She added: “It was also a rare moment when a woman was publicly defended.” But she attempted to rationalize his behavior, saying he “most likely saw his wife’s pain, and it’s possible he was himself experiencing a moment of fragility, of thin skin.” Gay didn’t excuse Will Smith’s physical assault at the Oscars. It is a rejection of the expectation that we laugh off everything people want to say and do to us.” It is a repudiation of the incessant valorizing of taking a joke, having a sense of humor.
“It is a defense of boundaries and being human and enforcing one’s limits. “This is a defense of thin skin,” Gay wrote. In her column, Gay compared Jada Pinkett Smith to Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, claiming both women shouldn’t be forced to endure insults and disrespect while under public scrutiny.
