And now for serious stuff. Race isn't something I really know how to talk about, having grown up in a monoculture. I've never had to consider it except as an abstract until moving over here. I've been thinking a lot about media presentations over the weekend.
I am concerned about the dehumanising effects of world media. I'm sick of seeing folks from abroad portrayed as victims. Now of course, if nothing interesting were happening in the country it wouldn't be news, and thus not being reported. But I am still starting to worry that it damages race relations by distorting our perceptions of foreign cultures. To take Iraq as an example, the only images we are given of Iraq are:
Journalists don't report Iraqi kids doing homework, because it's really boring. But even though I know, both logically and emotionally, that everyday stuff is going on, it's hard to keep that slippery fact in mind because they're not media images we are being given. Those three images are also purely emotional, visceral shots - and combined with a language barrier which makes the people we see unintelligable, it's hard to assign equal intelligence to them. Because of course I know, vaguely, or at least I'm pretty sure and it makes sense, that in Iraq there is as wide a variety of people as recogniseable from our streets: chav girls, bully boys, sensitive artistic souls, those who'll start an argument for no reason, or keep a debate going for the sheer delight of communicating. But that is only a very good guess, because the media has never given me any evidence for this. We are never shown a modern country evolved from an ancient culture, but a rabble of weeping, shouting folks in funny clothes.
One of the hardest hitting things for me during the Iran protests was photos of a shelled university dorm, because of course there universities in Iran, but it'd never consciously occured to me. Because Iran had never been introduced to me as anything but a potential nuke threat.
Everything gets boiled down to tropes. Until very recently, Doctor Who meant:
I also think language is part of the problem. One
of the reasons I always preferred English/American holidays a choice terror of being unable to communicate. I always intend to learn enough to get by, but then never have the courage to try speaking it. Instead, I spend the week scrutinising street-signs as if I could lap it up. Being unable to speak is a serious handicap, and being abroad transforms us into mutes. The Hurt Locker - a less good film than Black Hawk Down, and I think overall quite a thin one - depicts this very well. How can an army communicate with people if they cannot speak the language? We're all used to the image, whether from movies or the news, of hundreds of "towelheads" running and rioting while depending on the period, either firing at nothing or waving scimitars - and crucially - shouting in a language, which to us sounds like guttural nonsense. As would any tongue we don't understand. When interviews are not translated, they are spoken in the understandably broken English of one for whom it is a second language. Yet in everyday life, we interpret people who speak slowly or pause while speaking as less able, and nevermind how many languages we can speak, it's hard not to box such images like that.
Especially because, even if England means:
This all came out in a bit of a flood. I've been very concerned about the state of THE ENTIRE WORLD, no doubt demoralised by heroes who can save the world in 50 minutes plus ad breaks. It occured to me that Whitechapel of the 1880s has merely been outsourced. In the Victorian period, nobody cared about industrial abuse because it was all going on in an East End no decent person visited. The rookeries got cleaned up in the aftermath of the killings, and we got legal representation and stuff; but modern sweatshops operate exactly the same way. Like Whitechapel, they're out of sight and mind to consumers.
In trying to come up with a way to resolve the world's inequalities, it occured to me that I was basically thinking of a significant proportion of the world as victims. Ever since then, I've found it hard to find a form of charity which does not seem to be covertly depicting people who need our help, as a bit too useless to take care of themselves. Reliant on generous Western handouts, but otherwise helpless, and a bit like animals: unable to communicate properly, propelled purely by hate, fear and hunger, and incapable of reasoning.
That might be overstating it. And I'm sure people in trouble would prefer my cash than vague liberal guilt. But I'm concerned that all this has only just concretely occured to me now, and it's reminded me how insidious popular media imagery can be.
It's certainly screwed some of my gender ideas up, in a way too complex to ever tackle via blog right now. But in short, I'm increasingly aware of being somehow deeply misogynistic, and it's something to do with the interminable portrayal of women in cinema. I wonder what else it's affecting? It is only with about a year of conscious effort that I've convinced myself that fruit is nice, and chocolate isn't. But I've got to really think about it, and unlearn everything television ever taught me; and I still choose chocolate on reflex.
On the other hand, perhaps I'm just very, very susceptible to television. At least, I know I'm susceptible to television; but I wonder how universal this is. More so than most people happily admit to, I would guess. I definitely think this TV-trained-racism is partly responsible for the total "hearts and minds" failure going on in Iraq and Afghanistan as we speak; although that is a bit different, because you have to dehumanise "the enemy" to sucessfully fight a war.
If you could believe the people you were shooting at were as human as your next door neighbour, you couldn't do it.
