From the Washington Post:
Jane Campion quickly squanders good will from Sam Elliott response with misguided comment of her own
By Sonia Rao
Today at 12:11 p.m. EDT|Updated today at 2:17 p.m. EDTThe criticism arrived as swiftly as the praise.
Just a day after Jane Campion was applauded for the candor with which she pushed back on disparaging remarks made about her [cowboy] film “The Power of the Dog,”
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a gay caballero, which did not impress veteran cowboy actor Sam Elliott.
the filmmaker herself caught flak for a comment she made while accepting best director at Sunday’s Critics Choice Awards.
After pointing out that the other nominated directors in her category were all men, Campion turned to Serena and Venus Williams, who attended in support of the film “King Richard.” She said, “You know, Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys like I have to.”
Campion is the first woman ever to have earned two Best Director Oscar nominations. Movie directing is an immensely competitive field, so she’s justified in feeling proud in her matching up against the big boys like Spielberg. She beat out some heavyweight directors to get one of the five 2022 nominations, like Denis Villeneuve (Dune), Guillermo Del Toro (Nightmare Alley), and Adam Mackay (granted, the last is not in the same class as the first two, but he gets a lot of Oscar appreciation).
The audience broke out into cheers and applause while the camera cut to Venus Williams, a seemingly uncomfortable smile on her face. The response online mirrored Williams’s (minus the smile). Many people expressed how unnecessary it was for Campion, a White woman, to compare her experiences of sexism with the uphill battles fought by the Williams sisters, two Black women who have faced unrelenting racism and sexism while working toward remarkable levels of success in tennis, a White-dominated sport.
“Jane Campion, daughter of famous New Zealand theatre director Richard Campion & actress Edith Campion MBE, explains the challenges of being a white woman from an established family to Venus and Serena Williams,” tweeted BBC reporter Megha Mohan.
As opposed to Venus and Serena, who grew up never having even met their dad.
No,…wait, Richard Williams is a famous Tiger Father. Indeed, Will Smith is a frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar for playing him in the biopic. (That’s why Venus Williams was present.)
But, anyway, it’s punching down to utter a witticism involving Serena and Venus.
“Anyone who knows anything about Venus and Serena’s careers wouldn’t think to utter something this stupid and insulting,” wrote Chicago Sun-Times editor Gene Farris.
Writer Saeed Jones noted, “That Jane Campion whiplash is a perfect distillation of white feminism.”
Campion issued a statement Monday afternoon apologizing for her words.
“I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved,” she said. “I did not intend to devalue these two legendary Black women and world class athletes. The fact is the Williams sisters have, actually, squared off against men on the court
And got beat badly in 1998 by a minor male player ranked around 200th in the world who smoked cigarettes during his match with the sisters.
(and off), and they have both raised the bar and opened doors for what is possible for women in this world.
Like beating other women in tennis, which never ever happened before. No, hold that…it appears that Maud Watson won the Wimbledon Ladies Singles Championship in 1884. Much like Serena and Venus, Maud beat her sister Lilian in the Final to do it.
Or they are the first black women to do well in ladies’ tennis? Well, no…Althea Gibson was AP Woman Athlete of the Year 64 years ago in 1958 for winning Wimbledon and the American championship.
The point is that while you might be a famous feminist pioneer, Ms. Campion, you have fewer Pokemon Diversity Points than the Williams Sisters. So, know your place and don’t you dare express anything other than submissiveness toward your racial superiors. Anything else is Punching Down.
