Harrison Ford recently turned 70 (July 13, 2012). In the online world, the birthday of the actor, who played Han Solo in Star Wars and the main character in the Indiana Jones movies, seems to have caused mainly two reactions. First, everyone suddenly feels old, especially those who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. Second, quite a large amount of people feel they need to express their dislike for earrings in men past their adolescence.
Get over it, guys. And cut him some slack. He had his ears pierced in 1997. Yes, he was 55 years old, and you’ve had 15 years to get over it. You don’t have to like it, but is that really all you can think of when you hear the name Harrison Ford?
At lunch with his friends, singer Jimmy Buffet and journalist and “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley (who passed away in November 2006), he decided to have his ear pierced, as People Magazine reported in 1997. Buffet and Bradley had their left ear pierced and Ford always wanted that too.
It’s interesting that as soon as people started to notice Ford’s earring, they speculated about the reasons why. “Midlife crisis” was a common assumption. Some even associate it with actress Calista Flockhart (known as Ally McBeal), whom he married in 2010, completely ignoring that he only started dating her in 2002.
In fact, he went to a have his ears pierced together with his former wife, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Melissa Mathison (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial), in New York City—about three years before Ford and Mathison started to separate and almost five years before he met Calista Flockhart at the 2002 Golden Globes.
A quick scan of online media reveals various reactions to Ford’s earring, even today, calling it “dumb” or “stupid”, speaking of “the earring crisis”; some are saying they “hate the earring”. Most comments are clearly intolerant, some are personal and downright insulting.
Does Harrison Ford care? Not a bit. On the contrary, he’s still rocking his earring at age 70. He started wearing a small hoop earring and is now mostly seen wearing a stud. He knew that he would be confronted with negative reactions about his pierced ear, since it did not fit the image people had of the good-looking actor or the characters he embodied. But I’m sure he did not expect nearly as much criticism for something as insignificant as a little earring. However, he refuses to be controlled by what other people think. And isn’t that exactly Han Solo-esk? “I take orders from just one person: me.”
So even if people choose to discuss Harrison Ford’s earring for another 15 years, it won’t change a thing. Maybe he’ll get a tattoo for his 85th birthday, just to give the Intolerance League new fodder.
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