Dame Edna `joke' went far too far

Houston Chronicle ^ | Feb. 23, 2003, 12:18AM | By ANA VECIANA-SUAREZ

[weegee]

We all know the medicinal value of laughter. A good chuckle clears the air, draws song from silence.

In my book, a sense of humor is one of the prime qualities I would look for in a mate. After all, how can we get through life, through this valley of tears, without a healthy bit of hysterics?

Sometimes the best satire is the one aimed squarely between our eyes. The one that elicits an ouch. The one that, between hiccups, makes us nod in recognition.

The ability to laugh at ourselves is a blessing. A blessing and an affirmation. Nothing like a joke to wring hope from despair, don't you think?

So I thought.

I've been musing about the purpose -- and the caustic sting -- of humor since one of my sisters forwarded me an e-mail about Dame Edna. Yes, possums, that Dame Edna, the one with the out-there glasses and the what's-that-awful-color tresses.

Those who have followed the Australian dame's meteoric rise in the humor factory know she skewers whatever and whomever she wants, and with lacerating delight.

This month, though, the self-described housewife, social anthropologist, swami, megastar and (for the uninitiated) alter ego of comedian Barry Humphries has gotten herself into trouble. A very American kind of trouble.

In her February column in the chi-chi magazine Vanity Fair, Edna dear Edna answers a letter from a fictional reader who wonders if Spanish is worth learning: "Forget Spanish. There's nothing in that language worth reading except Don Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care of that."

After dismissing poet Garcia Lorca to the intellectual back burner, she goes on to opine: "Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help? Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are at least a few books worth reading, or, if you're American, try English."

A firestorm of outrage followed, including a letter from the president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, calling Dame Edna's column "an appalling display of bigotry."

In its regret, Vanity Fair officially responded that the comments "were offered in the spirit of outrageous comedy and were never intended to be taken to heart." In other words: What you so uptight about, man? Don't you get it?

Which brings me back to my original musings about humor. See, I do get it. I do, I do. Just hold the laughter until I get a tissue for my tears.

I get it because I -- and all those who bear my kind of surname -- have been the butt of so many demeaning jokes and such debasing stereotypes that we have a trigger-quick sensitivity to these things. It's not funny anymore.

On one level, I know that by its very nature humor is bound to stomp on some toes. But on another, on that level that has had doors slammed, backs turned, hopes dashed, I also understand that too often satire masks prejudice and a joke can be just another word for discrimination.

I wonder what kind of reaction the Dame might have garnered had she written about the dearth of African-American lit other than Toni Morrison's.

The sad part about Dame Edna's advice is not her words but Vanity Fair's decision to run them, thinking that the "patently absurd comments" -- the magazine's phrase -- wouldn't offend.

Are we so removed from each other, so ignorant of others' thinking, that we don't know when a swipe goes far too far?

Now, here's a real joke for you, if you like irony.

Guess who's on the cover of the magazine? Salma Hayek. Mexican.

Veciana-Suarez is a family columnist for the Miami Herald. She welcomes readers' responses at aveciana@herald.com

[evilC]

The Salma Hayek versus Friedrich Hayek Scorecard

Hmmmmm .....
.... I'll take the picture of Salma and the theories of Friedrich!

[evilC]

"... if you're American, try English"

Sounds like a dig at American English. Where's the outrage over that?

[weegee]

Yes I agree, it was the journalist who phrase the argument on race. As if Spaniards, Mexicans, and Peruvians have any unity in their films and literature because they all speak Spanish.

The Spanish Language was the crux of Edna's essay (which I have not read but gather from the editorial).

I don't understand why Mexicans like to say that they are Native Americans and then hold onto the conquoring Spaniards' language like it is something to cherish.

In Peru, some Indians hold onto the old language, while others speak only Spanish or learn enough English to be able to converse (at least for commerce) with Americans and other English speaking people.

[Tamzee]

After dismissing poet Garcia Lorca to the intellectual back burner, she goes on to opine: "Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help? Your leaf blower?

Actually, if I were Spanish I would be very offended by that remark. In fact, on behalf of my husband who IS Spanish and my children who are half-Spanish, I am disgusted.

She makes a crude remark that the only people who speak Spanish are of a lower class and therefore no one of value. She's blatantly crass and the remark is bigotry no matter how she fumbles to pretend otherwise. I agree the left goes way too far in sobbing about "discrimination" and too far in trying to validate affirmative action and other types of "minority programs". But the one thing that both sides have right is that some individuals have poisonous souls in how they view other races. This woman IS a bigot and shouldn't be merrily trilling her rotten view in any professional venue and get away with defending it as banter.

[weegee]

The magazine was for an American audience. What social strata largely contains the people who only speak Spanish in America?

The context of the comment was someone considering learning Spanish and the guy in a dress asked "why" citing that (s)he couldn't recommend any literature outside of Don Quixote to read in the native Spanish and then went on to ask if it was for conversational purposes.

