John Cena presents ‘Naked’ at the Oscars

On the 10th of March 2024, American wrestler and actor, John Cena, presented the Oscars naked. The naked actor did this to mirror the streaker, Robert Opal, during the 1974 Academy Awards, marking its 50th anniversary.

The Oscars are a prestigious event created in 1929 that recognises excellence in cinematic achievements.

Ironically, presenting the Oscar for best costume design, the 46-year-old shocked audiences by only wearing Birkenstocks and using the award envelope as a cover. Thankfully not naked for long, Cena was then given a toga to wear during Holly Waddington's acceptance speech for 'Poor Things.'

Cena is known for doing many comedy and action roles such as the Fast and Furious franchise, The Suicide Squad, and Barbie where he appeared as a mermaid. The actor appears to not take himself seriously and is unafraid of ‘preserving his masculinity.’

There have been many different opinions of Cena’s actions with the actor himself hesitant. Taking to Twitter there were many positive reactions.

Screenshot: credit to Twitter

Screenshot: credit to Twitter 

Barbie is heavily centered around feminism with the key message of women's empowerment and patriarchy harming everyone regardless of gender. The correlation between John Cena’s shirtless role in the movie and his skit at the Oscars can be seen as a coincidence or purposeful.

However, speaking to Database and Supporter Services Officer for West Midlands Fawcett Society, Valerie Joy, she said: “For me personally, as a 58-year-old lifelong feminist, I thought it was in incredibly bad taste – it makes a joke of the whole thing but in my opinion it is still showing men very much in charge of their own destiny and trivialises how damaging it is for women. 

I do not understand why it is supposed to be funny? Haven’t we moved on from that and shouldn’t we be realising how much degradation has been brought by nudity for women. I appreciate women chose to be nude and if that empowers them, and they are in control then that is their choice. But so often it is not a ‘choice’ at all!”