Further viewing:
Planet of the Arabs
I can't get enough of this short! It's a rock music montage of Arabian stereotypes from movies. Features crazy-towelhead-rioting, "all I want is to KILL AMERICANS!", "there's nothing to stop them going anywhere in the US!", "you American imperialist pig!" - it's hypnotic, hilarious, and as Polonius would put it, "tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true"
"Born Free" - MIA
This music video just got banned, understandibly for violence, although it's turned into a bit of a censorship cause celebre. It is like the happy answer to everything I've wittered about today, using a genius idea which ahem I developed for a school assembly once...but don't think I hold a grudge, because it is an artistic masterpiece - gorgeously shot - and is definitely worth nine minutes of your time. I can't explain why without spoilers, so just see it y'know? Note how the American setting is codified with the now familiar tropes of the dust-war movie...
And now some thoughts:
I am concerned about the dehumanising effects of world media. I'm sick of seeing folks from abroad portrayed as victims. Now of course, if nothing interesting were happening in the country it wouldn't be news, and thus not being reported. But I am still starting to worry that it damages race relations by distorting our perceptions of foreign cultures. To take Iraq as an example, the only images we are given of Iraq are:
- Shakey camerawork of families wailing beside rubble
- Blurry, distant insurgents
- Crowds shouting in a disorientating language I don't understand
Journalists don't report Iraqi kids doing homework, because it's really boring. But even though I know, both logically and emotionally, that everyday stuff is going on, it's hard to keep that slippery fact in mind because they're not media images we are being given. Those three images are also purely emotional, visceral shots - and combined with a language barrier which makes the people we see unintelligable, it's hard to assign equal intelligence to them. Because of course I know, vaguely, or at least I'm pretty sure and it makes sense, that in Iraq there is as wide a variety of people as recogniseable from our streets: chav girls, bully boys, sensitive artistic souls, those who'll start an argument for no reason, or keep a debate going for the sheer delight of communicating. But that is only a very good guess, because the media has never given me any evidence for this. We are never shown a modern country evolved from an ancient culture, but a rabble of weeping, shouting folks in funny clothes.
One of the hardest hitting things for me during the Iran protests was photos of a shelled university dorm, because of course there universities in Iran, but it'd never consciously occured to me. Because Iran had never been introduced to me as anything but a potential nuke threat.
Everything gets boiled down to tropes. Until very recently, Doctor Who meant:
- man in a long scarf
- wobbly sets and rubbish monsters
- gentleman in top hat
- fog
- starving, potbellied children with flies (sometimes with celebs/aid workers)
- aparthite
- traditional dancing and singing
- Lions and giraffes
- rich white folk living in heavily protected walled zones vs. widespread criminal chaos
I also think language is part of the problem. One
of the reasons I always preferred English/American holidays a choice terror of being unable to communicate. I always intend to learn enough to get by, but then never have the courage to try speaking it. Instead, I spend the week scrutinising street-signs as if I could lap it up. Being unable to speak is a serious handicap, and being abroad transforms us into mutes. The Hurt Locker - a less good film than Black Hawk Down, and I think overall quite a thin one - depicts this very well. How can an army communicate with people if they cannot speak the language? We're all used to the image, whether from movies or the news, of hundreds of "towelheads" running and rioting while depending on the period, either firing at nothing or waving scimitars - and crucially - shouting in a language, which to us sounds like guttural nonsense. As would any tongue we don't understand. When interviews are not translated, they are spoken in the understandably broken English of one for whom it is a second language. Yet in everyday life, we interpret people who speak slowly or pause while speaking as less able, and nevermind how many languages we can speak, it's hard not to box such images like that.Especially because, even if England means:
- the Queen
- Upper class toffs playing cricket
- Tea. Butlers.
- Big Ben
- Emotional frigidity
- Shakespeare
This all came out in a bit of a flood. I've been very concerned about the state of THE ENTIRE WORLD, no doubt demoralised by heroes who can save the world in 50 minutes plus ad breaks. It occured to me that Whitechapel of the 1880s has merely been outsourced. In the Victorian period, nobody cared about industrial abuse because it was all going on in an East End no decent person visited. The rookeries got cleaned up in the aftermath of the killings, and we got legal representation and stuff; but modern sweatshops operate exactly the same way. Like Whitechapel, they're out of sight and mind to consumers.
In trying to come up with a way to resolve the world's inequalities, it occured to me that I was basically thinking of a significant proportion of the world as victims. Ever since then, I've found it hard to find a form of charity which does not seem to be covertly depicting people who need our help, as a bit too useless to take care of themselves. Reliant on generous Western handouts, but otherwise helpless, and a bit like animals: unable to communicate properly, propelled purely by hate, fear and hunger, and incapable of reasoning.
That might be overstating it. And I'm sure people in trouble would prefer my cash than vague liberal guilt. But I'm concerned that all this has only just concretely occured to me now, and it's reminded me how insidious popular media imagery can be.
