Quvenzhané Wallis

Beasts of the Southern Wild is the only film I’ve seen of this year’s Best Picture Nominees. As someone who was once a little black girl who loved fantasy, I had to see it.

When Quvenzhané Wallis started filming her starring role as Hushpuppy, she was only five years old, just a year older than my daughter is now. About 15 minutes into the movie, I commented to my husband that Hushpuppy reminded me so much of our daughter. Like Hushpuppy, our girl has a fabulous head of curls and a penchant for running around without pants (we keep that indoors, don’t worry). And like Hushpuppy and Quvenzhané herself, she’s independent, determined, and brimming with energy and confidence.

So it broke my heart when I saw The Onion’s “joke” calling Quvenzhané Wallis one of the most hateful words you can call a girl or a woman in the English language. On top of being sad and appalled for Wallis and her family, I also couldn’t help but think of my daughter and the inevitable day that she will hear that word directed at her for the first time.

Last night was the Academy Awards, which means my Facebook feed was awash in comments from high school acquaintances along the lines of, “WTF was up with Kristen Stewart!?!? She was totally frowning and had some kind of bruise on her arm!!! What a slut!!! #TeamEdward.”

In my opinion, there were lots of moments last night more notable that Kristen Stewart’s facial expression. Here’s my list for best and worst moments from the interminable broadcast:

Loved It: Quvenzhané Wallis. The 9-year-old star of Beasts of the Southern Wild was the youngest Best Actress nominee to date. Not only did she rock a stuffed puppy dog handbag on the red carpet, she was unabashed in the fact that she was damn proud of herself. When they announced her name along with the likes of Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Emmanuelle Riva and Naomi Watts, Wallis spared viewing audiences the false modesty of batting eyelashes, shrugged shoulders and downcast eyes. Instead, she flexed her arms like a champion and grinned.

Hated It: So many of host Seth MacFarlane’s jokes! 

Good morning! Hopefully you're recovering from spending four long hours watching the Oscars last night. Gah! Here's your list of feminist news for today. 

• The White Male Vote: The NYTimes put together this composite picture of the 117 men who will vote for the next pope. Not surprising! [NYTimes]

• Most mass shootings don't get national headlines—they're domestic violence situations where the victims are women and family members. [AlterNet]

• Women's groups in Britain are petitioning to change sexist coverage in the nation's infamous tabloids. [Change.org]

• The Oscars were pretty "bro-tastic." [Feministing] 

• Satricial newspaper The Onion has finally discovered a line not to cross: their tweet joking that beloved actress Quvenzhane Wallis is a "cunt" quickly got deleted. This is the only time I can remember The Onion issuing an apology. [Daily Beast + Slate]

• Actually, it seems like a lot of people have beef with the nine-year-old for some reason. [Racialicious] 

• Over on Jezebel, one feminist porn star tells her story about how she got into the business. [Jezebel] 

• The show Scandal seems to actually have a good female, African-American lead character. [Bitch Flicks]

• An interesting forum over on Colorlines: Does Beyonce need to talk about her blackness? [Colorlines] 

• Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg wants to be the "pom pom girl for feminism," but columnist Maureen Dowd notes that critics say her vision is a bit elitist. [NYTimes]

Mad about sexism at the Oscars? Sign our letter telling the Academy five things they need to change right now. 

This Sunday, we'll find out if nine-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis will be the youngest actress ever to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. There are some solid criticisms of the film, but just for fun, I made this illustrated tribute to Wallis and her character Hushpuppy, who lives who live Louisiana wetlands called the Bathtub in Beasts of the Southern Wild.