Sigh.
I was on my blogging hiatus {and I still am, by the way} when someone told me over the phone about the Desperate Housewives Season Premiere that started this and even this. There's even an online petition for ABC to make a public apology {which they did - well fucking 45,000 petitions should scare their corporate asses!}. The Philippine Government and The Department of Health and the Philippine Medical Association made their statement about the said episode. Even Michelle Malkin joined the fray. Now if Michelle Malkin has an opinion for this hoopla, then this must be seriously funny. So I watched the episode in YouTube just to see what the fuss was about. I even played it a coupla times just to make sure I heard it right. And I thought it was mildly funny. Mildly insulting, yeah, but funny. OK, before any of you start throwing me Filipino stones or racial remarks or whatnot, look at me profile just for a sec. Now go back to reading me blog after you look at me profile.
What gives anyways? Am I bothered by it? I'd have to say no {so does the person who told me about it, who works for the health industry in UK}. I would be greatly insulted if it was Felicity Huffman's character who said it. I do watch DH and I am an avid fan. If you are a DH fan, you know that Teri Hatcher's character tends to border on ignoramus annoying and whining bitch. So please try not to kill Teri Hatcher, because I still wanna see her character get crabs or chlamydia {or both}. It was her character speaking. And I do have to say this, she's really good at playing Susan.
Now the writers of DH, that's a different matter. Were they irresponsible? Maybe. Was it right for the Filipino Bandwagon to ask for a public apology? Maybe. Was the joke even funny? Maybe {if you don't take it out of context - that Susan's a stupid, annoying bitch}. Was Susan's line racist? I wouldn't think so. Was it race related? Most probably. Comedy is such a risky business.
When you deal with comedy, you deal with shitloads of things. But mostly, you deal with things that offend other's sensibilities - that's why it's funny. As to where to draw the line, I dunno. Why ask me? I'm no expert. Leave it to the holier than thou people. They're good at that. But I do agree that a line has to be drawn somewhere.
I am very ambivalent on this issue because I've seen how Philippine TV works. TV shows and soap opera's and comedy skits in the Philippines are actually no better than their American counterparts. It's funny if you make sexist remarks on an afternoon game show, if you degrade a dark skinned homosexual or a flat nosed ulikba {dark skinned person} on prime time television. Many Filipinos find it funny. Well, I don't. The name calling - BUMBAY, CHEKWA, BAYOT, NEGRO, MORO, EFFEM and the like - doesn't strike me as something funny either. What's really funny about this whole Desperate Housewives incident is that there has been a lot of clamor from my Coconut Republic but they never even bothered to scrutinize our own TV programs. If you want to see anything racist or sexist just turn on your own fucking television. It pains Filipinos to hear people from other countries talking about us in a mildly derogatory way but when it comes to us talking about other races and our own people even, we turn the other way and laugh it off as a harmless joke. I'm just glad that in all this quagmire someone has actually something substantially good to say about it.
If the writers of DH wrote the line in such a way that it would've still been funny yet not that all race related {it would've been hard lemme tell ya, but not impossible}, then this wouldn't have started anyways. But at the end of the day, comedy is still comedy. If I make a real good fat person joke, it would be a big hit for a lotta people except for many people with weight problems. In the end, no matter how politically correct we are in comedy, there's always bound to be one person, if not a certain group who'd be offended by it. Life, in technicolor.
I think the whole issue here centers on the use of language. Language is a powerful human facility. It's the only human tool that can easily express and elicit thoughts and emotions with a split second. Say the English language for example. The English words for GOD, SEX, MONEY, PEACE, WAR, FUCK and LOVE can be understood by every human being on this planet. That's how powerful language is. Language as a human facility, changes and evolves. It's inevitable. Like any other tools, language has the tendency to hurt and inflict pain if used irresponsibly. But it also has this great potential to become a catalyst of cultures and societies. Songs, films and television have all been part of that catalyst. There's a sentence in English that might be useful for the occasion - MIND YOUR LANGUAGE. And I'm not just telling this to the writer's of Desperate Housewives. I dunno how, ok. I'm no expert. I sure as hell have a potty mouth. But maybe if we do start minding what we say - even a little, then the human race could actually have a future.
I was in a bus crammed with people rushing to work/school this morning. Now, normally in London on a rush hour, drivers don't allow anymore passengers on until there's enough space in the bus. They only stop to let them get off but will not open the front door to allow more on until such space is guaranteed. Unusually enough, our driver, who was a black lady, went slightly past the next stop and waved at 2 black couple stood there to get on the bus. She then opened the door, let them in and immediately shut it just before another passenger, a white pregnant lady managed to hop in. I heard her say "it's so unfair" behind the closed door, probably out of desperation to get to office on time. Or maybe not. Meanwhile onboard, the driver and the couple chatted away as if nothing happened.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it was just an everyday occurrence-we do miss the trip sometimes. It happens to everyone, nothing personal. That was probably what the rest of the passengers would have as well thought. Again, maybe. But let's just say it was a white driver, waved at 2 white couple at the bus stop, went slightly past and let them in, immediately closed the door as a pregnant black lady tried to get onboard, then chatted away with the couple as if nothing happened. How would I feel? Or how would the rest of the bus passengers feel? I wouldn't be surprised if it'd make it to the headline of our local newspaper the next day raising up a key racial issue.
It's sad that our world is so full of colors and yet we just talk about its whiteness and blackness.
Well written article.
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