Ummm, it’s been a while since I read up on D.W. Griffith, but I don’t recall him apologizing for Birth of a Nation. The film that eventually came after, Intolerance, was Griffith’s cri de cœur over the terrible treatment he had endured, after releasing Birth of a Nation.
Griffith eventually tried to turn over a new leaf with 1919’s Broken Blossoms which did its best to sympathetically portray Chinese emmigrants. True, the lead character, Cheng Huan, was played by a white man in yellowface and death was apparently considered preferable to an interracial relationship, but at least Cheng is still the hero.
I wonder if there is something ironic about the RuPaul meme…I’ve read interviews with him where he goes out of his way to talk about the vast differences between what he and other drag performers do vs. the trans community. More that most of these queens believe they are men that are playing a role and he’s gotten a lot of hate over it because its really just play time for them and they can inhabit any body for a given amount of time for a performance…where as trans people aren’t ‘performing’, it is who they are. (BTW I refer to RuPaul as ‘he’ as this seems to be his prefered nomenclature when talking about his work as a performer).
In a sense, you are posting a meme of someone that we find acceptable playing someone they aren’t and could be seen as just as insensitive to other marginalized people. Where do we draw the line in trying to define what is acceptable?
This is very true. It wasn’t seen as racist then, it was part of the minstrel show tradition (which, amazingly, continued in the UK until 1978!). But just like people in the 70s dressing like Native Americans, it’s something that was innocuous at the time but was unacceptable later on. (and @chuckv is correct, the picture is Eddie Cantor). And you’re absolutely right about Klinger trying to be seen as a perv to get 4F. My memory was that he was just trying to be “insane” but I imagine that was a bit of TV censorship.
In the 50s and early 60s, caucasian people with squinty eyes and buckteeth were a perfectly acceptable alternative to – gasp – hiring actual Asian people to play roles. Even John Wayne played a Mongol.
Would you like me to remove it? Please say so. [ETA] I’d hope that if someone finds the reposting of a drag performer as offensive, by a straight woman, they’d speak up. Drag is performance, of course, and a public one at that, but for a specific audience, generally speaking (a queer one, though it’s now on display for everyone in places like RuPaul’s Drag Race).
But if it’s offensive to someone, I’d hope someone would say something and I’d gladly take it down. So, please say so, rather than hinting at it. Do you take offense, I’ll remove. I see no reason to deny others their own feelings about such things.
I can’t remember where I read… it might not have been an apology, but Intolerance was indeed in response because of the NAACP boycott.
My point was more that people paid attention to the film and called it out on the racism - sure people were more openly racist, but it’s not like it was not remarked upon, discussed or protested against by the victims of racism. Black folks didn’t wake up when King showed up on the scene. He was influenced by decades of struggle by that point, and he drew on a number of people with years of experience organizing against racism in America.
But as you point out in his later film, Griffith’s attempts to be more sensitive were ham fisted, at best. These sorts of portrayals were normal until… well, today, if you count live action remakes like Ghost in the Shell or Akira.
No, no, I got your main point fine. I just felt I had to chip in with a smidgen of film history because I couldn’t help but bristle a wee bit at the notion that Intolerance was Griffith seeing the error of his ways (which you seemed to be saying). Intolerance was Griffith complaining about mean people (like the NAACP) attacking him. (Well, that was the subtext/inspiration anyway.)
I don’t find offense, I just found the interview with him enlightening. I hadn’t heard the controversy and I had even trying to educate myself to trans issues, and his argument was that there is a big division between drag performers and trans. Apparently he had a segment of the show called “you’ve got she-mail” and there was a boycott called on this, with most in this community supporting him, while others were extremely offended.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a straight white male that is simply trying to understand, but the interview made me feel empathy in a sense because no matter how inclusive one thinks they are, someone is going to take offense. And at some point, we need to stop being upset with those that are trying. It isn’t to say that we shouldn’t try…but sometimes it is very tiresome. I have a friend I care about that is trans and she is understanding, but others within her community? There is NOTHING I can say as a straight white male that isn’t going to be deemed offensive no matter how much I try.
