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Weighing In

by Carol Amoruso, Hispanic Village Feature Writer

[February 15, 2003]

The emails came fast and furiously last Sunday morning. Greetings like Check This Out! Can You Believe This? Mira Esto, and the more circumspect, "FYI" prefaced the polemic that was to follow. Finding me were copies of the now empty can of worms — the supposed advice column of the supposed Dame Edna Etherage, supposed British "housewife/superstar" replying to a supposed reader at a loss as to which foreign language to study. Should it be Spanish — 'Everyone is going to be speaking Spanish in 10 years. George W. Bush speaks Spanish.' Or French or Italian?

For those of our readers who've been in a cryogenic deep freeze these past few days and missed it, I offer Dame Edna's reply:

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 an American, try English.

I began my reply to the mailings: "Of course, Dame Edna's letter was disgusting and racist…." Since the initial uproar surrounding the column much water has flowed under London Bridge. For my part, I've been reviewing the press and reactions and done some pondering as well.

Who is this guy?

Not a reader of that panderer of pop culture Vanity Fair, I knew nothing about this supposed Dame Edna. I went searching. And found that Dame Edna is neither British nor a Dame, but Barry Humphries, an Australian man, married, whose public persona is female, one of the most popular satirists ever to hit the British stage, and that he's been lionized in a biography by no less than the sensitive and erudite theatre critic, John Lahr. (The pun here is intentional: Lahr is the son of Bert Lahr, the lion in the Wizard of Oz.) Lahr reports that Humphries, "a modest, quiet man" (who's to know?) cum Edna takes "revenge on liberalism," and by being "overtly obnoxious" and "tongue in cheek" (s)he "actually mocks bad taste." Since the eighties, London audiences have flocked to be abused (?) by someone who greets them with placards bearing: "Low brow entertainment at last" and "Minorities Welcome to a Point," one who refers to his public in the cheap seats as his "paupers."

Column point?

I now see the issue of the column as a toss-up, at best an act in bad taste, one amongst many authored by a person who's made a reputation world-wide on his bad taste; so if you have a sense of humor about bad taste, let it be, reflect and enjoy. At worst, the railings against Hispania are offensive, in the midst of many that reveal the inner workings of a sniping, racist soul. (Again, who's to know?) Either way, Dame Edna's outrageousness in the end will prove transforming. People will think twice before saying something potentially offensive and Latinos will be buoyed and united knowing that "you can't kick us around anymore."

Elitis petition

Following the column reprint was a petition in irate protest, addressed to the editors by one Wendy Maldonado of Jackson Heights, Queens, urging that Vanity Fair be boycotted until at least such time as they issue an apology for Dame Edna's comments.

Ms. Maldonado closed her protest thusly:

By the way, I am a 31-year old Mexican-American woman, with three Ivy League degrees, working in New York City at a major firm. I sure as hell am NOT the leaf blower or the help, and I think all of you need to go to college.

For Maldonado to object by saying "Latinos" "are not only leaf blowers" or "the help," etc., puts her in an elitist category of another sort. (There is a semantic problem here in her use of Latino. Cervantes and Garcia Lorca, both cited as inferior scribes, were both Spanish, European. Most Latinos take pride in calling themselves Latinos to distinguish New World Hispanics from the Old. 'Hispanic' generally encompasses the New and Old World hispanophone peoples as well as broad sweepings of culture.) In my book people are people and worth communicating with no matter what their station in life, and just because someone reads or writes great literature or has three Ivy League degrees doesn't give them any more legitimacy as a person.

All people, all languages, all people's non-destructive endeavors in life, deserve equal respect. Isn't it a pack of Ivy Leaguers that is leading the war machine today? And, as for the going to college, any college, suggestion, Barry Humphries, whose ignorance she objects so strongly to, is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, Australia's second most prestigious institution of higher learning.

Ms. Maldonado's views are insidious made more dangerous because she is unaware of her prejudices. It is lamentable that she finds it necessary to distance herself from other Latinos, assessing Latino value on the basis of class and education. All Latinos are legitimate whether they feed stereotypes or not.

Fair game and, not

I do agree with Ms. Maldonado on one point, however. There are certain groups whom, even in jest, you can't touch, and that causes sensitivity and resentment in others. It boils down to that quirky and arbitrary definition of PC. African-Americans and Jews are inviolable, as, I would say, are gays; the worst shame, even ostracism, of incorrectness will be heaped upon you at the slightest intonation of stereotype. (It was suggested once that I was anti-Semitic for jokingly accusing an overindulging friend of "Jewish mothering" me.) Given the histories, perhaps it is for good reasons that African-Americans' and Jews' sensitivities be respected, but you're treading over a minefield messing with some groups, while others, Latinos, for sure, Italian-Americans as well remain fair game. (Just look at the stereotypes perpetuated, even celebrated by "The Sopranos, and what's bizarre, it's Italian-Americans themselves promoting them.)

As Ms. Maldonado's letter unconsciously revealed, other pernicious and deep-seated stereotypes, those denigrating people who have few advocates, the uneducated, non-English speaking, poor working guy (and gal), will remain unchallenged unless we all decide to search for the forest of prejudice not just the tree.