Saoirse Ronan's sharp reaction to Paul Mescal's self-defense joke goes viral
Ifon the ?Graham Norton Show? was a guest, she gave the boys on the couch a little reality check? and went viral for it. The actress reminded her male colleagues that women have to think about a lot more than men when it comes to their own safety. The video went viral on X (formerly Twitter) with more than 55 million views, with the caption: Saoirse Ronan gagging men, we love it.
Saoirse Ronan: That's what happened
What exactly happened?
It was Friday, October 25thtogether with, Eddie Redmayne and Denzel Washington guest on the British talk show “The Graham Norton Show”. So the situation was: four men, one woman.
Eddie Redmayne then spoke about his latest project ?The Day of the Jackal? (?The Day of the Jackal?), in which he plays an assassin. He explained to the group that he worked with a self-defense specialist who taught him to use a smartphone as a weapon.
In the clip on X (formerly Twitter), Paul Mescal makes fun of this situation: “Who thinks?really“Think about it?” he says, laughing. ?If someone attacks me, I won't think: ?Wait a second, my phone!?.? The “Graham Norton Show” do many actors use to show how funny they are? because host Graham Norton also likes to make fun of his guests.
So the men laugh and respond to Mescal's argument and look for their cell phones. Meanwhile, Ronan, who doesn't find the whole thing so funny, tries to say something, but doesn't get a word in because the boys are attacking each other and want to go one better. Eddie Redmayne looks at Mescal and says, "That's a really good point," and the conversation comes to a natural end.
But now Ronan sees their chance and explains: "This is something women have to think about all the time."
The mood changesabrupt. The men fall silent in shock. Her grin disappears and Mescal says sheepishly, "Oh, yeah." The rest are silent. Like the icon that she is, Saoirse Ronan then grins at the audience and says: "Am I right, ladies?" Meanwhile, she makes that "shake" sign that surfers use as a greeting symbol and rightly celebrates herself.
That's why Saoirse Ronan's comment was so important
The interaction certainly wasn't malicious. Paul Mescal wanted to make a joke and didn't think about anything at the time. For example, Saoirse Ronan played in the film ?The Lovely Bones? the 14-year-old victim of a kidnapping and a brutal murder and certainly had to deal with self-defense specialists as part of this. And it's simply true that men don't have to worry about their own safety as much as women. And Saoirse Ronan is a true icon, onethat she addressed it so openly on this talk show.
However, people on the Internet weren't quite as kind to men? especially with Paul Mescal. Some critics mocked Mescal's naive approach to self-defense. And especially about his face after Saoirse puts him in his place.
One user writes: "I don't know much about Mr. Paul Mescal, but he seems to be a 'you go, sis!' feminist and will therefore be haunted by this interaction for the rest of his life." A “you go, sis!” feminist can be understood here as a performative feminist (e.g. paints his fingernails and therefore thinks he has defeated sexism).
It says in a tweet: ?The silence after Saoirses ?that's what girls have to think about all the time? ? oh, you just know they all felt stupid afterwards.?
Others took the interaction more seriously: "What upset me the most is that Saoirse Ronan, the only woman on the podium, almost had to fight to make her point in the middle of a group of laughing men who were discussing her contribution or the experiences of women not taken into account?wrote user Tan Smith. "Almost like that's the whole damn problem, isn't it?"
Some women could really relate to Ronan's comment. Many reported conversations with their male friends who couldn't understand why women were so concerned about safety. One user wrote: "A guy once asked me why girls go to the bathroom in groups and I told him that if there are three of you in the bathroom, you're less likely to get raped. He looked so shocked, like it had never occurred to him that security was something women had to worry about.?
And now back to the really serious part: UN Women has oneinteractive websitebuilt that summarizes the facts about violence against women. One in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence in their life? usually from a partner with whom she was/is intimate. If you also include sexual harassment in the numbers, then there would be even more.
Moral of the story?: It's actually not that funny what women have to worry about every day. It is especially important for men to remind themselves every now and then what the safety of women really is.
