{"id":16791,"date":"2013-03-03T22:43:36","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T03:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=16791"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:37:37","slug":"we-saw-your-boobs-celebrates-rape-on-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/03\/we-saw-your-boobs-celebrates-rape-on-film\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe Saw Your Boobs\u201d celebrates rape on film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Seth MacFarlane during the Oscars on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles.\u00a0(Credit: AP\/Chris Pizzello)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hey, Seth MacFarlane, did you know many of those “boob” scenes you sang about were depictions of sexual assault?<\/span><\/h2>\n

BY<\/span>\u00a0KATIE MCDONOUGH<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Seth MacFarlane has made millions off being an immature man-child. In fact, it was the success of his particular brand of gross-out offensive humor (served with a smile, of course) that\u00a0<\/span>got him the Oscar gig<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it came as little surprise, then, when base misogyny and racism dominated MacFarlane\u2019s performance on Sunday. And while the musical opener \u201cWe Saw Your Boobs\u201d has been called immature (true) and sexist (also true) \u2014 it wasn\u2019t just a harmless roundup of spicy movie scenes. Four of the films MacFarlane crooned about featured nudity during or immediately following violent depictions of rape and sexual assault, stripped of their context and played for laughs. Scarlett Johansson found herself on the list because of a real-life violation: Her nude photos were stolen from her phone and leaked online.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, your privacy was invaded and your breasts were splashed across the Internet against your will? That is\u00a0hilarious<\/em>!<\/span><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s talk about those \u201cboob\u201d scenes and see how \u201cfunny\u201d they play in context.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Accused\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Strange that one of the earliest films to look at a pervasive culture of violence against women \u2014 from barroom rape to verbal harassment, victim blaming to police harassment \u2014 should be used by MacFarlane to get a snicker from the audience. The film is also loosely based on the real-life gang rape of Cheryl Araujo, who was brutally assaulted by four men in a Massachusetts bar while other patrons passively watched it happen. Apparently they didn\u2019t think violence against women was that big of a deal, either.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s during flashbacks to this bar rape scene that we see Jodie Foster\u2019s breasts \u2014 as they are ripped from inside her shirt and violently exposed to her assailants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is what film critic Roger Ebert had to say about the film in his 1988<\/span>\u00a0review<\/span><\/a><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVerbal sexual harassment, whether crudely in a saloon back room or subtly in an everyday situation, is a form of violence \u2014 one that leaves no visible marks but can make its victims feel unable to move freely and casually in society. It is a form of imprisonment.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is MacFarlane\u2019s take in 2013: \u201cWe saw your boobs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBoys Don\u2019t Cry\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet another film based on a tragic true story that made its way into MacFarlane\u2019s tune. This time, the target of the sexual assault was transman Brandon Teena, who was later fatally shot and stabbed by his assailants, Tom Nissen and John Lotter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you know when we saw Hilary Swank\u2019s \u201cboobs\u201d in \u201cBoys Don\u2019t Cry\u201d? During a medical examination after Swank\u2019s Teena had been brutally raped on the trunk of a car. It\u2019s not sexy. A doctor examine\u2019s Teena\u2019s breasts \u2014 which are swollen and dark with bruising \u2014 while the character flinches in pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Swank\u2019s portrayal of Teena brought the experiences \u2014 and the shocking violence committed against \u2014 transmen and women to mainstream audiences for the first time. But who cares about context? Certainly not MacFarlane, and certainly not his producers at the Oscars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMonster\u2019s Ball\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Another critically acclaimed and deeply controversial film that audiences had a giggle at on Sunday. Halle Berry won an Oscar for her performance in \u201cMonster\u2019s Ball,\u201d depicting a young black widow in a relationship with Billy Bob Thornton, an abusive, racist prison guard who also participated in the execution of her husband. The movie explores \u2014 uncomfortably and clumsily \u2014 race, poverty, codependence and human loneliness.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yes, we also see Berry\u2019s breasts in the film. Tim Wise of Racialicious<\/span>\u00a0wrote<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>about the subtext of Berry and Thornton\u2019s relationship \u2014 and their explicit sex scenes \u2014 back in 2010:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot only was it an aggressive scene in which the line between consent and resistance wasn\u2019t clear at all, but it was, in the eyes of many people, a scene that triggered any number of real emotional memories of a whole history of white male aggression towards black women, and the sexualization of black women.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cMonster\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMonster\u201d has long been a punch line for \u201cgetting ugly to win an Oscar\u201d jokes, but MacFarlane broke with type to use the film \u2014 based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, a former prostitute who was executed in Florida in 2002 for murdering six men \u2014 to talk about Charlize Theron\u2019s breasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other than a sex scene with Wuornos\u2019s fictionalized partner (played by Christina Ricci), the only time we see Theron\u2019s breasts is in a quick shot in the bathroom, following a brutal rape at the hands of a john, in which she examines her badly beaten body. The \u201cboobs\u201d that MacFarlane sang an ode to are made up to appear badly swollen and red from the multiple times she was kicked in the stomach by her abuser. The nudity isn\u2019t there for cheap thrills, it\u2019s a snapshot of a terribly beaten body that should evoke horror \u2014 not giggles \u2014 from the viewer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scarlett Johansson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Johansson isn\u2019t even on MacFarlane\u2019s list for a film she made. Instead, she made her way into the song because of a real-life invasion of privacy, where her nude photos were stolen from her phone and leaked to the Internet. That is an\u00a0actual<\/em>, not fictional violation, and MacFarlane played it for laughs.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with Vogue magazine, Johansson made clear that there was nothing funny about it:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was others. I don\u2019t want to be a victim and say, \u2018Oh, well\u2019 and just hide my head in shame. Somebody stole something from me\u2026 It\u2019s sick. I don\u2019t want people like that to slide.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is sick, and people shouldn\u2019t let it slide. Much less resurrect it two years later before an audience of millions.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not humorless to call MacFarlane and his producers out for what was a crass celebration of violence against women \u2014 both real and fictitious. It\u2019s low, it\u2019s violent and there is nothing funny about it. Even coming from the creator of \u201cFamily Guy\u201d and \u201cTed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seth MacFarlane during the Oscars on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles.\u00a0(Credit: AP\/Chris Pizzello) Hey, Seth MacFarlane, did you know many of those “boob”..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,43,187,84,46,97,106],"tags":[345],"class_list":["post-16791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discrimination","category-media-culture","category-science-tech","category-statements","category-tvfilm","category-us-news","category-women","tag-reactionary-watch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39476,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791\/revisions\/39476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}