Mar 6, 2010

Idiot of the Week: Kim Elsesser

"While it is certainly acceptable for sports competitions like the Olympics to have separate events for male and female athletes, the biological differences do not affect acting performances. The divided Oscar categories merely insult women, because they suggest that women would not be victorious if the categories were combined." — Kim Elsesser, New York Times
An unfathomably feeble argument. "They suggest that women would not be victorious if the categories were combined." And how do they do that exactly? Why would it not be the men disadvantaged? Ms Elsesser reveals a little more prejudice than she exposes.

4 comments:

  1. Riiigght... because if Christopher Waltz wasn't available, Sandra Bullock would totally have been cast as Hans Landa. Biology's got nothing to do with it...

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  2. Wow, have we come to a place where a viewpoint that can be considered feminist automatically qualifies someone as the "idiot of the week?"

    I don't think that Elsesser's argument is really that far off. Acting is a job that men and women do together. If you were to offer an award to an employee in a law firm, you wouldn't give one to the best male employee and another to the female. You would award the employee who did the best work overall.

    An author is considered an idiot for wanting to make an issue divided by gender
    equal. Really? Mr Shone reveals a little more prejudice than he exposes.

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  3. "If you were to offer an award to an employee in a law firm, you wouldn't give one to the best male employee and another to the female."

    That's because men and women are equally well suited to the task of being lawyers. But, as I noted above, a woman couldn't have played Hans Landa to nearly the same effect as Waltz, any more than a young English boy could have played the title role in "Alice and Wonderland". Your analogy is entirely without merit.

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  4. Mr Elsesser didn't get "Idiot of the week" because she is a feminist. She got it because her suggestion was the most idiotic thing I'd heard all week. She got it on merit alone!

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