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“No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking.”
Patterns of Culture. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1934.
Last saturday, Danilo Gentili, one of the guys who run ‘CQC’, a very well-known tv show in Brazil, made a polemic joke on Twitter. He said:
“King Kong, um macaco que, depois que vai para a cidade e fica famoso, pega uma loira. Quem ele acha que é? Jogador de futebol?”
Translating it, it would be something like:
“King Kong, a monkey that, after going to the city and getting famous, hits on* a blonde girl. Who does he think he is? A soccer player?”
*There’s a pun here in Portuguese. ‘Pegar’, which means ‘to get’, is also a slang for ‘date’.
Since it’s not a Portuguese language’s exclusive privilege to make racist jokes using the word ‘monkey’, you may well have already understood what happened. Off course, in a country where brown and black people make up for 50% of the population – statistically; although I think it might be way more -, and considering that Gentili has approximately 15.000 followers, there were A LOT of people feeling offended about what he said.
Since I don’t follow him on Twitter, I didn’t know about this mess until today, when someone sent me an article about it. At first, I didn’t understand. No, I didn’t see the racism in his joke. And I personally think he sincerely didn’t meant that as racist.
Later in that night he posted a tweet saying he wasn’t referring to one’s color, but to the fact that blondes always date famous soccer players for money – a typical steriotyped relationship in Brazil.
I see a – pardon my words – fucking lot of trouble in here. In his statement, in what people understood and in the way he tried to explain himself. First, no, I don’t think that it was racist. At least, at first, I got what he intended to say. And I think it would have gone like that if nobody told me about the problem. Maybe I don’t have a very good sense for this kind of thing, but I really think it wasn’t supposed to go that way.
Then there was the people reacting pretty disgusted. Ok. That’s good. You should always reject prejudice. The thing is, those are the same people that see no trouble on calling gays ‘veados’ (something like ‘fag’, but still felt as pretty offensive), or using the word ‘elephant’ to refer to fat people, as Gentili correctly pointed out on his blog today (27-07-09 – it doesn’t allow direct links, sorry). There’s a HUGE taboo in Brazil about racism. It’s a crime – and Gentili will be investigated – and people will always tell you how horrible that is. But they think it’s ok to be homophobes or bullies when it comes to anything else.
And last, but not least – and this is where I have to say I’m disappointed, though not shocked, about what Gentilli said – there was him talking about ‘the blondes’. On trying to get himself out of the racist accusations, he ended up acting in a terribly misogynistic way. Yes, it’s true that there are many women after good marriages with famous soccer players – and whoever is under the spotlight -, but saying that as a joke does not help combating such a behaviour. As associating monkeys with humans wouldn’t help on the fight against racism either.
I think Gentili has given a quite satisfactory explanation on his blog, and I’m looking forward to see what the Justice will conclude of all of this, but I really think we should calm down our nerves for now – or try to act on everything else that has been left behind.
I live with two friends, one girl and one boy. Before them, I had other three roommates, the last of whom became one of my greatest friends – not only mine, but also of my current roommates. She now lives in a city far, far away, but comes here often to visit us.
Last week, she travelled eleven hours by bus to make one of those visits. She came here, spent three days looking for tickets for her soccer team’s finals, paid a hell lot of money for them and had a great time with the guys. I was on a trip, but also maddly anxious to get home and join the party.
While travelling, I met some of my old (and best) friends. One of them also happens to be what you could call ‘love of my life’ (I don’t really like this expression, but people often use it to refer to us). He and I had a little talk and things turned a bit messy.
Well, it’s a very long story (ten years, actually; yes, we were young when it started), and I won’t get in much detail, but all you need to know is that we had a lot of trouble all this time and never really got to stay together. There were so many people trying to bring us together that it turned out to be a bad thing.
After years now, he’s trying to get closer again. I thought I was imune, that I didn’t feel anything about him anymore. You know, time passes by and things change. But I was wrong. And I was quite surprised and moved.
Anyway, I was already leaving with my lugagge when everything happened, so off course I spent the whole way back thinking about it. Nine hours. Without sleep. So I get home, go straight to bed and when I wake up a bit better, I still need to talk about this to someone. My visitor, who’s a psychology student, seems like a good option.
So I start telling her everything and she doesn’t seem much impressed. Ok, nothing wrong about that. It’s actually the way she reacts often, so I don’t really care. We go on talking stuff, until I joke about what his ex-girlfriends and I have in common: we’re all bisexual folks; they all left him for girls.
Now she seems perplexed. She looks at us (my roommies were also participating) and says: “My…! Is he really that bad?!“
Needless to say I was shocked. At that moment, I didn’t even know how to react. She’s a psychology graduate. She’s one of the most liberated people I know. She revolted against her family for many, many stuff. Out of everybody, she was the last one I would expect that from. Again, I was shocked.
But it was good. It served to remind me that no one is free of having prejudice against something. There’s no Super Woman/Man.
Still, besides my love for her, the offense will get on for a while. Lesbianism/bisexualism is not the result of someone’s disappointment – it may well be in some cases, but definetely not what defines it.
I’m still waiting for an opportunity where I can make things clear, but I hope that was just an misunderstanding. I hope she doesn’t really think that way. More than everything, though, I hope from now on I will think twice about what I’m gonna say.
I don’t know where this comes from, and in fact I haven’t seen anyone outside Brazil celebrating it, but here we call July 13th the International Day of Rock. Apparently, it was inspired by the ‘Live Aid’ concerts that took place in London, Moscow, Philadelphia and Sydney in 1985.
I decided to take this opportunity to share some of my favorite rock bands that are formed by or have women in their line-up. I chose ten bands of many styles.
- Arkona
Masha Scream (Vocals)
My favorite band ever. Arkona is a Russian folk metal band. I’m addicted to almost everything folk-related. Also, I’m a big, big fan of female unclean vocals and girls with swords, so it was really easy to start loving this band. Masha ‘Scream’ Arhipova, the vocalist, is awesome. They will release a new album in September. You can check the album’s art at their website.
Sample: Tuman Yarom
Sena Jun as Death in 'Elisabeth' (2009).
Yes, we knew it was coming. It doesn’t make things better, though. I’ve had the same feeling when Haruno Sumire retired two years ago.
After Osa, Asako was my favorite Siénne, and that’s why I’m so sad about this announcement. The current top stars are not so thrilling, and I fear it will be like that for a while. I hope they’ll make Kiryan top this time.
I don’t know about the other fans, but I think it’s always sad to see a top depart. When it comes to otokoyaku, they are not only finishing their Zuka carriers, they’re changing their personas, as we know it, forever. It’s always shocking to see your favorite actress wearing a suit one day, and a flowery dress on the next (I guess I’ll never get used to Osa’s and Takako’s long hair! LOL!)
So this is it. I’m kinda sad. Surprising or not, I’ll miss her.
Her last performance will be at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, on December 27th. Buy your tickets.
Source: Yomiuri Online (via community.livejournal.com/takarazuka)
