Somebody’s Favorite | Liberty Unbound - Jo Anne Skousen:
February 10, 2019 - "In the wake of last year’s militant #MeToo movement, when actresses haughtily proclaimed, 'We will no longer be pressured into trading sex for jobs' (and bullied other actresses into wearing black at the event to show their solidarity), the Academy this year has bizarrely honored The Favourite with ten Oscar nominations, ... confirming once and for all (as if there were any doubt) that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has zero credibility and doesn’t know what the hell it is doing.
"Loosely based on the reign of Queen Anne and her relationships with Sarah Churchill,Duchess of Marlborough, and a servant named Abigail (eventually Lady Masham), the film suggests that the silly and childlike Anne made all of her decisions based on which woman’s tongue pleased her best — and I don’t mean by talking. The film fairly drips with transactional sex....
"Rachel Weisz, who plays Sarah Marlborough, called the film 'a funnier, sex-driven All About Eve.' In that film, an established star (Margo Channing) befriends an aspiring actress (Eve Harrington), only to see her try to usurp her position in the theater. Similarly, in The Favourite, a young social climber, Abigail (Emma Stone), .... worms her way cunningly — or in this case, cunnilingually — into the favor of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) by befriending and then pushing aside the queen’s long-standing confidante and advisor, Lady Churchill (Weisz), simultaneously finagling a financially and socially beneficial marriage to regain her aristocratic status.
"Don’t misunderstand my objection — I enjoy a good bedroom farce, with doors slamming, lovers hiding, comic timing, and double entendres galore. But this is different. The Favourite doesn’t just joke about sex; it celebrates the use of sex to gain political power, and hypocritically undermines everything these same preening, moralizing Hollywood hotshots stood up for just last year.
"It also seems to justify rape, as long as it’s funny.... When Lord Masham enters Abigail’s servant quarters without being invited, she asks him, 'Are you here to seduce me or to rape me?” He responds, “I’m a gentleman.' 'To rape me, then,' she deadpans, and the audience chuckles....
"All I’m asking is that the Academy pick a side and stick with it. Or admit that it really has no backbone or underlying moral principles whatsoever, and quit pretending to have the upper hand on social morality....
"Liberty readers might well enjoy The Favourite.... It’s bizarre in many ways, but it’s also witty, opulent, and well-acted. It presents three powerful women controlling the throne and politics of England in their own womanly way.... All three women use their sex for trade, but they do it willingly and deliberately, from a position of power rather than victimhood. Is it possible — even probable — that women in Hollywood have been doing the same thing for over a century, and only cried 'outrage!' (and somehow managed to blame Republicans) after they were caught?"
February 10, 2019 - "In the wake of last year’s militant #MeToo movement, when actresses haughtily proclaimed, 'We will no longer be pressured into trading sex for jobs' (and bullied other actresses into wearing black at the event to show their solidarity), the Academy this year has bizarrely honored The Favourite with ten Oscar nominations, ... confirming once and for all (as if there were any doubt) that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has zero credibility and doesn’t know what the hell it is doing.
"Loosely based on the reign of Queen Anne and her relationships with Sarah Churchill,Duchess of Marlborough, and a servant named Abigail (eventually Lady Masham), the film suggests that the silly and childlike Anne made all of her decisions based on which woman’s tongue pleased her best — and I don’t mean by talking. The film fairly drips with transactional sex....
"Rachel Weisz, who plays Sarah Marlborough, called the film 'a funnier, sex-driven All About Eve.' In that film, an established star (Margo Channing) befriends an aspiring actress (Eve Harrington), only to see her try to usurp her position in the theater. Similarly, in The Favourite, a young social climber, Abigail (Emma Stone), .... worms her way cunningly — or in this case, cunnilingually — into the favor of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) by befriending and then pushing aside the queen’s long-standing confidante and advisor, Lady Churchill (Weisz), simultaneously finagling a financially and socially beneficial marriage to regain her aristocratic status.
"Don’t misunderstand my objection — I enjoy a good bedroom farce, with doors slamming, lovers hiding, comic timing, and double entendres galore. But this is different. The Favourite doesn’t just joke about sex; it celebrates the use of sex to gain political power, and hypocritically undermines everything these same preening, moralizing Hollywood hotshots stood up for just last year.
"It also seems to justify rape, as long as it’s funny.... When Lord Masham enters Abigail’s servant quarters without being invited, she asks him, 'Are you here to seduce me or to rape me?” He responds, “I’m a gentleman.' 'To rape me, then,' she deadpans, and the audience chuckles....
"All I’m asking is that the Academy pick a side and stick with it. Or admit that it really has no backbone or underlying moral principles whatsoever, and quit pretending to have the upper hand on social morality....
"Liberty readers might well enjoy The Favourite.... It’s bizarre in many ways, but it’s also witty, opulent, and well-acted. It presents three powerful women controlling the throne and politics of England in their own womanly way.... All three women use their sex for trade, but they do it willingly and deliberately, from a position of power rather than victimhood. Is it possible — even probable — that women in Hollywood have been doing the same thing for over a century, and only cried 'outrage!' (and somehow managed to blame Republicans) after they were caught?"
Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1953
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