🇬🇧 Will Smith and bald women

Last night “comedian” Chris Rock made a bad joke about Jada Pinkett Smith during the Oscars ceremony. Jada looked gorgeous at the event. The actress' husband, Will Smith, awarded best actor at the same event, did not like the joke, slapped Chris Rock and asked the comedian never to mention his wife's name again.

It is unacceptable to make fun of bald women. There are those who are bald solely for style, and have personality strong enough to deal with bad jokes. There are actresses who shave their hair for their roles in a movie or play and they probably also have the strength to hold the look. We must think that even strong women have moments that are more sensitive. And there are those who are bald due to alopecia or chemotherapy. And these are usually too fragile to fall victim to bad jokes and deal with it well.

Society's machismo creates a false image and disregards individual beauties. It is even more dismissive of accepting bad jokes that reinforce stereotypes, including the stereotype that a woman needs to have long hair to be feminine. No, a woman doesn't need long hair to be feminine. A woman doesn't even have to prove herself feminine or anything else to anyone.

For those who haven't noticed, we all have characteristics that are stereotyped as masculine and as many characteristics stereotyped as feminine, regardless of whether we are men, women or which letters of the increasingly long acronym of the LGBT+ movement describe a characteristic of ours. And that doesn't change who we are.

It surprises me that "comedians" are still accepted somewhere in the world who make fun of those who are outside the stereotypes. This is so old and boring! But the worst of it is that, when making that joke about Jada Pinkett, in an event publicised in the media worldwide, this joke can reach countless women who are equally bald and who feel fragile.

The movie quoted in the joke is old, from the 90's, when many adults today were not even born. The plot, therefore, does not matter. Matters is Chris Rock's insensitivity to joke about a topic that could hurt many women who saw the ceremony or who followed the Oscar news later.

A woman is not less of a woman because she has less hair or shorter hair or because she is bald. Hair length does not define femininity. Every human being is unique and must be respected.

I am against any form of censorship, but I am in favour of self-censorship when it comes to saying things on the internet or using media spaces, whether in mainstream media or online, to spread prejudice and reinforce stereotypes. As I see it, Chris Rock owes a public apology to all bald women, not just Jada Pinkett Smith, accompanied by a retirement announcement to limit himself to make daddy’s jokes at his family’s parties. The slap Will Smith gave him may have been an impulse to defend his wife, as he declared when receiving the award for best actor, but it was also a slap from every bald or short-haired woman who has ever been compared to a man in a pejorative sense by not fit the stereotype of “femininity” that demands long hair. And in this, even trans people and transvestites almost always reinforce the sexist stereotype, whether they are aware of it or not.

To those who want to reveal their unique beauty, I invite you to schedule an appointment for my personal style consultation.

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Nycka, the Nomad