In Honor of Oscar night…
The Emperor
Did you make fun of some the actresses and their dresses on the red carpet last night? I am not asking if you had an opinion about their dresses, but if you ridiculed, mocked and made fun of them. If you did, let me ask you this; Do you have as good a fashion sense as they do? Do you put yourself together regularly (or even occasionally) with a lot of attention paid to the visual statement you are making? Or are you perhaps the Emperor with No Clothes?
The Playing Field
You might think I am saying we shouldn’t be judging. Nothing could be further from the truth. We judge athletes on the playing field with how they play, that is why they are there and why they get paid well, to perform. There is nothing wrong with judging in that case.
On the red carpet the women (and men to a lesser degree) are on their own unique playing field. It’s proper to judge their performance, which in this case consists of how they have visually and materially present themselves. If you don’t think they did that well, then I don’t see anything wrong with saying so.
Judgment vs Judgment
But is it good for you to mock them? To ridicule them? Perhaps if they came in a paper sack, yes. But otherwise isn’t there a substantial character difference between saying a dress is ill-fitting and the actress made a bad fashion choice vs saying the actress looks like a slut in that dress? One is judging their choices, which you can actually see right in front of you and the other is judging their character, which you cannot see and don’t know. One is a legitimate critique while the other is self-righteous, egotistical puffery.
And The Oscar Goes To…
Who was your best dressed last night? My choice for best dressed last night?
I liked the metallic look so my choice was… a tie between
Stacy Keibler
and
Naomi Watts (who also should have won Best Actress!)
Photos courtesy of Popsugar.com
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who has never walked the red carpet. But it’s on my bucket list!
Quote by Dita Von Teese, Burlesque Entertainer
Dita Von Teese
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Interesting post! We actually talked about the dress itself as we “critiqued” the red carpet! If we talked about the person IN the dress, it had to do with how the dress was making them act – one actress had to walk with her shoulder blades practically touching in the back so that her breasts would not fall out of the deep “V” in the front of her dress! 😀
There were actresses of all sizes and shapes on the red carpet and it was fun to watch. I loved Halle Berry’s dress – no one but she could have carried that off. And I had to laugh, I’m no fan of Jane Fonda, but she actually had the style of dress *I* would have picked (in a different color).
I agree, how comfortable they are in the dress definitely affects the beauty and grace of the moment.
haha…You can bet that actress’s breasts found their way out the first time she had to bend over in her seat to get something!
Yes, I do agree regarding the every day person and a snarky pontificator is not attractive but I think I give a little slack when it comes to this particular “venue”.
I hate to diss your post, but I don’t believe it really matters what anyone says/thinks/pontificates about because the entire spectacle is set up for everyone to talk about the fashions, the speeches … all of it on social media, blogs, media, etc. for publicity. I received an email from a signage company this morning with the subject line “Oscar Buzz” their attempt to get people to open the email. All of the actors know the game and if they don’t, they need a new publicist. I bet you loads of them are hoping someone gets on social media or blog and calls them a slut. Google rankings and hashtag dominance … woohoo! I love the statement: “self-righteous, egotistical puffery”. Going to use it as a clarification if I happen to say something that is not a legitimate critique or if someone else does (b/c I’ll be judging their intent too! LOL!) There is a person who is a friend on my FB and I have him hidden b/c he is the definition of “self-righteous, egotistical puffery” and I want to poke his eye out all the time (leaving him with one eye). Can’t wait to paste that in the comment box.
🙂
Margaret, I do agree it’s set up that way, but I also feel that whether you are talking about Nicole Kidman the movie star or Nicole Butowski the local bartender it’s about what is in your heart, not necessarily what the effect it will or will not have on either Nicole. All I know is who I want to be, and who I want to be is someone who isn’t like that. Make sense?