[RAICES] crap in vanity fair

Wed Feb 19 20:56:11 EST 2003

Hi,

This forum is not intended for people to be calling petitions «stupid». Please, 
don't do so.

I am enclosing the apologize that Vanity Fair has offered.

Adrián

-------------------------

Dear Reader: 

We are writing you to relay our distress at the reaction a column in the 
February issue of Vanity Fair has caused you and others within the Latin 
community in the United States and elsewhere, and to explain the reasoning 
behind our decision to publish the column, the effect of which has been the 
exact opposite of what we intended. Our intent, in short, was to mock the very 
ethnic stereotypes that some have accused us of reinforcing. 

Dame Edna Everage is a fictitious character created and portrayed by the 
Australian entertainer and author Barry Humphries. Edna is a caricature of a 
certain type of small-minded, socially ambitious, vaguely upper-class person. 
Those familiar with Dame Edna's performances understand that her politically 
incorrect and often insulting utterances are meant as a parody of backward 
attitudes Humphries finds irritating or offensive.     

When we hired Barry Humphries two years ago to write a satirical advice column 
in Dame Edna's name, we did so on the comedic premise that Dame Edna is the 
last person on Earth that anyone would go to for sound advice. In stark 
contrast to a serious advice columnist, Dame Edna takes her questioners' worst 
assumptions and runs with them. Then, for instance, in the same column that 
has caused so much controversy, one questioner asks about a lingering redness 
that has resulted from a cosmetic operation, Edna replies, "You'll probably 
look like a beetroot for the rest of your life." When another expresses a 
distaste for salmon, she launches into an irrational attack on the fish, even 
suggesting that it causes salmonella. Clearly, this advice column should not 
be taken seriously.   

In her column in our February issue, Edna responds to a questioner who claims 
to feel pressure to learn Spanish. Right away, her outrageously ignorant 
suggestions that the only work of Spanish literature worth reading is Don 
Quixote, and that "a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care 
of that," tip the reader off that this is not a sincere, intelligent, or in 
any way legitimate analysis and that it is not meant to be taken at face 
value. She goes on: "Who speaks [Spanish] that you are so desperate to talk 
to? The help? Your leaf blower?" The backward bigotry of these statements was 
so far over the line that we felt it could only be taken as satire. In our 
judgment it was a politically incorrect but blatantly satirical barb directed 
against anyone who might be unaware of the great contributions Latin people 
have made and continue to make in every walk of life, here in the United 
States and around the world. (Note, too, that two sentences later, she insults 
English-speaking Americans, saying, "If you're American, try [learning] 
English.")   

Ironically, perhaps, the February issue featured a cover story on Salma Hayek. 
Talk about Spanish-speaking people the average American would be desperate to 
have a conversation with: there's the Oscar-nominated Salma Hayek; her 
brilliant furniture-designer brother, Sami; the handsome leading man Antonio 
Banderas; the director Robert Rodriguez; and the great 20th century artists 
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Elsewhere in the magazine, John Richardson, who 
has devoted years to writing the definitive biography of the great Spanish 
painter Pablo Picasso, writes a long feature about Picasso's friendly rivalry 
with Henri Matisse. Would a magazine that honestly endorsed opinions like 
those voiced by the character Dame Edna have published these articles? 

We have apologized publicly for the offense we caused unintentionally-indeed, 
counter to our intentions. We will reprint our public apology and a number of 
letters, including one by Salma Hayek herself, in our April issue, which will 
be published in the second week of March. We are asking those who feel 
offended by this piece to forgive us for our insensitivity. We also ask them 
to consider the context-the fact that these statements were meant to be read 
ironically-and to take into account the fact that it was never, ever our goal 
to disparage or insult any ethnic group. We are confident that our history and 
our future will erase any suspicions that we are biased against Spanish 
speakers or anyone else. 

