I’m With Will.
No, this is not a blatantly naked appeal for page views (although if it works I’ll have no objection to it).
I mean, of course he shouldn’t have slapped Chris Rock.
However.
Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia. She has publicly spoken about the condition since 2018. It is not a joking matter. It is an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss, total or partial.
Gee, do you understand how people might be sensitive about having it made into a joke? It can be, and usually is, a traumatic experience.
I will here give a shout-out to Molly Tuttle, a world-class newgrass musician and singer/songwriter. She gave a fantastic performance here in our Arden Shady Grove a little less than a year ago. She has taken up the cause on behalf of those who, like her, have alopecia. Here is her story of performing bald for the first time:
Finally, as the 2017 conference approached, I decided the time had come to reconnect with the alopecia community and also let my fans in on this important part of my life. Before I boarded the plane to Miami, where I would be performing throughout the week without my wig, I uploaded to social media a picture that my friend Kaitlyn had taken of me standing outside my house. The picture looked like the strong woman I had imagined as a teenager. She was smiling and her bald head was shining for the world to see. I didn’t feel confident as I hit send, though. I felt scared and almost sad that I had let the part of me go that was pretending to have hair and pretending that my life had been “normal.” I was petrified at first to leave my wig in my hotel room and join the conference. Staring at the mirror, I thought I looked unfinished without my wig. Even though almost everyone else there was bald, the irrational fear that I would be judged by my appearance crept back in.
Throughout the week I was surrounded by beautiful women and men who truly loved themselves and wouldn’t grow their hair back if they could. I began to realize that if I felt ashamed about being bald I was also casting shame on these people who clearly had no tolerance for that. We all had strikingly similar experiences living with alopecia. I recognized that it must be possible for me to start accepting and celebrating what made me unique just as they had. Slowly I felt parts of myself unfolding and softening. Support also flooded in from fans, friends, and acquaintances who had seen the bald picture of me online. I was so relieved and thankful for the love people showed me in that vulnerable moment. I played for a group of bald children and afterward I started to get angry at the voices in my head telling me that I would be prettier and happier if I had hair. Looking at the adorable kids who were happy just being themselves, I knew that these negative beliefs inside me were not truly my own.
I went to the conference the next year and performed again but it was a different experience. So much had changed in a year and I no longer felt the fear or urge to wear my wig. I felt more like one of the relaxed, confident women I had met the year before. I played for the kids again and met a girl who I now have mentored for almost a year! That week I realized that after 22 years of being bald I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Having alopecia has taught me that there is nothing “normal” about everyone being the same. Humans are beautifully diverse. We all have work to do to make our world a safer and more welcoming place for everyone regardless of appearance, race, age, sexuality, gender identity, disability, or anything else that makes us human. Many of us mean well and don’t realize when we’re using hurtful stereotypes and creating stigma. I think that as a society we can start to heal by educating ourselves and listening to each other’s stories. I hope that by sharing mine I can make the world a better place for the bald kids of the future. Thanks for listening!
Amen. Let’s educate ourselves and listen to other’s stories. And not to publicly ridicule them over something for which they have no control. I would have been proud to do what Will Smith did. Chris Rock was the bully, nobody else.
“he shouldn’t have slapped Chris Rock”. full stop. This is not complicated. Fuck Smith.
The humor is built into the thing to puncture the bloated self importance of the thing.
If Chris Rock didn’t clear the joke with Jada, he never should have said it.
Puncturing egos is one thing. Ridiculing someone’s condition is quite another.
Maybe, and yet the Smith should not have slapped Chris Rock.
What makes you think that Rock knew she had alopecia? The fact might be out in the ether, but it’s by no means common knowledge.
Would the joke be off-limits if her hair was a fashion choice?
She’s been talking about it since 2018–trying to help people with similar conditions. I provided the link. Maybe he didn’t know–but, from what I’ve read, it was common knowledge in the entertainment community.
I don’t know the answer to your question. Certainly not if it’s part of the persona they’ve created for themselves. In that case, have at it.
She might have been open with it, but I was in the room with 20 other people (most of them more plugged in to celebrity culture than me) and not a single one said she had alopecia. And I’d wager that you didn’t know until some time after the slap.
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/will-smith-arsenio-hall-john-b-williams-bald-joke-viral-clip-slap-1329729/
I’ll TAKE that wager. (Of course, I’m willing to lie for money…)
A few layers after Full Stop No Violence.
Was the first swipe at the couple in the script? Regina Hall had joked that she couldn’t tell if Will Smith was single. That must have stung.
Chris Rock – Smiths Oscars 2016…..also unscripted?
Can’t remember the last time I watched the Oscars.
Folks, PLEASE STOP POSTING! I DON’T WANT TO DRIVE UP THOSE PAGE VIEWS.
Not sure if the Oscars dismal ratings improved this year, but next year surely more people will watch. The Smiths just assured themselves of being nominated for every upcoming entertainment awards show.
Blame enough to go all around, I think, if we’re talking about the making of the moment, and a good demonstration that in most cases in life, everyone involved shares a bit of the blame.
But in the overall scheme of things, consider this:
Jada Pinkett Smith could have worn a wig, as most women with alopecia do at least part of the time (my next-door neighbor has it). I think JPS chose to go with very short hair because she wants to call attention to alopecia. I think using her position to publicize the condition is, if anyone is keeping score, a good thing.
And to that point, you might have noticed that the media is running a lot more stories about alopecia this week than last.
So should Rock not have made the joke? Should Smith have stayed in his seat? Should Pinkett Smith have pretended to be amused? I don’t know. But does alopecia get its disease-of-the-moment media treatment if none of this had happened?
Good point. Maybe some good will come of it.
Felt like I should contribute to the page count.
I thought Pinkett looked pretty good. Yes, it was a hair style that might put one in mind of “G.I.Jane,” but Demi Moore’s hair was probably supposed to look good and sexy in its way because that’s how Hollywood wants its heroines to look. Rock made a mildly funny joke about the connection. Yes, there would have been no joke if Pinckett didn’t have alopecia or had worn a wig. But the joke is only offensive if you think alopecia is something to be embarrassed about (some women shave their heads simply as a fashion gesture). It’s not, of course. Pickett seemed to wear her shaved head proudly. Looks like Smith wasn’t so proud of how she looked and was overly sensitive to the perceived slight. At any rate, nothing that happened there justified Smith’s ridiculous behavior.
And since when did comedians have to clear their jokes with the people they talk about?
I was already sick of hearing about the constant Will Smith soap opera and his self-aggrandizement. Now this.
Do stand ups now have to worry about possibly offending someone in the audience now and getting assulted for it?
I assumed Will Smith was on the path to inheriting Hollywood’s Nice Guy role from Tom Hanks on screen and IRL. Now not so much.
He is a screwball.
Tupac would have shot him.
How did that method of dealing with perceived slights work out for Tupac?
The whole thing made me think of Kanye. To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, people went to the Oscars and the Grammys broke out.
The only reason wil went up there is becuase jada showed him a text from her boyfriend saying he would’ve defended her.
Will Smith did what would have been expected of any husband forty years ago, except forty years ago, it would have been with a closed fist rather than an open hand slap.
It’s 100% that Mr Smith got laid that night.
…is what a complete dick would say. Same dick probably thinks Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is just because macho doesn’t fuck around with reasons.
Always nice to hear from the small segment of the troglodyte chorus that can type.