Often. Speech, art, and culture do typically encompass politics, because politics are a social activity and therefore a primary concern of the humanities. But t

Often. Speech, art, and culture do typically encompass politics, because politics are a social activity and therefore a primary concern of the humanities. But the argument that these things are therefore inherently political is specious, and (in my opinion) a product of the increasingly facile approach to the interpretation of art and culture in education that focuses exclusively on the teasing-out of supposed hidden messages and ideologies. (Twitter doesn't help, either.) In mirroring our lives, art and culture encompass layers of complex action and symbols that cannot be reduced to a singular message or call for political action. They are the process by which we sift through an opaque mixture of confusion and contradiction every day, searching for meaning. However, if you wanted to argue that award shows are inherently political, I'd probably agree.