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Vanity Fair Apology for Dame Edna Racist Column

by Hispanic Village Staff

[February 15, 2003]

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. When, 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,