This is how it usually goes: incredibly accomplished woman is nominated for a serious acting award. She walks the red carpet, upon which she is accosted by TV presenters with a lot of air-time to fill.
And it doesn’t matter whether the woman was nominated for her role as a woman who walked through the desert in search of herself (Reese Witherspoon in Wild), a mentally disturbed woman of colour trapped in the prison system (Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black) or a woman suffering from chronic pain (Jennifer Aniston in Cake) she will be asked only searing questions like, what’s in her makeup bag, who is she wearing and can she please put her hands into E!’s “mani-cam”?
And for some time very accomplished women have played along. Because to not do so puts you in the ‘difficult’ camp, along with any other woman who’s not played nice (it’s quite a big basket actually, with a lot of the best people in it).
However there’s a triumphant revolution stirring on the red carpet: the women have spoken, and boy are they sick of talking about their manicures.
At this year’s SAG awards both Julianna Moore and Jennifer Aniston flagrantly refused to submit to the ‘mani-cam’.
“No. I’m not doing that,” Moore said to E! host Maria Menounos, while Jennifer Anison karate chopped the air with a cry of “whipsha!” before saying in a quite matter of fact manner, “No, no I can’t” to the mani-cam. Meanwhile, Viola Davis who won best actress in a drama for her role in How to Get Away With Murder, gave a killer speech on the need for more diverse roles for women of colour in which she thanked the show’s creators for, “thinking that a sexualized, messy, mysterious woman could be a 49-year-old, dark-skinned African American woman who looks like me.” Davis, along with Orange is the New Black’s Uzo Aduba who won best actress in a comedy made history by becoming the first time African American women have won in both categories.
This follows on from Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss flipping the bird from inside the mani-cam at the 2014 Golden Globes, and Cate Blanchett’s furious war cry of, “do you do this to the guys” when E!’s “360 Glam Cam”, panned her entire body on the red carpet.
The actresses are leading the charge for a campaign started by The Representation Project that wants to right the “injustices created by gender stereotypes” with its #askhermore campaign, which in lay man terms means, ‘stop asking women about their hair and makeup when there are far more interesting things to talk about’.
The ludicrous double standards between what men and women in prominent positions are asked was highlighted by Elle Magazine with “flip the script” where they asked male actors on the red carpet the kind of inane questions such as “did you do any sort of special grooming?” and “how did you get ready tonight?” that women get all of the time.
That the men were mostly good sports about it, gamely answering questions about their getting ready process (mainly shower, put on suit) that it was seen as a bit of fun shows that there’s quite a way to go when it comes to not taking women only at their face value.
But at least flipping the bird at the mani cam is an almighty good start toward getting women the questions that they deserve.
Jennifer Aniston was having none of this mani-cam business.
Julianne Moore is also not a fan of mani-cam.
There are way more interesting things to ask Uzo Aduba than her frock.
Viola Davis gave a killer speech at the SAG awards on the need for diversity on our screens.
Reese Witherspoon also refused the mani-cam at the SAG awards.
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