The Minority Report
Last night I was watching Waleed Aly being interviewed by Andrew Denton on Enough Rope and some things he said really resonated with me:
...as human beings I think we like to see reflections of ourselves in the public space and Muslims have been really short on role models in the public space in Australia or even in in in the western world. We’ve had some very successful Muslims. John Ilhan, the late John Ilhan’s a very good example of that. But at the same time his real name was Mustafa and he had to become John to become a success.
But you know but someone like Bashar and and he’s a great man as well. I mean he’s impressed everyone at the Essendon Football club with his character, with the way he carries himself. And when you see him out there and you see him do that you suddenly for a moment have this belief this realisation that I could do that, if I had the talent. But but the thing that’s stopping me is that I’m no good not that I happen to be a Muslim or that I come from a Middle Eastern background and that’s incredibly powerful. It it’s so powerful, I don’t think people who don’t have that problem who have never encountered not being represented in the public space in some way understand how debilitating that can be.
Now substitute Muslim with Gay or Lesbian.
Representation is an important and powerful thing.
Comments
One of the main reasons why I'm comfortable in my own skin is because I became a student of gay history as a child. What little slivers of us were shown in mass media, were stereotypes (sissy man, mannish woman) to heap scorn on and mock. Understanding the 'tribe' I belonged to gave me a centeredness, but not only that, I learned what an amazing history we come from, having that commonality (homosexuality) with some of the greatest people who ever lived, but I had to seek that out MYSELF, ignoring the ugly representation of us in the media and looking elswhere. Not to knock straight people, but having "good," "good" being the key word here, representation is always going to be an uphill battle because the straight world doesn't WANT to see good representation of us. They feel a sense of privilage (marriage for example) by the simple fact they were born straight. Having good representation of us shows us just like them and they don't want to see us as just like them because the privilage goes away. In the states, if we are shown as accomplished or even just normal in the media, most people across the country cry out it's an attempt to mainstream a group normal they consider immoral, sick, perverse, etc. I wrote a post about gays in film, or lack of.
Love your stuff, don't leave vox. ; )