Leaving Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film, Bruno, I was a little puzzled. Quite frankly, I was unclear on why America’s sexual minorities have their underwearzn in a klafumtik. From frame one the filmmakers make it painfully clear THIS IS A FARCE (and not a very good one as far as that goes). If anyone leaves the theater thinking Bruno is in any way a reflection of actual gay life, they are so homophobicly deluded that no film, regardless of how sensitively or realistically wrought it may be, would change their point of view.
That said, I think another demographic ought to be very upset with Cohen--people from the South. In this film, as well as almost everything he has created, Sacha Baron Cohen goes to Alabama or thereabouts to film scenes where low IQs are a high priority. In his TV show, Da Ali G Show, (first produced for the BBC then HBO in the States), of which I am a huge fan, he frequently shot south of the Mason-Dixon. In the guise of Borat, he would try to get old men to admit that slavery was not so bad or as Bruno he attempted to seduce a preacher who converts queers. Funny? Absolutely. Pointed? You bet. Prejudicial? Of course. The bottom line communicated in almost every episode of his TV show and two of his three feature films is, need bumpkins? Head South.
Cohen, who uses other’s biases to his advantage, is himself clearly prejudiced against anyone from the South Eastern United States. He is a victim of the media, which has spent most of a century trying to convince the rest of the world how backwards the South is as compared to points north, west and east. The South has, at least since the 1850s, been the go-to region as a sort of short hand for being bigoted or stupid. I challenge that idea.
Bigots exist everywhere, not just in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. In ten years of being a New York City resident I have met some of the most enlightened people one could ever hope to encounter. I have also seen and experienced hate and bigotry across race, sexual and class boundaries. Hey Sacha, if you want limousine liberals who say one thing and do another then let me take you on a tour of Long Island. Need a place where a scantily clad man prancing and sashaying will be attacked just for what he wears and how he wears it? A large percentage of New Jersey will suffice. Casting for an unabashed bigot who will attack anyone not like themselves? I got a lady on the fifth floor of my Brooklyn apartment building I need to introduce you to.
It’s easy to laugh at the South. In 2009, it is still one of the last of the mildly acceptable prejudices, right along with teasing sissies and making fat jokes. But for those of you who think the South has got some sort of exclusive with regard to bigotry and provincial small minds, I think you need to get out more.
© David Ezell 2009
All Rights Reserved
That said, I think another demographic ought to be very upset with Cohen--people from the South. In this film, as well as almost everything he has created, Sacha Baron Cohen goes to Alabama or thereabouts to film scenes where low IQs are a high priority. In his TV show, Da Ali G Show, (first produced for the BBC then HBO in the States), of which I am a huge fan, he frequently shot south of the Mason-Dixon. In the guise of Borat, he would try to get old men to admit that slavery was not so bad or as Bruno he attempted to seduce a preacher who converts queers. Funny? Absolutely. Pointed? You bet. Prejudicial? Of course. The bottom line communicated in almost every episode of his TV show and two of his three feature films is, need bumpkins? Head South.
Cohen, who uses other’s biases to his advantage, is himself clearly prejudiced against anyone from the South Eastern United States. He is a victim of the media, which has spent most of a century trying to convince the rest of the world how backwards the South is as compared to points north, west and east. The South has, at least since the 1850s, been the go-to region as a sort of short hand for being bigoted or stupid. I challenge that idea.
Bigots exist everywhere, not just in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. In ten years of being a New York City resident I have met some of the most enlightened people one could ever hope to encounter. I have also seen and experienced hate and bigotry across race, sexual and class boundaries. Hey Sacha, if you want limousine liberals who say one thing and do another then let me take you on a tour of Long Island. Need a place where a scantily clad man prancing and sashaying will be attacked just for what he wears and how he wears it? A large percentage of New Jersey will suffice. Casting for an unabashed bigot who will attack anyone not like themselves? I got a lady on the fifth floor of my Brooklyn apartment building I need to introduce you to.
It’s easy to laugh at the South. In 2009, it is still one of the last of the mildly acceptable prejudices, right along with teasing sissies and making fat jokes. But for those of you who think the South has got some sort of exclusive with regard to bigotry and provincial small minds, I think you need to get out more.
© David Ezell 2009
All Rights Reserved
I have some friends on Long Island and in NJ who have a bone to pick with you!
ReplyDeleteSpot on about the "regionalism" going on wherein the south is targeted as the only backassward place around.
'Membah Archie Bunker?
I do remember him. Now that you mention it, Baron Cohen plays the same sort of game as Norman Lear did with Arch. Liberals see Borat or Bruno and are shocked by their prejudices. Meanwhile closet bigots secretly love what he says...
ReplyDelete