37 min listen
Strange Fruit #105: TV That Shatters Stereotypes (and Porn that Reinforces Them)
FromStrange Fruit
ratings:
Length:
30 minutes
Released:
Feb 6, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
After spending January looking back at some of our favorite conversations, we're back this week with a brand new episode — and we have a lot of hot topics to catch up on! So this week, we're doing an all-Juicy-Fruit episode, and we're joined by PR guru and friend-to-the-show, Walter Walker (you might remember him from WFPL's 2013 Defining Fairness series: http://wfpl.org/life-without-labels-walter-w-walker-ii-defining-fairness/). We talk about a Huffington Post article last week by Mike Alvear, which looked at racial dynamics in gay porn. The piece, "Why Are Whites Always the Bottom in Interracial Porn?" says the porn industry caters to white people, who they say are their highest-paying customers. We talk about the ways in which we're socialized to view black men as hypersexual and aggressive, and how those images are perpetuated (and even exaggerated) in the fantasy world of porn. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-alvear/why-are-whites-always-the_b_6503674.html) We also talk about the Ghostbusters reboot — both our own opinions, and internet fanboys' sexist reactions. Also, remember Mary Cheney? She's the white lesbian daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and she was apparently confused this week about drag and blackface. She wrote on her facebook wall, "Why is it socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for men to put on dresses, make-up and high heels and act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.) — but it is not socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for a white person to put on blackface and act out offensive stereotypes of African Americans? Shouldn't both be OK or neither?" As a public service to Mary (because our Fruitcakes already know) we break down the differences between subversive and oppressive entertainment, and talk about the roots of each phenomenon. We're also not sure what kind of drag shows she's been to; when we see drag done in queer spaces, it doesn't tend to poke fun at women at all. And finally, while we were on break, Empire took television completely by storm! We talk about the new resurgence in scripted black television, and the importance of three-dimensional characters of color with complex relationships and lives.
Released:
Feb 6, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Strange Fruit #54: 'Eenie Meanie' Examines Baby Boomer Racism & Louisville Busing Riots: "These buses came back from the West End with these little kids on them, and they were crying, there were windows knocked out. They had been beaten with baseball bats, they had been called every horrible racial name you can expect, right here in this town." It sounds like a scene we'd expect to see in the deep South, but this happened in Louisville in the middle of the 1970s, when public schools implemented the busing system. That's how performing artist Teresa Willis remembers it, and it makes up part of her one-woman show, [Eenie Meanie](http://eeniemeanie.com/). Because Louisville itself was so segregated, neighborhood schools were largely either black or white. Busing was designed to achieve greater diversity within school, but was met with resistance. "Racism really came out of the closet in my community," Teresa remembers. "There's crosses burning at the football field. Literally, we're at a by Strange Fruit