Another award show, another opportunity to admire people’s … fingers?
The 87th Academy Awards on Sunday night brought a lot to the public’s eye, from Jack Black taking the stage in an Into the Woods-esque musical monologue to Neil Patrick Harris running on stage in his underwear in a reenactment of a “Birdman” scene. But there was one up-close-and-personal item viewers missed Sunday night: the hand model runway on E!’s Live From the Red Carpet.
The Mani Cam, which first appeared at the Emmys in 2012, gives celebrities the opportunity to show off their fingers by stickers their hands in a box — complete with a red carpet — and strutting their fingers down the miniature runway.
Some would call it objectifying. Others would call it fun.
On Sunday, though, E! decided to take away the fingers’ spotlight, claiming the decision was made several months ago due to space constraints. An E! rep told The Washington Post, “That camera will not be included in Sunday’s coverage and was actually never planned to be part of our coverage for the Oscars due to the limited space we have on that specific carpet,” the rep said. “Because of these space restrictions, the decision was made prior to awards season to not have the mani cam, the clutch cam or the 360 glam cam on the carpet.”
But some people aren’t so sure the decision was just a matter of space. This awards season, the Mani Cam has been the center of red carpet controversy. First, Elizabeth Moss flipped off the Mani Cam at the 2014 Golden Globes. Then, at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 25, many actresses turned down the opportunity to show their fingers to the world, including Jennifer Aniston and Boston University alum Julianne Moore. Before the world knew it, the blogosphere was erupting in conversation, targeting the Mani Cam as the enemy of gender equality.
Cara Buckley of The New York Times described the finger red carpet as “gimmicky” in a Feb. 4 article, pointing out that the red carpet is, at its core, designed to examine and critique the beauty of the celebrities we expect to be perfect.
“As anyone who’s watched a televised awards show can attest, the red carpet is part beauty contest, part catwalk (emphasis on catty) and all gaming range, where viewers, along with paid hitters like E!’s ‘Fashion Police,’ can gleefully excoriate celebrities — usually actresses — for their sartorial choices,” she wrote.
Bronwyn Cosgrave, the author of “Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards,” does bring up a vital point in Buckley’s article, though: no one is forcing these women to be on the red carpet. If they feel objectified, why do they keep agreeing to their publicists’ demands to take part in the red carpet hooplah?
What people are so often forgetting is that these red carpet pre-award shows are intended to show off beauty, to promote talented designers and ultimately, to “ooo” and “ah” over the celebrities we admire. They are not designed to appreciate the life accomplishments of a woman — or any person for that matter — or ask an actress what her feelings are about female representation in the movie industry. These red carpet strut-your-stuff-and-put-your-finger-in-this-box award shows were created for plain and simple fashion-focused fun.
Sunday night, several celebrities were tweeting from the red carpet using the hashtag #AskHerMore. From Lena Dunham to Reese Witherspoon, actresses took to social media to spread the message that it’s time to treat women on the red carpet with more respect. There’s no doubt that women on the red carpet experience more objectifying than men, and recognizing that imbalance is absolutely important. But it’s also important to realize that not all female-targeted questions single out women negatively.
Sure, women get asked more questions about their dresses than men do about their suits. But maybe that’s because dresses are more unique and varied than each individual tuxedo. And sure, the Mani Cam seems to objectify women by zooming in on only their hands. But maybe that’s simply because women are more likely to have gotten manicures and are willing to show off their nail polish. The questions, cameras and female-focused runway tactics could be treated as sexism, but they could also be treated as ways to appreciate beauty and raise self-confidence before entering the anxiety-filled award show.
There’s no doubt that journalists covering the red carpet need to widen their questions and reach beyond the fashion have-to-knows. But maybe it’s time for viewers to lighten up a bit. Who says the Mani Cam has to be about gender inequality?
Can’t a finger just have a little fun without the stress of objectifying women on its knuckles?
