy only took hold at the Golden Globes in the past few years! Meanwhile, here's the way Lady Bird was treated by the Screen Actors Guild:

At the 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards, it was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Ronan, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Metcalf, and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

The Screen Actors Guild only gives acting awards. There was no possible nomination for Best Director, Best Film or Best Screenplay.

In short, Gerwig's previous female-directed film received almost every nomination available. No sexism, and no idiocy, conspired to hold that film down.

This year, Little Women fared less well. Is it possible that members of these organizations simply thought that Lady Bird was a better film? Is it possible that they didn't think Little Women was (is) all that good?

For ourselves, we thought the new Little Women was a major mess. We also know that matters like these are matters of subjective judgment.

That said, as our nation sits "on the beach," awaiting the start of Mister Trump's War, we self-impressed, ineffectual liberals have generally ceased to know such things. We stamp our feet and name-call Others and behave like the very bad people we almost manage to be.

We thought Little Women was quite poor. Dargis had a different view.

She only knew one way to react when Others failed to share her view. Our team has been like this for a long time, helping send Trump to the Oval.

Why would someone behave that way? As Cassius once so thoughtfully said, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in the way we're wired."

Future Anthropologists Huddled in Caves contributed to this analysis.