The 2018 Oscars were expected to be relatively political this year, since the #MeToo movement is at the forefront in the entertainment industry and Jimmy Kimmel has doubled as both a host and the face of the resistance.
But most viewers might not have expected the commercials to get as politically charged as the actual show.
Several women including Issa Ray, Julie Dash, and Jen Brea starred in a Twitter ad that aired nearly an hour into the program discussing female empowerment. They recited a poem written by Denice Frohman, which was used as the backdrop for the Twitter campaign #HereWeAre.
Happy to join fellow women of color storytellers @IssaRae @JenBrea and the legendary @JulieDash. Fierce poem by @DeniceFrohman. #HereWeAre pic.twitter.com/L4SPqwIlX0
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) March 5, 2018
While the commercial is supposed to empower women and encourage acceptance across a gender, it’s pretty clear that there’s a hidden message or two in here. It may seem like a nice little poem but the whole “she built a bridge, not a border,” is clearly a jab at Trump. Not to mention, Twitter itself has gotten into some hot water this year after some current and former employees revealed that the company “shadow bans” conservative content and limits public access to more right-leaning accounts. It’s also not a great look that a former Twitter employee went out in a blaze of glory by deactivating Trump’s account for several minutes.
It’s no secret that Twitter leans pretty anti-Trump and anti-conservative. But taking out a massive ad during the Academy Awards takes it a step even further to the left. Gender equality is a nonpartisan issue. It’s a nice little notion to favor one gender over another and hack it as a political issue but putting one gender over another causes nothing but trouble. Raising awareness for the rights American women already have is repetitive and tone deaf, simple as that.
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