Bald ≠ Unattractive

On March 27, 2022, during the live television broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards, actor Will Smith walked onstage and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face as he presented the Award for Best Documentary. Just before, Rock had acknowledged Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, with a joke about her shaved head. The news was short and shocking. Many wrote articles and shared their thoughts on the causes and effects of such action. I have read multiple articles which argues against the violence done by Will Smith, and many argues against insulation done by Chris Rock. But, in my view, the fundamental cause of such incident is the false perception of the world caused by irresponsible marketing.

A simple disclaimer is that my arguments and this article don’t mean to be the single point of truth or fact checking. I simply share my views which gives holistic view. I condemn violence in any form and violence is not justified in our modern societies. While gross insulting is also condemned, we also need much more thick skins, specially among influencers and leaders of societies.

When I did a root cause analysis of the incident, I see Will and Jada Smith and consequently Chris Rock to be the victims of irresponsible marketing messages which have dominated our societies. We are all bombarded with marketing messages defining beauty in our minds without considering our diverse nature. Beauty is attributed to having relatively long hair even being blond with blue eyes and skinny body. You may argue that, since few years back, there are many black models with short hair. Yes, there are, and I admit that, but this is too little, too late and has not unfortunately changed a lot in our societies.  

Let’s be honest here. Jada is NOT suffering from a serious or a life-threatening disease. She has… which is in simple words is partial hair loss. I started to lose my hair when I was 25 years old, and my wife chose to marry me when I was partially bald. I am a proud and bald man, and I don’t think my baldness has caused me any damage and it is not indeed a disease or disaster. I indeed look different from the time that I had more hair, but I don’t think that I am any uglier. 

In case of Jada and Will, it should be a huge deal for both that Jada has lost her hair. They both must be under huge pressure and see this as great disaster that caused such reaction. Jada cannot be blond or have blue eyes therefore, losing hair has become such a disaster that they cannot accept a simple joke about that.

It is simply wrong that marketing messages set the standards in our societies and equally wicked that the marketing messages are irresponsible. We need much more deep thinking and knowledgeable people in our societies (specially among influencers and leaders) not to be influenced by marketing. In addition, and in my view, and more importantly, we need marketing messages to be responsible. Marketing is one of the least regulated areas in our industries and I am not a big fan of regulation. However, with the current status of our societies, I cannot find any other solution, at least in short-term, than regulating marketing toward being much more responsible.

Disclaimer: This article is purely my ideas and reflect and represent my personal views.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.