Time To Put A Stop To Hollywood’s Casting Bias – Microcephalics Insultingly called “Pinheads” Get The Shaft in Oscar Process
Everyone is now aware that for the 2016 Academy Awards no African-Americans were nominated for Academy Awards in the major acting categories. This has led to some people calling out the racist members of the Academy saying they will boycott the Oscars and things “have to change.”
But there are so many groups not represented with nominations. If we’re going to go through with this diversity campaign let’s go full tilt.
In this country where we strive for equality the question arises – is it fair to single out the omission of only African Americans?
There is one group of entertainers that has been far more glaringly ignored in the Oscar process since the Academy’s founding, and yet no one is standing up for them.
Microcephalic actors have not been recognized by the Academy – ever. Disparagingly called “pinheads” by sideshow aficionados, these people have been thoroughly neglected by the Hollywood elite and the Academy.
Schlitzie in Tod Browning’s Freaks
Director Tod Browning was the only filmmaker brave enough to break the stigma of using people with microcephaly prominently in a film with his 1932 classic Freaks.
Since then, I know of no film that has featured a microcephalic actor with any prominent role. Therefore there have been no microcephalic actors nominated for an Academy Award.
True, Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin starred in 1993’s The Coneheads, but they were only actors who looked like people with microcephaly and they were not nominated for anything either.
How can we let this obvious oversight and discrimination continue? When will we see a fair representation of this unrecognized group of people?
Beetlejuice – An Academy Award winner if given the chance?
Besides Beetlejuice from the Howard Stern Show and Patrick from Spongebob Square Pants, where are microcephalics being represented in entertainment? Continue reading
