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Celestial Marriage, the N word, and Procrastination
Mar. 13th, 2006 | 08:11 pm
mood: 
curious
music: Watching Inside Polygamy on AandE
Big Love. Besides the fact that Bill Paxton can't act--and has a nasty naked rear end...I have no problem with polygamy.
Let me explain.
If all those involved are consenting adults, and this is a cultural desicion, more power to them.
However, most of the research shows that many of these "wives" are children when they are married, and often abused due to the controling nature that polygamy entails. Even then, the cultural relativist in me says "as long as no one gets hurt, it's their way. Who am I to tell them no?" Yet the feminist in me is screaming at the TV last night as I watched this fictional story of a man and his three wives, each with thier unique set of emotional issues. It's a wierd draw to me: having to respect religious and cultural differences, and yet wanting to "push" MY ideas of feminism and equality on these groups. I feel like a hypocrite. It's a strange line to straddle for me. To take one side concretely is to take everything I have ever learned and ignore it.
These thoughts are also running through my head as I watched the new Reality Show/Case Study Black.White.
I spent the hour screaming at my TV one moment, and revelling in the rare glimpses of enlightenment these people were providing the wider audience. What bothers me about Bruno, the White father (they renamed the participants after thier real skin color, how quaint) said he didn't feel oppressed when he was in makeup (Hollywood glorified blackface). He spend the whole show talking about waiting for someone to call him Nigger.
Nigger. Is that what white people think the pentacle of racism is? One word? Sure the word is powerful in certain contexts, however, racism is so much more than a word. In fact, if that word was thrown from our vocabulary NOTHING WOULD CHANGE. The family they picked are pretty covert racists---meaning they carry many racists attitudes of which they are unaware and yet claim to be open people--which makes many of their camera confessionals predictable. "Wow, they are really like us." "Wow, how different they are."
Also, most of the differences that are being expressed in the show are cultural. Not skin. Sure, 99.9% of these differences are sedimented in skin color, yet they are not unique to being black or white. Culture can truly be colorblind---however when shows like this help to solidfy the false links we make between skin color and culture.
If I wanted to take more time, I'd write a more academic entry. However, I have a major paper due on Thursday that I need to start on performance theory and dialogic engagement.
Let me explain.
If all those involved are consenting adults, and this is a cultural desicion, more power to them.
However, most of the research shows that many of these "wives" are children when they are married, and often abused due to the controling nature that polygamy entails. Even then, the cultural relativist in me says "as long as no one gets hurt, it's their way. Who am I to tell them no?" Yet the feminist in me is screaming at the TV last night as I watched this fictional story of a man and his three wives, each with thier unique set of emotional issues. It's a wierd draw to me: having to respect religious and cultural differences, and yet wanting to "push" MY ideas of feminism and equality on these groups. I feel like a hypocrite. It's a strange line to straddle for me. To take one side concretely is to take everything I have ever learned and ignore it.
These thoughts are also running through my head as I watched the new Reality Show/Case Study Black.White.
I spent the hour screaming at my TV one moment, and revelling in the rare glimpses of enlightenment these people were providing the wider audience. What bothers me about Bruno, the White father (they renamed the participants after thier real skin color, how quaint) said he didn't feel oppressed when he was in makeup (Hollywood glorified blackface). He spend the whole show talking about waiting for someone to call him Nigger.
Nigger. Is that what white people think the pentacle of racism is? One word? Sure the word is powerful in certain contexts, however, racism is so much more than a word. In fact, if that word was thrown from our vocabulary NOTHING WOULD CHANGE. The family they picked are pretty covert racists---meaning they carry many racists attitudes of which they are unaware and yet claim to be open people--which makes many of their camera confessionals predictable. "Wow, they are really like us." "Wow, how different they are."
Also, most of the differences that are being expressed in the show are cultural. Not skin. Sure, 99.9% of these differences are sedimented in skin color, yet they are not unique to being black or white. Culture can truly be colorblind---however when shows like this help to solidfy the false links we make between skin color and culture.
If I wanted to take more time, I'd write a more academic entry. However, I have a major paper due on Thursday that I need to start on performance theory and dialogic engagement.