Lesbian Wanda Sykes will join Regina Hall and Amy Schumer in co-hosting the 94th Oscars Awards on March 27. This year’s telecast, produced by Will Packer and directed by Glenn Weiss, will allocate a separate hour for each female co-host to anchor.
In the promo, Wanda Sykes says, “We just have to do better than last year’s host.”
Amy Schumer agrees, “That is the thing, totally. It is a competition in that way.”
When they think of who hosted the awards ceremony last year, Regina Hall remembers that the Oscars didn’t have a host for the last three years. “Boom, we’re already winning,” Wanda says.
Late bloomin’ Wanda publicly came out as a lesbian at 44, at an equal marriage rally in Las Vegas in 2008. At the time, Prop 8, a law which would threaten same-sex marriages in California, was endangering Wanda’s relationship rights.
She spoke about her journey to discovery, including internalized and external homophobia, to Oprah Daily:
“I remember I was in the third grade and I told one of my brother’s girlfriend’s sister, “I wish I was a boy because then I could be your boyfriend.” She was like, “What!? No, no. You do not like girls, you like boys, and that’s bad. That’s not right.” She was much older. I just remember the way she said it and the way she looked at me. I was like, “Oh, okay. So this is a bad thing.” I knew then to never say that again, to never say that I liked girls. I made note of that and that’s just how I lived my life well into my early 20s.”
“Relationship after relationship, I eventually decided to be honest. I thought, “My family’s not going to be cool with this.” Everything’s great now, but it took a long time for us to get there. I had to practice a lot of patience. The more I felt comfortable with myself, with who I was, I became confident and stopped arguing with them. It became their problem, it wasn’t mine. Then I think my parents realized that, “Oh, she’s not going to change. This is who she is. If we want to be involved in her life, I guess we have to roll with this.”
“Most parents do love you. It’s not even about them. They’re more concerned about what other people are going to say. They’re more fearful of that.”
“The drive behind me coming out publicly was when it became political, back when Proposition 8 was being talked about. I felt like I had to say something. You’re inspecting my life, the life that I have? You’re saying that my marriage isn’t legal? That’s when I said alright, it’s important to speak out. Also, I wanted to put a face on who that was affecting, not just white gay men. There are women. There are mothers. There are real people involved in these votes that affect lives and kids. After I gave my speech in Las Vegas, by the time I went back to the hotel, it was on TV and I was like, “Oh, okay. I’m out.” It was like, “Oh, cool.” I already said what was the truth.”
3 female Oscars hosts – but how feminist is Hollywood?
In February, producer Will Packer said in a statement, “This year’s show is all about uniting movie lovers. It’s apropos that we’ve lined up three of the most dynamic, hilarious women with very different comedic styles. I know the fun Regina, Amy and Wanda will be having will translate to our audience as well. Many surprises in store! Expect the unexpected!”
It’s been almost four decades since three people co-hosted the Oscars. There has never been that many women to hold the position at once. But is the female-strong cast a cause for celebration or merely an illusion to conceal Hollywood’s treatment of women? The telecast will be following last year’s lowest-rated telecast since its first year: 1953. Is this just a pseudo-feminist grab for ratings?
Perhaps we should fetch the Gender Pay Gap Bot and see what the pay gap between men and women in Hollywood is. The Twitter bot retweets the pay disparity between the sexes in organizations, when the employer tweets about International Women’s Day.
Maybe I’m being pessimistic, but after watching SLO4N’s video on the ever-sickening Kevin Spacey, where the content creator outlined that Spacey’s House of Cards female replacement, Robin Wright, was paid around 15-20% less than him when she took over, it made me question the Oscars’ motives. Like with Big Business piggybacking and profiting off gay pride, I just wonder how feminist Hollywood really is.
Either way, it’s a good thing to see a lesbian – especially a lesbian of color – on the big screen. Wanda Sykes co-hosting is better than another white, straight man. It represents the diversity in the real world that is often white and straight-washed in the media. And, considering how hilarious she is, it sure will be entertaining!