Sincerely, 
The Editors 

----------------------------

Quoting jib02 at hampshire.edu:

> For all of you who were seriously offended by the column in Vanity Fair I'd
> 
> like you all to know that Dame Edna is a famous comedian. Hellloooo!! Her 
> column is in the magazine solely for humorous purposes. Of course its
> supposed 
> to be ridiculous. So is she. I advise that before you get horribly upset
> about 
> something you do some reseach. This was the most pointless and stupid
> petition 
> Ive ever seen.
> Julia
> http://www.dame-edna.com/
> 
> Quoting daniel older <djolder1 at yahoo.com>:
> 
> > 
> > The following appeared in Vanity Fair magazine
> > (February 2003), p. 116,
> > in the column "Ask Dame Edna":
> > Dear Dame Edna,
> > I would very much like to learn a foreign language,
> > preferably French or
> > Italian, but every time I mention this, people tell me
> > to learn Spanish
> > instead. They say, "Everyone is going to be speaking
> > Spanish in 10
> > years. George W. Bush speaks Spanish." Could this be
> > true? Are we all
> > going to have to speak Spanish? Torn Romantic, Palm
> > Beach
> > Dear Torn:
> > Forget Spanish. There's nothing in that language worth
> > reading except
> > Don Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La
> > Mancha will take
> > care of that. There was a poet named Garcia Lorca, but
> > I'd leave him on
> > the intellectual back burner if I were you. As for
> > everyone's speaking
> > it, what twaddle! Who speaks it that you are really
> > desperate to talk
> > to? The help? Your leaf blower? Study French or
> > German, where there are
> > at least a few books worth reading, or, if you're
> > American, try English.
> > Dame Edna
> > If this example of anti-Latino racism offends you,
> > this petition
> > encourages you to participate in a mass effort to
> > request a formal
> > apology from Vanity Fair and "Dame Edna," to support a
> > boycott of Vanity
> > Fair magazine, and to urge others to do the same.
> > If you would like to sign the petition, please copy
> > (rather than
> > forward) this email in a new message, sign it and
> > number your name, and
> > circulate it widely.
> > 
> > If you receive this list with 100 names signed, please
> > send it to the
> > Editor at vfmail at vf.com
> > Thank you!
> > Dear Editor,
> > We, the undersigned, are infuriated at Dame Edna's
> > response to Torn
> > Romantic, Palm Beach (Vanity Fair, February 2003).
> > Dame Edna could have
> > chosen any number of amusing responses; however, she
> > responded using
> > cheap, two-dimensional stereotypes of Latinos and
> > Latin Americans,
> > revealing not only her racism but also her profound
> > ignorance of who we
> > are. As of last week, we are officially the largest
> > minority population
> > in the United States at 37 million and 13% of the
> > population. Without
> > us, the economy of the United States would come to a
> > complete
> > standstill. Moreover, if Dame Edna were even remotely
> > cultured or
> > educated, she would have read and lost herself in the
> > exquisite writings
> > of countless Latin American authors, including Nobel
> > prize winners
> > Octavio Paz, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, and Pablo Neruda.
> > Dame Edna would
> > have NEVER written such blatantly offensive material
> > about African
> > Americans or Jews, for obvious reasons. It seems that
> > Dame Edna AND the
> > Editors of Vanity Fair believe that Latinos and Latin
> > Americans cannot
> > read, and even if we could, we would never be Vanity
> > Fair readers. We
> > demand an apology in print in the next issue of Vanity
> > Fair from the
> > Editors and from Dame Edna. In the meantime, we will
> > be mobilizing a
> > boycott in protest of Vanity Fair.
> > Signed,
> > 1. Dr. Nicholas De Genova, Professor, Latino Studies,
> > Columbia
> > University, New York City.
> > 2.  Nadia Guessous, Graduate Student, Anthropology and
> > Gender Studies, 
> > Columbia University, New York City, NY.  USA.
> > 3. Lucia Gimeno, Organizer, Brooklyn, NY.  USA 
> > 4. Daniel José Older, student, Amherst MA USA
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > 
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
> > http://mailplus.yahoo.com
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > RAICES mailing list
> > RAICES at lists.hampshire.edu
> > http://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/raices
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> RAICES mailing list
> RAICES at lists.hampshire.edu
> http://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/raices
> 