Sex, Race, America, and Disney (response to Susan's post)

[heidit at netbox.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Ebony Elizabeth Thomas" <ebonyink at h...> 
wrote:
> Susan wrote:
> 
> If I boycotted every institution that fell into the above 
categories, I'd 
> never get anything done.  I wouldn't own a car, watch television, 
visit 
> CompUSA, eat at certain restaurants, or do a thousand other things 
that 
> anyone else does.  I'd live in a shack.  I wouldn't do business with 
just 
> about any financial institution.
> 
> And I would have missed out on a lot of great Disney movies.

Eli Wiesel had a fascinating editorial in the NY Times about 10 days 
ago - it'll only be up through the 14th, I think, but it's worth a 
read if you can at 
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/05/opinion/05WIES.html - "only the 
guilty are guilty: the children of killers are not killers, but 
children..." In other words, if you boycott disney, ro any other 
business, on a going forward basis for "sins" in the past, you're 
blaming the current leadership for things that were not within their 
control. However, if you want to avoid individual productions for 
reasons related to their aesthetic or intrinsic merit, that's a 
different kettle of fish. Why it would prevent someone from seeing 
something like Mulan, or the stage version of the Lion King, or 
visiting Epcot's World Showcase is beyond me, IMHO.
> 
> And I never expected that "someday my prince would come", like Snow 
> White's. 
Now, something I heard over and over again, in college and in the 
workplace, from women who were 12 years and more older than me, who 
either put off having kids or decided to put their careers on hold, 
and who (about 3 years ago) could not *fathom* how I was going to have 
a full time career and a baby at the same time (now, in my case, we 
know it takes a village, and we're lucky to have one, with 5 
great-grandparents, 2 grandparents, a sister, brotherinlaw and brother 
who live within 50 miles of us, and who are always willing & able to 
pitch in when my husband & my schedules get complicated) and we 
couldn't fathom what the problem with it would be. So when I see 
articles like the one in Salon today about the gov. of Massacheusetts, 
who had twins today 
(http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/05/16/pregnant_swift/index.html 
- written before she delivered) that say things about a "new 
generation.Call it post-feminist, third wave or the more generic term 
Generation X. However one chooses to define it, Swift represents  
generation of women who are more comfortable with forcing those around 
them to accept that a woman can fit -- comfortably and conveniently, 
thank you very much -- into more than one category"
Well, of course we can. Doesn't everybody? I grew up with a major 
affection for Cinderella stories - my first chapter novel may've been 
Little Women, but I read A LIttle Princess next, and when I reread it 
last fall, I noticed just how influential it was over the words I use 
and the rhythm in which I think, and probably in the fact that I read 
as much as I do - and always have. It was really strange to see that 
the word "surfeit" which many of you know has a special meaning to me 
right now, and which I've always used...comes from that book. And I 
guess that means that in some ways, I consciously modeled myself on 
Sara Crewe, or Jo March, or Cinderella, but I probably drew as much 
from Pete, owner of a dragon named Eliot, and I know I look at 
mornings the way I do because when I was 5, I saw the musical version 
of Oliver on our first betamax. But there's NO way anyone could've 
predicted that all those influences that I picked up in the 70s 
would've manifested themselves in me the exact way they did - and 
avoiding any of those individual influences would've been a great loss 
to me (and to all of you who've made it this far - so I say "thank 
you, nice people!"