gummo again

[Steve Perry]

Why is this tolerated? Because it is gratifying for marginalized people to see their lives reflected in *any* manner through entertainment media; because there is a recognition of--and even a caste/class pride in--the elements of truth in the stereotype that's being toyed with (and it is very often manipulated to produce jokes on the dominant culture); and also perhaps because they possess a sense of humor about themselves (which is the aspect that intellectuals generally miss altogether).

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From: 	Jennifer A Young
Sent: 	Tuesday, April 27, 1999 2:10 PM
To: 	lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Subject: 	Re: gummo again 

Dear Folks,

     Against my better judgement, I am compelled to reiterate my feelings
about the Gummo threads.  Evidently, I did not make myself clear when I
brought up this movie.  This is the way I see it:

Kelly made some comments about how some elites sterotype certain people, and
assign the negative label "white trash" to them.  She said these elites can
describe what "white trash" people  eat, how they look, what they drive,
ect.  Ba Bing!  What comes first to my mind is this movie I just saw.  If
someone says the word "white trash", the folks in that movie would describe
my preconcieved notions of what the defintion of "white trash" is.   This
confirms Kelly's point that the sterotype exists.  With regard to the people
I knew, I was disturbed by their aggressive, destructive behavior, as I was
disturbed by the behavior of the teens in Gummo.  Now, I do not find it
politically incorrect to make observations about people that I come across.
What is unacceptalble is making generalizations about groups of people and
labeling them accordingly.  Finally, the persistant joke about "Kentuckians"
that folks in Indiana perpetuate, was just another example of a sterotype
that is common where I live, and that I personally find offensive.  One more
comment.  The comedian Jeff Foxworthy and his "then you might be a redneck"
jokes are very popular with the country folk around here.  It is perfectly
acceptable for him to make jokes about trailer parks and doughy white butt
cracks showing, and nobody I know of anyway, calls him a classist, because
he his a white country style fellow.  The same phenomenon exists when some
of the very talented black comedians make fun of their own people.  Why is
this tolerated?

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