Well, if you haven't yet, you are surely soon to hear about the comments Jamie Foxx and others made on his radio show regarding Miley Cyrus- rude, misogynyistic, sexist, racist, and rather hateful comments (as can be listened to here ). Neither star ranks very high on my radar- but the issue was forced into my line of sight thanks to my father's out-of-place reaction to it late last night.
He plopped down onto the couch and immediately began to rail on about it- how incredibly horrible it was, saying these things about the poor young girl. I couldn't help but wonder why my father was up in arms over the whole thing (although his sounding like a hot regurgitated mess from some conservative talk radio host might have been a good guess). He's simply not very interested in celebrity culture and certainly not in Disney teen idols. The outrage was odd, to say the least, and I pointed it out- why, exactly, did he care?
It was then and only then, that the truth behind it started to slip out, bit by bit. "Black people are all like that," He began, while I listened in open-mouthed shock. "You know they're the most racist people out there, right? They're so sensitive about every little thing, but think they should be able to say anything they want."
As I've done more Internet sleuthing on the whole thing, it would seem he's not alone in his sentiments about racial double standards- comparisons between Jamie Foxx and Don Imus abound, as do articles screaming about hypocrisy ("If it had been the other way around, she'd be called a total racist.") and how lightly he's apparently getting off. [I'm not quite sure that's true . . . the Miley fanbase has been mobilized, and I doubt a single preteen will attend his new movie].
It's not that I don't feel offended- of course I do. It seems like whenever you get a group of men in a radio station, all hell breaks loose (see Opie & Anthony, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, and Howard Stern, of course, etc., etc.) and the vilest things fall out of their mouths. Shock jock radio tends to disgust me, and there's no excuse for saying such things, these comments that ultimately hurt women everywhere (trying to take Miley down a peg for her Radiohead comments by focusing on appearances, using sexist and racist language and trying to equate her to a "skank", instead of simply pointing out the giant head and ego).
But my issues with the comments themselves are taking a backseat to the fuss that seems to be surrounding their context.
Perhaps it doesn't help that I've been reading "The Purity Myth"; my head is full of images of fatherly protection over innocent, virginal [white] girls, and the whole thing has left me feeling more than a little cold. Particularly when you add in the fact that these comments are sexualized and spoken by a black man, and all of the sudden I just get chills, a little bit- how far have we come? My father's strange, righteous anger, completely foreign to me, is eerily mimicking these old models- an older white man protecting a young, innocent, white girl against a "threatening" black man . . . it feels all too sickeningly familiar.
When I read comments on news stories that say "Jaime foxx should be fired, arrested, casterated [sic], and shot.", I get scared. I hate conspiracy theories, and yet I can't help but feel that there's a lot of racist, anti-black sentiment stirring up- anger at Obama's election and policies, channeled into the first black celebrity to screw up. Is it just me?
Politics of race aside, my father also had another surprising, almost hidden comment, as he again emphasized her age ("She's only 16!"), he also added in "And it's not like she's even done anything like that." (Like drugs, sex, partying). Translation? She is a good girl, not a bad girl. If she had been in any sort of trouble, it would have been perfectly fine to call her a bitch and engage in ill-wishing and hopes for drug abuse and STD's, because these soiled, damaged girls obviously need to be punished.
A Google search for "Miley responds to Jamie" comes up with nothing except for articles about what her father, Billy Ray had to say- and that gets my hackles up, too- especially since her Twitter response ("If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.") is infinitely more interesting to me than what her father had to say. (Since, of course, attacks on a woman's purity and name are something that reflects on her father, obviously!). I know that she is 16- not yet an adult by our social standards- but the trend of referring to her as a "child" seems disingenuous to me. A child? She's a teenager, an adolescent, but using the phrase "16 year-old child", referring instantly to her dad for his response . . . it all seems like a ploy, a ruse meant to keep her in a perpetual state of girlhood, the better to stress the virginal innocence being sullied by these comments.
I spent the entire night tossing and turning and rolling these ideas in my head, as I'm wont to do when something strikes me as wrong, not quite right. I'd like to hope that my dad is not representative of the majority, but part of me is sad, knowing that he isn't- and perhaps that's why I've written this community post, to vent out that sadness.
Perhaps I am reading too much into all of this- if so, let me know. As always, I welcome your comments!
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Well analyzed. I think your reading of both the racial and sexist/virginal scripts is spot on. And unfortunately, I too, think these opinions are representative of the majority. Still waiting for this "progress" we've supposedly made. It'll come...right?
The one thing everyone is missing that is setting all the fathers off, is not the difference in the color of the skin. It is the difference in age. Something is terribly wrong in the mind of a 41 year old, to say such terrible things about a 16 year old.
It's as simple as that. Any other story you decide to tell, is just that, your story, not to be confused with the truth.
I think your version of the 'truth' might be a little simplistic. I think there are a lot of complex things going on here.
"Something is terribly wrong in the mind of a 41 year old, to say such terrible things about a 16 year old."
Though yes, that is definitely part of the story.
It sounds like Miley herself dealt with it perfectly. She sounds like an intelligent young woman.
But I don't blame her father for being upset, I think any parent would be. I don't know her family situation but if I was a mother and somebody said that about my child I would be upset too. It has nothing to do with race or gender, just parents wanting to protect their children. I say 'child' not meaning a little girl but for lack of a better word for 'offspring'.
The way others have responded is a different matter. There's definitely been an outrageous over-reaction in the press. What Jamie Foxx said was out of order, but when people are saying he deserves all sorts of horrible things to happen to him... that's just insane. And people are definitely responding to it in a male, white-supremacist way. I think you're spot on about that.
I listend to the show: they ALL (including a woman on the show) start calling her a "white bitch." That seems racist to me. I do think the reaction is different because of the race roles: not that's really unavoidable in our culture, with the context of racism in America. But he _should_ be fired, or reprimanded-no one should be able to get away with racist and sexist slurs. Where the heck is the FCC?