Thread by @mryawarabbas

It is surprising that the world is shocked and disgusted by the assault of #WillSmith during the Oscars this year. For decades, Hollywood has perpetuated violence, racism, sexism, stereotypes, xenophobia and toxic machoism in a systematic manner. This thread has a few examples 👇

The Iron Man 3 introduces Pakistani women in sort of bonded labour at a "cheaply-made sportswear" factory. This is wrong at so many levels. Pakistani women are neither bonded nor forced to wear full-face coverings. And Pakistan produces some of the world's best sports merchandise

Pakistan has been the official manufacturer of the match ball for FIFA World Cup for many years now. In #FIFAWorldCup 2022, Pakistan's manufactured football "Al Rihla" (which means journey) will be the official match ball. Here is this lovely piece of art:

Pakistan also made the soccer balls "Brazuca" and "Telstar 18" for the last two FIFA World Cups held in Brazil (2014) & Russia (2018), respectively. The World has literally been playing with Pakistan's balls, but only Hollywood has the balls to say it produces cheap sports stuff.

And Pakistani women have even been doing Pop music for ages. Here is a clip of real-life Pakistan from 1982 in which a female lead vocalist Nazia Hassan is performing (& bingo no face-covered). Hollywood will never get inspiration for any of its movies about this side of Pakistan

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), with some A-list, kick-ass stars of Hollywood in the cast, shows Pakistan as an unstable country whose nuclear weapons fall into the hands of terrorists but the American agents save the day. The reality, in the thread below, is quite different.

Reports by the IAEA and research of independent think tanks tell us that Pakistan is rarely (or never) among states where nuclear accidents or theft of radioactive material happen. Can you find Pakistan's name in any nuclear accident since the 1970s in this IAEA data? Me neither!

This chart shows nuclear thefts incidents b/w 2013-18 (Center for Nonproliferation Studies). Compare incidents in North America & Europe with South Asia. In South Asia, the incidents have happened in India (& most recently in May & June 2021). But Hollywood names Pakistan for🍿

Remember the time when Hollywood rationalized the collateral damage caused by drone strikes. When a work of fiction is based on real-life countries & situations, its insensitivity can no longer be excused. Here is a clip of a drone strike on a funeral from "Eagle Eye" (2008).

Drone attacks in sovereign countries are a violation of international law. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter refrain states from the threat or use of force. The minimum number of people killed by US drone strikes carried out in Pakistan from 2004 to date is shown in this graph:

"Captain America - The Winter Soldier," tells us that women are beheaded in Pakistan's stadiums. It is something unimaginable in Pakistan. It reduces the image of Pakistan to a regressive invader. The second part of the clip shows what actually happens in Pakistani stadiums:

A small slap of #WillSmith, a loud smack on the toxic culture of Hollywood where abusers are awarded Oscars and derision of other cultures and countries is celebrated.
Do you think Hollywood has misrepresented your culture or country? Post comments or videos here.