Entertainment News

Stephen King Faces Backlash for Supporting Oscars Lack of Diversity

Regardless of the fact that out of a 100 successful box office flicks in 2019, 10% were directed by women; Oscars 2020 does not have a single female included in the Best Director category – the third year in a row. And for renowned author Stephen King who had the privilege of nominating people in three categories, this is absolutely okay.

He quoted himself being nominated for Oscars in 3 categories,  and wrote, “As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue–as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway–did not come up. That said…”.

“I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong,” tweeted the writer.

However, the masses who were already criticizing Oscars for not acknowledging female directors in the fraternity did not receive the tweet too well. King in response to his tweet has landed in quite a trouble for allegedly endorsing the lack of diversity in Oscar’s 2020 nominations.

“As a fan, this is painful to read from you. It implies that diversity and quality cannot be synonymous. They are not separate things. Quality is everywhere but most industries only believe in quality from one demographic. And now, here you are” said in a tweet.

Director had similar feelings, “When you wake up, meditate, stretch, reach for your phone to check on the world and see a tweet from someone you admire that is so backward and ignorant you want to go back to bed.”

In order to clarify his statement, King added, “You can’t win awards if you’re shut out of the game.” But the backlash did not stop as people try to comprehend Oscars’ lack of female inclusion.

King went on to say, “The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is to make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation. Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts”.

2019 saw the highest number of female participation in the whole decade. This is also the first time that the top 2 out of the top 10 films had females co-directors Frozen II (Jennifer Lee) and Captain Marvel (Anna Boden).

However, for Oscars who has only had 5 women nominated as best directors and only one win in its entire history, this move too came as a precedented one.

Aisha Arshad

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