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.