MORSE'S CODE

Japanese Imports – Millennium Style

Japan has long been known for its gender bending. In Kabuki theater, men known as onnagata play all the female roles. And apparently the word “skebe,” what I would define as “sexually weird or perverse” has made it into the vernacular of pop American culture. I’ve heard it casually dropped by “gaijin” on a couple of different occasions.

Today’s LA Times has an article with the intriguing title “Young Men in Love.” It’s about Yaoi, Japanese manga-type animation that depicts exactly that – men getting romantic with other men.

Yaoi started in Japan in the ‘70’s and is catching on quickly in the States. It will be prominently featured at this weekend’s Anime Expo in Anaheim. Says a distributor, “When we ask fans what type of titles they’re interested in having us bring over, yaoi titles are always at the top of the list.” Some yaoi just hint at gay sex but others are blatant pornography.

According to the article:

Why yaoi has become so popular is the subject of considerable debate. The beautiful, androgynous young men of yaoi fiction, with their long hair, long limbs and slender, hairless bodies contrast sharply with the stern, muscular, short-haired males in men’s manga, many of whom are sadistic or misogynistic by Western standards. Some cultural observers argue these stories allow Japanese women to escape the bonds of a society that restricts them.

(According to) The Comprehensive International Encyclopedia of Sexuality, yaoi “explores female views of masculinity and of the male body in way that do not degrade or threaten the female viewer and which allow her to focus enthusiastically and openly on all the sexual-romantic things that men do.” Said another, “The teenage girls that I run into think these guys are hot.” They’re comfortable with them because they’re not macho. In my opinion, yaoi isn’t really about guys getting together. It’s meant to portray relationships that are hetereosexual at their foundation.

Call it “skebe” if you must. But I think it’s time the ladies had their due.

“Hurray for Bollywood!?”

Is Bollywood going gay? Maybe not as quickly as Hollywood, but they’re moving in a big way. Two movies, Girlfriend and Men Not Allowed, are taking on the L Word a big way.

Well, it’s not exactly all good. Girlfriend is about a closeted Lesbian turned psycho killer when her best friend starts dating a guy, what this article calls a Hindi version of Single White Female The movie is causing an uproar among conservatives in India calling it evil, and feminist and lesbian groups that rightfully claim it preys on old stereotypes.

Conservative Hindus protest both the inclusion of a love scene between the women and the lesbian theme in general. "This film is evil and it will be stopped," said Jai Bhagwan Goel, the Delhi chief of Hindu conservative group Shiv Sena. "It pollutes our society and moral culture." Only a few hundred people protested, but their actions (tearing posters down, breaking windows, and even ingesting poison) were enough to shut down future screenings of the films in many Indian cities.

Lesbian Hindus and progressive Hindu women's organizations protest the film as well, calling it "pornographic" and "highly regressive" (at the same time finding it "disconcerting to be on the same side as these right wing organizations," as women's activist Prabha Nagaraja told the India Times). Besides lesbians as psycho-killers, Girlfriend also promotes stereotypes of lesbians as victims of sexual abuse and as effeminate caricatures of men, according to lesbian and women's groups in India.

‘‘Girlfriend follows the 1940s-50s Hollywood formula where films featured the murderous lesbian," Ruth Vanita, co-author of Same Sex Love in India, told ExpressIndia.com. "This is a harmful film," she asserts, but adds "it’s cinematically of such poor quality, it’s so boring, that I don’t think it’s even worth a protest.’’

The other movie, Men Not Allowed, scheduled for release next year, follows another Hollywood formula – two women, after experiencing nothing but grief with men, fall in love with each other, only to have the whole thing end in disaster.

Despite the stereotypes and underlying message of both – that same sex love ultimately leads to tragedy, to name just one – according to this analysis, it may be a sign that things in India are starting to open up.

While the content of these films is clearly negative and stereotypical, it wasn't too long ago that the same could be said of most lesbian characters and storylines in Hollywood. In order for India to work through these stereotypes and finally provide a positive portrayal of lesbianism someday, the subject has to first become part of the national conversation in India--just as the protests in the U.S. at the premiere of Basic Instinct in 1992 forced a national discussion in America about the harmful stereotypes of lesbian and bisexual women that Hollywood routinely reinforced.

And while it has taken eight years since the debut of Fire for another Bollywood film to broach the taboo subject of lesbianism, it will only be another year or so until No Men Allowed debuts, and another one is likely to come along within a few years of that--until eventually, non-psycho-killer lesbians in India will finally see reflections of themselves on-screen, too.

Pride American Style

In honor of Gay Pride month, I have a trivia question. What city just hosted the world’s largest gay pride parade? Answer: Sao Paulo. The event on June 13 drew an estimated 1.1 million screaming, er, Brazilians. Parabens, Sao Paulo. Muito legal.