I apologize that I used your post…I like RuPaul and personally do not find him offensive. It was just a convenient post given a few others with the attitude that they need to be in competition for compassion as if it is a contact sport. We should all push each other to be better without being jerks about it in the process. And thank you for your kind response.
Oddly enough, Max almost got his discharge, but when Sidney Freedman started to do the paperwork confirming his status as a transvestite and homosexual, noting that this would follow him for life, he balked. (Paraphrase: I ain’t one of those things, I’m just crazy.)
Now when I got kicked out for being bisexual in 1992 they didn’t put a red letter on me. It was completely up to me to explain why I was discharged (honorably, I may add) although it certainly appears on the bottom line of my DD-214: “Admitted homosexul/bisexual.”
Well, I can’t claim to speak for the entire queer community, but as a non-binary pansexual person, I find RuPaul kind of cool. A few differences between drag and blackface? No one ever had the living shit beat out of them for performing in blackface. Bigots didn’t assume that actors performing in blackface were actually black or were trying to be black. While there are certainly bound to be exceptions, I’m having trouble coming up with drag performers that are doing their act as a mockery of women in general, while I’ve seen numerous clips of actors in blackface doing so.
Whoa… I really have to wonder if you’ve ever actually listened to Ru;
She doesn’t care which pronoun people use when addressing her; he answers to BOTH.
Some queens are trans, some are just gay men who emulate amazing women.
Over all, RuPaul’s message is about love, respect and self acceptance of one’s self regardless to anyone else’s perceptions or expectations.
It’s rather odd to me that you zeroed in on that one minor image and then proceeded to act as if you somehow get to speak for him, or anyone else like her.
Long form interview. Addressed that he preferred to be addressed as he in specific contexts but doesn’t care. I mentioned this because of the hair trigger some have when they feel an improper pronoun has been used and used it specifically for respect. And the interview was after the controversy. So specifically I am addressing the controversy. The controversy was brought up because OTHERS were calling him out and I wanted to understand why. He was very conciliatory to people that he offended but was discussing how he feels the differences are.
You are correcting things I never said nor implied, but addressing the fact of some people need to feel offended. I’m sorry the world has led you to this stance but no. Just no.
Okay. I’d hope that if some of the happy mutants here found RuPaul gifs offensive, they’d ask me to remove them. I try to be sensitive to other’s feelings, just in general, because, like you, I don’t know what it’s like to be trans.
I do remember the debates over the “you’ve got she-mail” segment (and RuPaul’s use of a particular word I won’t use here). I do think some of this is sort of aspects of queer culture being shared in a space (the mass media) that isn’t necessarily a queer-only space. So I do wonder if there is a little bit of the “politics of respectability” going on here, as I’ve heard terms like this used by queer people in their spaces, in a variety of ways. It’s like the n word in some respects, I suppose.
You know, I just got finished reading Sarah Schulman’s The Gentrification of the Mind, which deals with some of these issues… you should check it out.
Well, that’s true in any number of ways, yeah. You’re not going to make everyone happy all the time. But I think doing your best to listen to others when they are talking about their struggles is important. Do whatever you can to try and amplify the voices of those who have historically been denied. I do think that illustrating sexism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, etc in the media matters. I think having more representation in the media (both on screen and behind teh scenes) of groups who have been discriminated against (and still are) can help to broaden people’s perspectives.
Thanks for yours! I’m hear to have conversations like this which actually feel like they are doing something rather than just posting shouty letters on the screen!
I’m speculating wildly here but I’ve long wondered if Klinger was based at all on Lenny Bruce who, in How To Talk Dirty & Influence People says he pretended to be a transvestite to get out of the military. Granted the reality of Bruce seems to have been a bit more complicated. There’s the story that he fell out a window while his friend and comedy partner Eric Miller was giving him a blowjob, for instance.
