Gargh!
Posted by Chris @ 8:43 pm
I have no particular opinion on racism, gay rights, etc, except to say that I'd probably regard myself as open minded and not really bothered by any of it. However what really gets me annoyed is these so called campaign groups and activists positively discriminating because they feel they are getting a raw deal. Can't they see that by highlighting race/sex they help enforce the idea that that particular group are discriminated against. Gargh!
I feel, as always, that I'm not getting my point across so here are a couple of examples. Firstly, what started this post off was this piece on BBC News - JK Rowling outs Dumbledore as gay. In it are a couple of paragraphs:
Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed the news about Dumbledore and said: ”It's good that children's literature includes the reality of gay people, since we exist in every society.
“But I am disappointed that she did not make Dumbledore's sexuality explicit in the Harry Potter book. Making it obvious would have sent a much more powerful message of understanding and acceptance.”
I'm sorry, why should JK Rowling have made it more obvious in the books? To satisfy the gay and lesbian community, to make a point? Quite rightly she didn't make it an issue or try to highlight it. Dumbledore being gay has nothing to do with anything, and that is exactly the approach we should all take, why does there need to be a big thing about it. JK Rowling didn't need to highlight the straight people in the book, or the black or Asian people.
My second example is from a few years back, when Halle Berry won her oscar. See this partcular quote from her acceptance speech:
“This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It's for the women that stand beside me - Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett and it's for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”
Again, what does it matter about colour? The door is open if you can act, it has nothing to do with the colour of your skin, and by highlighting the fact that it is an achievement to receive an Oscar as a black woman helps re-enforce the idea that there is some kind of discrimination. If she had said nothing about it, we could have just congratulated her on getting an Oscar, but instead it became a story about race.
I know this opinion is likely to get some negative comments, and if so I've maybe not explained myself well enough, but hopefully you'll see what I'm getting at. What do you think?
3 Comments
Sunday, October 21, 2007 9:44:00 pm
I agree with you completly, although the biggest mystery is how Halle Berry got an oscar at all!!This comment posted by
Monday, October 22, 2007 10:45:00 am
Half agree with you on the Dumbledore point, because as far as I'm aware no other character's sexuality is discussed to any great extent (though I've not read the books, only seen the films) and so why raise Dumbledore's? But that said, Rowling said that Dumbledore's homosexual feelings towards another individual shaped his character. So if it's important why not mention it in the book? Ask yourself this, if it was heterosexual feelings towards another individual that shaped his character, would that information have been omitted? I don't know enough about the story and the author to answer the question myself, but can well believe that it would not. So if there is indeed inequality based on sexuality it seems reasonable that a gay rights campaigner would add this (minor) point.I think you are utterly wrong about Halle Berry's speech. What does it matter about her colour? Well, nothing to you because you are white, male, middle class, English, educated, and therefore like me could not possibly begin to truly appreciate what it is like to be in a sector of society that historically has been abused, subjugated, murdered and segregated, based solely on the colour of their skin. Halle Berry has a little more interest and understanding of this topic than you or I, and therefore I think has every right to publicly celebrate the fact that the American film world's distaste for black people has subsided to such a degree that they now feel able to give a black woman an award.
It is important to recognise where inequality still exists and it is important to celebrate when it doesn't. This costs you nothing, so why begrudge it?
This comment posted by
Monday, October 22, 2007 11:36:00 am
Fair points well made, I'm back in my box now. However I think it is important for me to point out I'm not saying discrimination doesn't exist. Sadly it does. I completely get that I can never understand what it is to be discriminated against, and for that I'm truly grateful. Maybe I am wrong about the Halle Berry speech, but I still feel that by celebrating where inequality no longer exists, even though as you've shown it is a good thing to be happening, it can also highlight where inequalities once existed and continue to perpetuate them in other areas of society.As always I've taken on a tricky subject and lacked the full understanding to do it justice. Another lesson learnt.
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