Toxic Masculinity: No One Talks to Jada Pinkett Smith

It’s significant that a Google search for actress Jada Pinkett Smith is currently yielding one result in particular: reports about her husband, Will Smith, and his embarrassing slap in the face of colleague Chris Rock. By now, everyone should have heard, read and perhaps even seen more than once what exactly happened that night, when it should have been about other things.

men who commit violence

Comedian, actor and director Chris Rock was one of three presenters at this year’s Oscars. Anyone who follows the Oscars superficially will perhaps know that a good word is rarely said about the presenters of this prestigious night. Embarrassing, stiff, uncomfortable – just three adjectives that many well-known stars from Hollywood have had to attach to the shows in the past.

Rock has been spared (so far) but got a different kind of smack from Will Smith after he cracked a joke at his wife Jada’s expense. The “comedian” alluded to the actress’ shaved head, earning a few laughs (including one from Will Smith himself, incidentally) and an annoyed eye roll from Jada Pinkett Smith. Because the actress suffers from hair loss due to an illness – the shaved head is a consequence of it.

After demonstrating his (toxic) “masculinity” in front of an audience of millions by physically assaulting his colleague, Will Smith received—oh, the irony—an Oscar for his role as Richard Williams in the movie King Richard. The real Williams is rumored to have broken several of his wife’s ribs in the ’90s. Tearfully, Will Smith apologized to the Academy (not Rock, that came days later and rather listlessly) and showed us his perverted definition of love, which he used as a rationale for his actions.

But what does Jada Pinkett Smith actually say about this?

It’s really telling that even the text that really wants to focus on her has to waste the first few paragraphs trying to describe why the attention isn’t on her right now. On a woman who has had a successful acting career, built her own fashion label, founded a charity, raised three children and is open and exemplary in dealing with an illness that has cost her her hair, the absence of which has led to a tactful and irreverent punch line. Instead, the focus (as is so often the case) is on two men who engaged in violence, one initially verbally and the other, as if in response, physically.

Oscar night should have been a triumph for women

The whole Oscar evening could have been, should have been, a celebration for the women: director Jane Campion won the Oscar for her film “The Power of the Dog”, Jessica Chastain received the Oscar for best actress in her third nomination “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” and the first openly queer woman, Ariana DeBose, scooped the coveted Best Supporting Actress award for “West Side Story.” But no, that’s all a side note, as two men who had to put on a very stirring display of toxic masculinity have pushed themselves to the fore.

And why isn’t anyone actually talking to Jada Pinkett Smith about it? Maybe she just doesn’t want to say anything about it, and of course that’s her right. She has been humiliated and publicly exposed, regardless of whether or not Rock knew about her illness beforehand. He himself remains silent about what is happening, perhaps out of respect, knowing that he has attracted enough attention. But maybe also because there is nothing more to say on the subject apart from a serious, personal apology. However, he shouldn’t be guided by Will Smith here, there has to be a little more to come.

Jada Pinkett Smith reclaims the narrative

Jada Pinkett Smith recently spoke for the first time – indirectly – about the scandal surrounding her husband. On Instagram she posted the sentence: “This is a season for healing and I’m here for it” (in German: “This is the time for healing and I’m ready for it.”) – and thus recaptured the narrative , which was violently taken from her.

Hopefully, when you search the internet for Jada Pinkett Smith, you will soon come across articles that focus on this woman. And that don’t degrade her to “Will Smith’s wife”. No woman is just “the wife of…” except perhaps in shows like “Bridgerton,” which we all love to watch. But we would rather leave such behavior by men for the sake of “honor” and “love” and such a degradation of women to marginal figures where they belong: in the past.

Sources used: instagram.com

Bridget