One can learn to speak Spanish to travel to another country where it is the native tongue, or even to Miami or other communities where it is the only understood language. But the article wasn't written with the idea of travel in mind so that leaves us with learning to speak Spanish to speak with people in America. I presume that your husband can speak English. Knowning several languages is a good skill but would someone learn Spanish just so they could talk with him here?

[nickcarraway]

Is Ana Veciana-Suarez that some U.S. senators think Miguel Estrada isn't qualified to be a judge?

[Tamzee]

What social strata largely contains the people who only speak Spanish in America?

Obviously from her comment she believes it to be a social strata she wouldn't wish to waste time with.... unlike the French

[weegee]

Hint 1, it's a guy masquerading as a woman. I've never understood the celebrity about it. I read part of the article in the Houston Comical today at a restaurant and I looked up the article and posted it.

Hint 2, it's satire.

"Dame Edna" didn't say anything about talking to anyone in French: chef, waiter, bellhop, or maid. (S)he did say that there were some books that (s)he could understand being compelling enough to motivate someone to learn French to read them in the native tongue.

[Tamzee]

Well, that it's a gent is news to me.... Ick.

Normally I love satire, even satire that ribs on something I appreciate. But this comment was in poor taste and made a cutting comment directly at the Spanish and a snobbish mocking of where they fit in important social circles. The Republicans are going to have a very difficult time courting the Spanish "leaf blower" voters if we appear to support this subtle, elitist poison.

[BlueLancer]

"Modern day French people aren't fit to wipe my spike-heeled thigh high boots, but that's another topic.) "

I think an assertion like that requires an accompanying photo of the poster wearing the purported spike-heeled thigh-high boots so that right-thinking FReepers can make their own judgments.

You report ... we decide. 8')

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I would raise up George Herriman, the author/artist of Jazz Age comic strip Krazy Kat as an African-American over the Clinton loving Toni "America's First Black President" Morrison.

George Herriman was black? Geez, you learn something every day!

"It's high time I hung a brick on the back of his brow!"

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Mzzz. Veciana-Suarez needs to...

[wimpycat]

Have you read this poem? (I don't speak Spanish fluently, but I'm learning.) I love this poem.

En Paz
Amado Nervo

Muy cerca de mi ocaso,
yo te bendigo, vida
porque nunca me diste
ni esperanza fallida
ni trabajo injusto,
ni pena inmerecida.

Porque veo al final de mi rudo camino
que yo fui el arquitecto de mi propio destino
que si extraje la hiel o la miel de las cosas,
fue porque en ellas puse hiel, o mieles sabrosas.

Cierto, a mis lozanías va a seguir el invierno,
mas tu no me dijiste que mayo fuese eterno
halle sin duda largas las noches de mis penas,
mas tu no prometiste tan solo noches buenas.

En cambio tuve algunas
santamente serenas

¡Ame, fui amado, el sol acarició mi faz!
¡Vida, nada me debes!
¡Vida, estamos en paz!

[JimRed]

Calmate, Ana. No hay problema aqui. Solamente es un chiste.

For the Hispanically challenged: "Calm yourself, Ana. There is no problem here. It's only a joke." (I have some really nice Mexican tenants)

[aruanan]

Oh, Ana. You poor git. Imagine how thoroughly stupid someone named Etienne or Schreiber looks who complains from an ethnic standpoint about the treatment the French and the Germans are getting over Iraq or someone with an English name crying out about the pain inflicted by the ongoing ridicule of the British on account of their bad teeth and then you'll have a good idea of how you look. Get a giant pair of tweezers, yank that hair, and stop trying to inflate the worth of your own career by being a female Hispanic Jesse Jackson.

[apillar]

Dame Edna is just getting ready to run for the Senate as a Democrat and wants to make sure she is on the right page on the hispanic issue....

[A_perfect_lady]

Actually, I have a Master's in Applied Linguistics, so I'm fully aware that French and English have nothing on Spanish in terms of "absolute value." But I just don't like it.

Perhaps it's because most Spanish literature that I've had to read has reeked of Marxist sympathies. Perhaps it's because they are largely Catholic and I value the Protestant ethic more. Perhaps I'm just a snob of some sort. But, either way, that's the way it is. I can value whatever I like and you are free to feel however you will about it.

[aruanan]

It's a beautiful poem. Ana needs to pay attention to these lines:

Porque veo al final de mi rudo camino
que yo fui el arquitecto de mi propio destino

I laughed at Dame Edna, but I know that Spanish is a better language to learn than French since it opens to me a much larger portion of the world. Speaking French will allow me to interact with some of Quebec's population, to be ridiculed by the French in France, to talk to the ruling elite in a few African countries (and the French troops there to keep them in power), and maybe to be understood by a few well-educated Haitians. If I learn Spanish and Portuguese, I have two European countries, virtually all of Latin America, and at least a couple African nations.

[aruanan]

This isn't about people's race. It's about what the societies have contributed.

Here's something good, Revolt of the Masses by José Ortega y Gasset.