Sean Connery, feminist
Some people - women especially - make much of late Scottish actor Sean Connery’s 1965 remarks quoted in Playboy magazine that “I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman.” It’s called his most infamous interview. Later, he defended his comments in a 1987 interview with Barbara Walters in which she pushed a peculiarly American and out-of-context line of interrogation about the comment. In America in particular, much ado is made of many marginal issues, turning them into cultural fetishes. In America, it’s about entertainment more than anything, and Connery’s comments both in 1965 and again in 1987 could be shaped as exhilarating entertainment. Something to sell. Connery made perfectly clear in both 1965 and 1987 that violence against anyone is bad. His message was disregarded in favor of how the media could frame his words into the most marketable product. Contrary to the impression Barbara Walters was pursuing, Connery was not advocating violence against women. Instead, his point was that being a woman, by itself, is not a reason not to hit a person. Not that it’s not a good reason. It’s not a reason at all. Quite right. Connery should be eulogized as a great feminist.
It’s women’s humanity, not their sex, that ought to form the basis of any anti-violence argument and critique of Connery. But people who pretend to be feminists automatically use sex as a crutch, which seems somewhat contrary to the philosophy of feminism.