It's certainly screwed some of my gender ideas up, in a way too complex to ever tackle via blog right now. But in short, I'm increasingly aware of being somehow deeply misogynistic, and it's something to do with the interminable portrayal of women in cinema. I wonder what else it's affecting? It is only with about a year of conscious effort that I've convinced myself that fruit is nice, and chocolate isn't. But I've got to really think about it, and unlearn everything television ever taught me; and I still choose chocolate on reflex.
On the other hand, perhaps I'm just very, very susceptible to television. At least, I know I'm susceptible to television; but I wonder how universal this is. More so than most people happily admit to, I would guess. I definitely think this TV-trained-racism is partly responsible for the total "hearts and minds" failure going on in Iraq and Afghanistan as we speak; although that is a bit different, because you have to dehumanise "the enemy" to sucessfully fight a war.
If you could believe the people you were shooting at were as human as your next door neighbour, you couldn't do it.
Further viewing:
Planet of the Arabs
I can't get enough of this short! It's a rock music montage of Arabian stereotypes from movies. Features crazy-towelhead-rioting, "all I want is to KILL AMERICANS!", "there's nothing to stop them going anywhere in the US!", "you American imperialist pig!" - it's hypnotic, hilarious, and as Polonius would put it, "tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true"
"Born Free" - MIA
This music video just got banned, understandibly for violence, although it's turned into a bit of a censorship cause celebre. It is like the happy answer to everything I've wittered about today, using a genius idea which ahem I developed for a school assembly once...but don't think I hold a grudge, because it is an artistic masterpiece - gorgeously shot - and is definitely worth nine minutes of your time. I can't explain why without spoilers, so just see it y'know? Note how the American setting is codified with the now familiar tropes of the dust-war movie...
And now some thoughts:
- Do you agree? Disagree?
- How do you think we could improve representation?
- What is your favourite crazy-Arab movie? I was thinking maybe The Mummy, that's got some delicious stereotypes.
- And what do you think is the best representation of foreign cultures as equally human?
Comments (2)
POV movie shorthand for point of view. See if you can catch a Palestinian movie and see how the Israelis are portrayed. Note how Hollywood and US/Vancouver TV constantly portrays Brits as villains (I've seen clips of this in Bollywood too). Think how depressed Germans must be at always being the bad guys. Movies are full of cypers for the Other. Think about kids movies where instead of rounded characters they use animals or toys. There is probably no objective view. Many of the people who we liberals would like to embrace and understand would resent our attempts to do so (indeed not even understand it). Think of outmoded historical attitudes to i.e. slavery, women, gays, child labour, blood sports, war to see how transitory our opinions are. Islamic fundamentalists, I understand, regard liberal democracy as laughable. That's why Starship Troopers is such a cracking movie - there is no guilt in nuking a cockroach.
But the difference is, Americans and Canadians do not believe Brits are truly villainous, because villain images are accompanied by other, positive images:
Shakespeare, Hugh Grant, the monarchy/upper classes, British History - my penpal is a huge anglophile, and loves the Forsite Saga, Bleak House e.t.c.
Movie images of villainous Brits are neutralised by other images of Britain as an old historical country e.t.c. And while Brit accents are percieved as villainous on screen, in real life - as we well know - many Americans find them dead cute; besides, we speak the same language and can communicate easily.
The ONLY image of Iraq we get is a hostile dangerzone - no one talks about the Cradle of Civilisation, their architecture, art or cuisine. Can you name me an Iraqi movie? But they must HAVE a movie industry, a music industry - even Senegal has Youssou N'Dour e.t.c.
Germany, I agree, is a problem: but the majority of media made in or about Germany portrays Fascism as firmly in the past.
Indeed there is no objective view, and different people are different. And some movies - i.e. Black Hawk Down - benefit artistically from a skewed POV.
But representing whole chunks of the world soley in terms which bar understanding is a deadly mistake. Media is so important to shaping popular opinion, and has realworld consequences. Yet Iraqis are less real to me than Daleks, existing only as television shorthand. If we could believe that other races were as human as us, we would not be able to attack them. Think how weird the idea of America invading France, or hell, even Britain would be.
And that's why Ed Zwick movies always stick a white man in there, as an audience identification figure. It's working on the assumption that black soldiers/Samurai/diamond farmers are too alien in human experience for an audience to automatically sympathise with. Instead, our hands are held by a white identification figure - but they are only "more like us" in terms of their culture/race. Broderick and Cruise are civil war soldiers, just like Denzel Washington et al, and I think diCaprio was a mercinary. In other words, being black/Japanese is intrinsically as weird as being Timelord, so we need a "normal" companion to help us understand.
(for the record, I don't mind "Glory" because it has a very solid basis in fact. It's just when combined with "Blood Diamond" and "Last Samuri" alarm bells go off)
And on the topic of Israel and Palestine, catch this genius gem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53CHUjVWljU
Me and Spirita watched this while tucking into matzos with hummus :D