This Sunday will mark the festivities of another great city: San Francisco. And significantly, the parade folks are taking great pains to include a group that has been conspicuously absent from the event in years past: African Americans. But according to this story, some black folks are still feeling the sting from prior exclusion.

Sunday's parade will feature floats and more than a dozen booths dedicated to African American themes and issues. There will also be a street village called "The Soul of Pride Village" on McAllister Street, between Hyde and Leavenworth streets, where eight black contingents will march together.

It's all part of an effort by parade officials to include more members of the black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in an event that celebrates unity. This outreach comes at a time when complaints have been raised about blacks being discriminated against at nightclubs in San Francisco's Castro district.

Zwazzi Sowo, a member of the pride committee, agrees that the parade has excluded blacks in the past, prompting many to cross the bridge to the East Bay to hold separate pride activities. But she said this year's event is making a concerted effort to reach out to different communities.

"For me, as an African American woman, it has been hard to come to Pride because there aren't any reflections of me there," said Sowo, 50. "It's been painful." In past parades, Sowo often ended up leaving early out of frustration because they failed to reflect African Americans. It's only right, she said, that San Francisco's parade be inclusive. "It belongs to us also," said Sowo. "It should look like a rainbow there."

In case you’re in town, July 4th weekend marks Los Angeles 16th annual Black Pride weekend. The name: Gods and Goddesses.

I Don't Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

For ye that are subscribers to diversityinc.com, there’s an interesting article today on a kind of racial profiling that’s color blind. Sort of.

It’s called “linguistic profiling,” and it’s defined as “determining characteristics such as socioeconomic status from the way a person uses language.” It’s something we all do. But Professor Dennis Preston of Michigan State University is earning a living by studying how language is used to discriminate, particularly by violating fair housing laws.

Preston said in housing discrimination, linguistic profiling occurs when an African- American, Latino or Middle-Eastern sounding prospective renter calls the landlord or representative of the property, and is told the property is no longer available just because of the way certain words have been pronounced.

"In linguistic profiling, we know that it happens … we know that people are treated differently based on people's perception of them over the telephone," says Nancy Haynes, executive director of the Fair Housing Center of Greater Grand Rapids, Mich. "If some one believes you're African American, whether or not you're African American, you are going to be treated differently."

Interestingly, African Americans are more likely to be discriminated against than Latinos with an accent, the research had found. "The discrimination rate against Spanish-accented speakers is a little less than the discrimination against African Americans. Apparently, African Americans are seen by some landlords as less desirable renters than Latin Americans," said Preston.

The article is a little weak on the methodological details, but says that Preston found that 72% of respondents could identify the “dialect” (his word, not mine) of the speaker just by the way they said “hello.” Obviously, some landlords are responding with "goodbye."

I Love LA

I’m honored. I live just five miles away from what has to be one of the most linguistically diverse real estate triangles in the world. A graphic depiction of the fascinating linguistic and multicultural mosaic that is the United States has just been released by the Modern Language Association and it shows that 39 of the 40 language tracked by the Census Bureau are in the 13-square mile area north of Long Beach. In the whole of Los Angeles County, 83% of the zip codes have 20 or more languages and over half have 30 or more. Read on.

California claims the lowest percentage of people who say they speak English at home — 60.52%, compared with about 82% nationwide. Appalachia, deep Dixie and parts of the Midwest fall at the other end of the scale. English is spoken exclusively at home by 96.38% of Mississippians — although not everyone in the country professes to understand it. Neighboring Alabama is close behind.

In all but a handful of states, Spanish is the predominant second language. But four states have French or Creole as the next most prevalent language behind English (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Louisiana). German is the prevailing foreign language in the Dakotas and much of Montana, a remnant of 19th century settlers. Native American languages top the list in Alaska.

Yiddish is concentrated in New York's Brooklyn and the Borscht Belt of the Catskills, as well as Los Angeles and the retirement communities around Miami. But although the language may be dying, at least one person in every state except Wyoming and Alaska reported to the census that it was his or her home language.

Multiculturally diverse, yes, but not without growing pains. Border patrol raids have gripped Southern California as of late, sparking fear in Latino neighborhoods throughout the area.

Reports circulated throughout those neighborhoods Friday that federal agents were arresting people outside supermarkets and restaurants, bringing some businesses to a near standstill. One Pasadena elementary school with a majority Latino student population reported 30% absenteeism. The city's official day-laborer hiring site was deserted.

In Huntington Park, diners shunned restaurants and shoppers avoided markets along Pacific Avenue, one of the city's major thoroughfares. Store managers in Bell Gardens and South Gate said customers were calling to ask if it was safe. "They're nervous. Everyone is afraid," said Rene Morales, a security guard at Ranch Market in South Gate. "There's fear all over Los Angeles."

