A slap in the face of toxic masculinity

By reacting with violence, a man squanders the opportunity to be man enough

- Bijoy Venugopal

ONE OF the funniest memes in the aftermath of the Will Smith-Chris Rock incident at the Oscars was an image of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holding a phone to his ear captioned with the text: “Will Smith, do you know what Vladimir Putin said about your wife?”

For those who missed the goss, the comedian Chris Rock hosted the Oscars last month and, with characteristic irreverence, made a hair joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith’s better half. As the audience laughed at Rock’s snarky reference to Jada’s alopecia, a medical condition that causes hair loss and baldness, cameras panned to the celebrity couple, who appeared unamused. Within seconds, Smith rose from his seat, strode onto the stage, and smacked Rock resoundingly in the face in full view of the august assembly, before returning to his seat and yelling a cuss word at the show host with a warning to keep his wife out of his jokes. Later that evening, despite his hotly debated onstage performance, Smith picked up his first Oscar. He also apologised to Rock on Instagram.

Assertion may be his first name, but Will Smith’s slap set off a ripple of repercussions. What it did for Chris Rock’s cheekiness, only time will tell. For one, his show, ironically titled ‘Ego Death’, sold more tickets that evening than it had in the past month.