Jada Takes On Media

After hosting Cultural Rhythms two years ago, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars returned last Friday night to talk about “Empowering Women” before a packed crowd at the Science Center.

Actress Jada Pinkett-Smith said that the media and commercial advertisements have increasingly created negative perceptions of females, and that women need to come together to overcome these images.

“The idea that the media has that much influence over us is a huge problem,” Pinkett-Smith said in her discussion, sponsored by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. “I believe in the power of reeducating people because the media depends on us. There is nothing to sell if no one is buying.”

Pinkett-Smith said that women should be able to work with and support one another regardless of race or class. She described how she was able to connect with different types of women while she was touring with her heavy metal band, Wicked Wisdom, in Waterloo, Iowa.

“I’ve had a lot of contact with women I normally don’t have contact with, and it’s made me realize the connection we have as women,” she said. “There are always going to be differences between women, but there is power in numbers.”

After her remarks, some students said that Pinkett-Smith’s speech was similar to a previous one she gave at the Cultural Rhythms show in 2005 that generated controversy for being what some students and a campus group called “heteronormative.”

“Much of her discussion centered on how ‘women should train our men’ and how women needed to assert themselves in relationships with men,” Katherine E. Smith ’10, public relations chair of the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA), wrote in an e-mail. “We find it troubling that after the controversy following her last visit, Mrs. Pinkett-Smith still refused to at least acknowledge how queer women play into her vision of uniting ‘all’ women.”

Some students also criticized what they thought was Pinkett-Smith’s failure to include all students in her discussion.

“I’m not sure if she even realized what happened after she left the first time,” said Joshua D. Smith ’08, co-chair of the BGLSTSA. “I am disappointed, though, at her lack of understanding of other forms of diversity or inclusion.”

Members of the BGLTSA said they were not consulted by the Harvard Foundation before the talk, even though the BLGLTSA is part of the Harvard Foundation.

While after the Cultural Rhythms show two years ago, the BGLTSA and Harvard Foundation issued a joint statement stating that they would work to inform future speakers to include all races, ethnicities, and sexualities, the BGLTSA said it does not plan to issue a statement this time because Friday’s speech was not as large of an event as Cultural Rhythms.

Some other students, though, said they came away inspired by Pinkett-Smith’s remarks.

“I think she made a lot of good points and had a lot of good ideas,” Meron K. Haileselassie ’10 said. “I thought it was interesting when she talked about how she changed her last name and how she didn’t think it was making her any less than her husband.”