I was expecting him to bring a new, fresh brand of humour to the show and eliminate the overly cheesy segments and musical numbers which, nearly every year, make both the viewers and attendees squirm.
But I'm afraid I feel slightly let down.
Initially I was enjoying his jokes and delivery, and people must remember that in order for a person to be funny it does occasionally have to be at the expense of others, it just depends on whether they decide the cross the ever-so-present socially accepted 'line'. Which at certain points, from the reaction of both the audience and online community, it appears Mr. MacFarlane did.
It was really invigorating to see the social media uproar at the some of the sexist "jokes" throughout the evening and I was so pleased that women and men all over the world weren't blindly accepting the comments that could have previously gone unnoticed.
I think MacFarlane is a clever, funny man, and obviously I don't know him personally but he doesn't seem like a sexist or mysoginist, but seriously, he thinks it's okay to tell "jokes" like that in 2013!?
The boobs song was not just an incredibly awkward part of the show's opening, but also an example of the objectification of women and how if a woman appears nude in a film, she will never hear the end of it. I would like to hear if MacFarlane and his co-writers ever considered writing a penis song or if boobs were always the plan.
I'm not going to lie, initially I chuckled at the comment about a "woman’s innate ability to never let anything go" in reference to Zero Dark Thirty, but after perusing Twitter I reconsidered my laugh as I considered the stereotype MacFarlane was presenting.
There were other blatantly and potentially sexist "jokes" made throughout the evening which I won't bother going into more detail about, but what we should remember is that MacFarlane didn't bring sexism to the Academy Awards.
The whole red carpet event is an example of how women are judged, compared and only acknowledged based on their appearance. The follow up "best/worst dressed" lists and television shows like Fashion Police are examples of the cruelty from both women and men towards (almost entirely) women based on what they wore to an event which is designed to recognise them for their WORK not their LOOKS.
But I do think another reason people were so angered by sexism in this awards show in particular could also have something to do with the lack of female nominees. In the "major categories" there were no female nominees for directing or editing and only 1 for writing. How is this still the case in 2013?
REFERENCE: http://www.btchflcks.com/2013/01/this-needs-no-explanation.html
Are women just naturally worse filmmakers than men? Or is there an underlying sexism in the film industry that prevents women from getting the opportunity to make great films, whether that be funding, equipment, crew, actors or just acknowledgement in general.
This is a much bigger issue that I sadly don't see being resolved in the next 5, 10 or even 20 years, but something Seth MacFarlane should definitely be proud of (other than accomplishing the mammoth task of hosting the Oscars) is that he has managed to prove that sexism really doesn't and shouldn't have a place at the Academy Awards anymore.
But will it be different next year?
