Should Men Smack For Women?

"Physical Strength is about what you can do; Spiritual Strength is about what you can bear"

I decided to speak my mind about the Will Smith smack controversy because I see people missing an important point in this conversation. Past three days I read, and watched people taking sides. Some arguing Smith “speaking for family” and Rock being excused for being a comedian. Not one person pointed to the fact that Jada is a strong woman and can speak for herself. Why should Smith take upon himself to supposedly defending his wife, yes “wife!” This is the problem with our society which casts people (men) into protectors and the rest (women) as weak and need protection into roles. Assign abstract duties, for which they may not be eligible or prepared. Men take it upon themselves to assume the role and decide to “protect” “their” women or family like they are some weak chattels. Will Smith, should have had enough faith in Jada Smith and should have left it to Jada, the woman and not make it about his wife, to speak. If she is strong and wise and if she felt slighted, she would have a conversation with Chris Rock later. Isn’t she the one who has those Red Table Talk or something to address issues. (I did not watch the show, heard of it).

Now, about laughing at Jada’s condition, alopecia. How many people knew about her condition, not the condition per se, but about her in particular. I did not and many others who are supporting Will blindly and oblivious to the condition and Will's obviously hard position, don’t either. Chris Rock did not know about Jada's condition according to reports. I will believe that to be true since there is no report contradicting it. So, what was Smith accusing Rock of? Also, Chris did not call her some shameful names. GI Jane isn’t a slur. If anything, it was about a great initiative about women in military. I have heard worse even with full head of hair!

There are millions of women suffering from alopecia, trichotillomania, and other conditions which all walks of people struggle with and most people embrace it gracefully since there is no cure. Most people have no clue as to how many conditions people suffer and even when they know they make fun of people. How many of us have witnessed handicapped people being made fun of? To be honest I was not aware of so many of these conditions until I had to know….. since then I have educated myself. I have known people who had to wear wigs, shave their head to deal with conditions whose names we cannot even spell or pronounce much worse empthaize with. No one should joke about such conditions but don’t go trigger happy and accuse people of insulting when they don’t have any knowledge about it. Ignorance is no excuse but in a world where fashion extends to hair which includes shaving head, it is easy to mistake such thing for more of a new hair style than a autoimmune condition. Haven’t we seen Kristen Stewart, Demi Moore….. shave their heads for fashion or to make a point. Just because Chris Rock and Will Smith belong to the Hollywood orbit doesn’t mean they exchange notes on such stuff.

People like Smith take advantage of their masculinity when people cheer on and give them license to go around smacking people in the guise of protecting people whom they consider as weak and incapable of standing up for themselves. Did the slap gain respect for Jada? If I was in her place I would be angry with Will for taking away the opportunity from me to address it with Chris Rock and the world I wished to. This is a conversation between two adults nor some warriors, caveman style.

Regardless Will Smith failed a test of his own…. Decency and self control when you are most provoked.

We all look at situations of our vintage points. This is my opinion. None of us may fully know the story and the emotions….. and it may not be appropriate to comment, but we are inclined to so here is mine - Aryan