On a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show, Saoirse Ronan captured the global attention with a deeply impactful and silencing reply to a joke made by her male colleagues on the set. Sharing the stage with Graham Norton, Eddie Redmayne, Denzel Washington, and the flagbearer of green flags, Paul Mesca, the Little Women actress gave a mere reply of ten words to what looked like a privileged discussion-turned-into-joke.
The conversation started with self-defense as Eddie Redmayne shared his experience on the sets of The Day of the Jackal. The actor shared how he was taught to use phones as a weapon during an attack, to hurt the attacker in the neck. In response to this, Paul joked about how this wouldn’t even be his first thought, stating, “Who is actually going to think about that? If someone actually attacked me, I’m not going to go…phone”. The reply made all the male stars and the host chuckle, implying the lack of awareness about the critical safety issues faced by women in their day-to-day lives. Ronan, who was interrupted multiple times in the conversation, finally spoke in a very firm tone, “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right, ladies?”. This was followed by a moment of silence where the actors just nodded in agreement to their tone-deafness, followed by an applause from the audience.
Ronan’s reply is now receiving global applause, leading to netizens and media calling out Internet’s nice guys about their lack of sensitivity, especially when it concerns women’s safety. The comment section discusses the privilege of safety enjoyed by men and the cost at which women have to buy it every day. An Instagram user responded, “It is appalling and terrifying to me that we can somehow normalize violence against women and, at the same time, be in denial of its existence.”
The absolute ignorance of the ‘nice men’ with large influence is thought-provoking. What the internet considered as ‘sweet’, ‘understanding’, ‘thoughtful’, ’emotionally intelligent’, and ‘well-mannered’ have themselves revealed that we still, as a society, need empathy lessons on issues that concern women and marginalized populations. What you might find a fun thing to crack a joke about, might be a topic of grave concern for someone every single day.
