We may have all just witnessed “the end-of-men Oscars,” said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. On a night when an unusually strong lineup of movies divided the awards fairly evenly (see below), host Seth MacFarlane’s “steady stream of lady-diminishing wisecracks” put the spotlight on an undercurrent of male anxiety about “the ascendant power of women” in showbiz and beyond. While women were supplying many of the show’s high points—including Adele and 76-year-old Shirley Bassey each belting out a theme song from a James Bond movie—MacFarlane delivered the low. After setting the tone with a song-and-dance number called “We Saw Your Boobs,” he offered a belittling comment about every female nominee—even cracking that 9-year-old actress Quvenzhané Wallis would soon be too old to date George Clooney.
“It was pretty staggering,” said Elissa Schappellin Salon.com. At an event designed to honor and reward the best performances of the year, “MacFarlane let Oscar nominees in on a little secret: We don’t see the work you’re doing. We’re too busy staring at your tits.” And the creator of Family Guy wasn’t done yet. He joked that Jennifer Aniston was secretly a stripper. He said that Salma Hayek didn’t need to be heard because she’s so pretty. “It’s frustrating enough to know that 77 percent of Academy voters are male,” said Margaret Lyons in NYMag.com. Did women in the industry have to be reminded that they’re not really members of the club—that “they matter only insofar as they are beautiful or naked, or preferably both?”
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