gender roles in TV advertising

"Mitchell and Webb Look" makes fun of how gendered TV commercials are. Very effective!

Mayor Douchebag

The mayor of Constanta, Radu Mazare went with his 13 years old son to see the Valkyrie Operation movie, where Tom Cruise plays the unsuccessful Hitler assassin. It is not just another Nazi exploitation movie: it hardly affected the mayor. And with a twist: father and son left feeling so inspired that both decided to wear Nazi uniforms to a fashion show and goose-step on the runway over the weekend.

Even if Romania constantly denied Holocaust till 2004, wearing Nazi uniforms is still illegal and Mazare can get a prison sentence of up to three years. In theory. Even if the Centre for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism sent a letter to the country's general prosecutor urging an investigation of Mazare for breaking the law and instigating a child to follow his example, Csaba Asztalos, the director of the National Agency Against Discrimination said that he won't be prosecuted because this law never applies in Romania. And this is the shock element for me. Not that a social democrat mayor dresses up in Nazi uniform and makes a ridiculous and horrible statement:

I was inspired from the Valkyrie movie ... I wanted to dress like a Vehrmacht general because I've always liked this uniform, and admired the rigorous organisation of the German army.

that comes connected to another declaration:

By no means did I intend to harm and I do not agree with the war and I didn't want to offend the Jews or the Israeli community, with which I'm in a very good relationship and which possibly focused most of their investments in Romania in Constanta.

His lack of basic logic is kind of well known: I heard him a couple of weeks ago making plenty of sexist comments and when the reporter asked him about his misogynism he very confidently replied:

Nonsense, everyone knows that I love women.

It is really worrying that this case is treated by media as a celebrity scandal, the only concern is about international criticism and the fact that Romania will look bad. The fact that wearing Nazi uniforms is treated as something cool and humorous, that Mazare won't be prosecuted because the law never applied before, that he treats this case as something irrelevant. He even said

for how many complaints I already have, is there any problem if I have another one?

and even victimized himself with:

Nevertheless, it was only a fashion catwalk. It shouldn't have received such attention, but in Romania we're generally inquisitors.)

Let's not forget, as Csaba Asztalos said

Mazare is not a top model, but a person with a public position. It is not about
a parade of military uniforms.

And there is still no comment from prosecutors. Probably they are waiting for the whole scandal to pass so that they can get back to their daily routine. And the mayor can continue his political career and job. Because when it comes to make some privileged politicians loose some of their benefits, everything freezes and laws stop to function.

August Strindberg

+ Helium !


A re-reading of one of the most canonical writers. These extremely funny and effective animations are a model for how transgressive we can possibly read the monolithic drama canon.

moonwalk

eternal moonwalk project - just awesome! here it is

photo via flickr

not playing queer

Pam Spaulding writes on her blog about some weird situtions in the soap opera industry. First, Chris Engel, an actor from The Young and the Restless, quitted the series after he realized that his character was about to kiss another man.

Now there is another similar case: Patricia Mauceri plays the mother of a character that turns out gay in One Live to Live. She refused the script because a Latina mother can never accept that, in her opinion. She was changed with another actress.

Patricia Mauceri in character

Here is the whole story:

"OLTL" was taping scenes in late-June concerning roommates Cristian, Layla and Fish. (They'll air in September.) Cristian and Layla suspect that sweet cop Fish is gay, but aren't sure how to approach him about it. So they buy a book about how to tell if you're gay and plan to give it to him.

Cristian's mom, Carlotta, was supposed to find the book and assume Cristian is gay. Her reaction was scripted to be very accepting and even amused, citing his love of art and fondness for going shirtless as signs she should have recognized.

But Mauceri, who has played diner purveyor Carlotta Vega for 14 years, refused to play the story as written, saying a Latina mother would not be so accepting. Rather, Mauceri rewrote the scenes to make Carlotta confused and troubled, and submitted them to "OLTL" execs.

"That's not the story we're telling," responded an exec.

Mauceri then said she could not play the scenes as written, so the show called Santiago.

"Saundra Santiago is now playing Carlotta Vega," confirms an ABC rep.

The stereotype that all Latino mothers are homophobic is used in this case to promote a very personal and direct form of homophobia. Some actors afford to refuse the part or re-write the script. That brings to my mind the situation in theatre, the one that I know better. A couple of weeks ago, Iulia Popovici was mentioning how Romanian actors are avoiding to identify with their gay characters, almost yelling "this is not who I am!". I see that quite often when a gay character comes on stage. Quite bizarre, this detachment is not happening with criminals, murderers, rapists, bigots etc. Playing evil is more convincing most of the times. Does it mean that playing queer is seen as being more threatening to most heterosexual actors? Or is it the fear of their own sexuality, the fear of becoming one of them by rehearsing? It is a good example to show how performance has implications on subjectivity just like performativity does. Actors fear that and they try to keep the character as far as possible from their subject. Then you come with some black-face type of performances, ridiculing the queer character, in the style of Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen was most of the time close to his wife during premieres, even if in character: he needed the proof that he IS not Bruno, he is not queer, that is just a character to make fun of of). Directors are doing it in a similar way: they dis-identify with their queer characters and stories by some poor form of Brechtian alienation. The purpose is not to make the audience think about their own situation or to make them critical of what they see: theatremakers are just telling that it is not their story, it is not their alliance, it is not their concern and creativity, queerness is incidental and it's "used" mainly for its comical homophobic effect. That is the situation if the queer character is not part of a melodramatic plot and is killed at some point to reinstall the original status quo. Then it becomes a tool for a queer cleansing of the stage. Both situations are dead ends for any social change and reinforce a homophobic attitude.

Water Boy

The amazing Paul Robeson! Who? A short history lesson cannot harm:

Already a famous singer, Broadway and cinema actor, Paul Robeson became a primarily political artist, speaking out against colonialism and racism. Robeson was a prime target of the Red Scare during the late 1940s through to the late 1950s. His passport was revoked from 1950 to 1958 under the McCarran Act and he was under surveillance by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency and by British MI5 for well over three decades until his death in 1976. The reasoning behind his persecution centered not only on his beliefs in socialism and friendship with the peoples of the Soviet Union but also his tireless work towards the liberation of the colonial peoples of Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, his support of the International Brigades, his efforts to push for anti-lynching legislation. This mass vilification by the American establishment blacklisted and isolated Robeson for the latter part of his career. Despite the fact that Paul Robeson was one of the most internationally famous cultural figures of his era, the persecution virtually erased him from mainstream culture and subsequent interpretations of 20th century history, including civil rights and black history.

To this day, Paul Robeson's FBI file is one of the largest of any entertainer ever investigated by the United States Intelligence Community, requiring its own internal index and unique status of health file. There is also documented evidence from the files released under the Freedom of Information Act that Paul Robeson was drugged and neutralized under the CIA's clandestine MKULTRA mind control program and subsequently subjected to unnecessary and abusive levels of electroconvulsive therapy while under private care in Great Britain as a means to keep him from influencing the U.S. civil rights movement and worldwide anti-imperialist movements during the 1960s.

More on wikipedia about a forgotten person who could not just enjoy his privileges as a well-known artist but used them wisely with a radical political agenda not being concerned of possible persecutions.