The 89th Academy Awards have just aired and all the winners have been announced. Moonlight has snatched the Oscar for Best Picture, a breathtaking movie that talks about young LGBT black men in a positive light, while still showing the hardships they faced. Viola Davis won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first black woman to win a Tony, Emmy, Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA award. The beautiful Auli’i Cravalho stunned the world with her amazing voice while singing a song from her new movie Moana called “How Far I’ll Go”. This Oscar season has been perfect except for one fault: Casey Affleck won Best Actor.
The award was given to him by Brie Larson. Only last year, at the 88th Academy Awards, Brie Larson won Best Actress for a role that was a very important to her. She bought the character Ma, from “Room, to life—a woman who was sexually and physically abused by a man called Old Nick. She studied the role carefully, talking to psychologists so she could really understand the trauma this woman would experience. Since the movie, she has been an active advocate for sexual assault survivors, yet she’s given a man who has been on trial for the sexual assault of two women while filming his mockumentary I’m Still Here two awards: a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
In 2010, the two women who had worked on the mockumentary filed sexual harassment suits against Casey Affleck. One of the women claimed that Affleck “crawled into bed with her without her consent while she was asleep.” He also pressured the other woman “to stay in his hotel room” and “violently grabbed her arm in an effort to intimidate her into staying” when she refused, according to the complaint.
After Brie Larson gave Casey his award, she gave him a quick and awkward hug but refused to clap for him when others did. It is safe to say that many people noticed this and praised her for it, while also showing their dislike for Casey and the fact that he won.
Brie Larson, who has been fighting against sexual assault, had to hand an award to, Casey Affleck, a sexual predator twice this year ? pic.twitter.com/iwtObdI0wH
— lyna (@barnesvans) February 27, 2017
I feel you @brielarson for not celebrating Casey Affleck, a sexual abuser & harasser. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/3x2AUTU3ih
— Gilluis Pérez (@Gilluis_Perez) February 27, 2017
last year brie larson won for playing a victim of sexual assault and she just had to present an oscar to casey affleck, a sex criminal
— allison ⚡️ (@devpatelshair) February 27, 2017
Men who sexually harass women 4 OSCAR! Bc good acting performance matters more than humanity,human integrity!Bc poor kid rly needs the help!
— Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) January 24, 2017
The fact that a white man has gotten away with sexual assault isn’t a first to our generation. The Academy should feel ashamed that they recognized, nominated, and awarded a sex criminal. This has been one of Affleck’s most successful award seasons, racking up an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA award, and much more. It seems that committing sexual assault and harassment doesn’t matter if you are white and talented in Hollywood.