According to this article, about 400 folks have been rounded up by the U.S. Border Patrol, and community organizations are crying foul. “We cannot and we will not accept institutional fear in our communities as a way of life," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, national coordinator of an organization called Latino Movement USA. The Border Patrol claims business as usual, but The Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund has opened an investigation.

Still, for this New Hampshire boy, Randy Newman said it best: “I Love LA.”

Finalmente!

In case you missed it, there was a great article in the May 31st issue of Advertising Age about THE trend in Hispanic marketing – doing it in English.

We’ve analyzed , written , blogged , and otherwise pontificated on this subject ad nauseum, so in case you haven’t heard, we’re all for it. Who wouldn’t be? 56% of Hispanics were born in the U.S. And 85% of the under 18 crowd. It’s hard to believe that there are still those – one is mentioned in the article – that doubt that these folks speak, and even prefer English.

Here’s a sample.

“In this new generation, Hispanics overwhelmingly prefer English. They are Americans, and they’re watching everything else that Americans are watching,” says Fernando Espuelas, chairman of Voy Network, a new Hispanic-focused, English language channel scheduled to debut in July.

Mr. Espuelas hopes Hispanic-targeted, English-language programming might also have crossover appeal to general viewers. Non-Hispanics already identify with Latino culture and music, and he anticipates those consumers will be attracted to English-language Latino TV as well. This is similar to how consumers take in the culture, music and apparel of African-Americans, Mr. Espuelas says.

Says Jeff Valdez, chairman and co-founder of Si TV, an English-language Hispanic network that debuted in February, “In many markets, the Anglo is the niche… there’s a tremendous opportunity there for the crossover audience. We’re just following the trend of the new general market.”

Although it’s starting small and may struggle to gain a foothold, bilingual and English-language programming will eventually have its place amid the fast-growing Hispanic audience, says Yolanda Foster, VP-programming and promotions with Mun2 , the bilingual cable sibling of NBC’s Spanish language Telemundo.

The latest research from Simmons National Consumer Study shows 76% of Hispanic adults born in the U.S. watch English-language TV, while only 29% of that group watch Spanish-language TV.

And let’s not forget LATV and Urban Latino. Danny Crowe, President of LATV, was recently quoted as saying “Univision doesn’t address the acculturated Hispanic because that’s not its target audience. And English-language primetime network television doesn’t reach out to them either.”

Messieurs Crowe, Espuelas, Valdez and Foster, we couldn’t agree with you more.

Beauty is Skin Deep; Ugly Goes Deeper

I couldn’t resist this one . Brigitte Bardot, the French beauty from the 1960’s turned animal rights activist has made big news for her outlandish, outrageous and outright racist comments. She was just convicted of inciting racial hatred for remarks in her book “A Scream in the Silence,” an outspoken attack on gays, Moslems, and whoever she felt like lambasting.

In the book, she laments the "Islamization of France" and the "underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam." She told the court France was going through a period of decadence and said she opposed interracial marriage.

"I was born in 1934, at that time interracial marriage wasn't approved of," she said. "There are many new languages in the new Europe. Mediocrity is taking over from beauty and splendor. There are many people who are filthy, badly dressed and badly shaven."

In her book, she also attacks homosexuals as "fairground freaks," condemns the presence of women in government and denounces the "scandal of unemployment benefits."

In 1998, Bardot was fined $3,250 for inciting racial hatred for comments about civilian massacres in Algeria. A court had previously fined her for saying France was being overrun by “sheep-slaughtering Muslims.”

Animal rights activist, indeed. And we thought Samuel Huntington was a racist.

Parts is Parts

Police target members of a particular ethnic group for selling illegal substances. Well, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that folks have cried foul about this scenario. Except this time, it’s not what you think. It’s about a group of Korean Americans who were caught in a Virginia sting operation for allegedly buying bear parts. Yup. Bear gall bladders. As well as illegal ginseng.

The government says the Virginia sting was one investigation among many nationwide that focused on the black market for such ingredients. Prosecutors and law-enforcement agents say everyone charged in the case was warned that their purchases were illegal.

Asian-immigrant advocates, however, said the buyers were unfairly targeted because of their cultural beliefs.

"The focus of the sting operation — to target the buyers — already has an assumption that the buyers are going to be Korean-Americans," said Jun Koo, a program coordinator and director for the Korean American Coalition's Washington chapter He stressed he spoke only for himself, not the group.

In the sting, agents for the state game department and the National Park Service posed as sellers of illegal wild ginseng and bear parts. Agents who did not speak Korean warned the buyers that the activity was illegal, using a mix of short, English sentences and pantomime, for example, of being led away in handcuffs. The approach enraged Korean communities as knowledge of the sting spread.

Julia Dixon, a spokeswoman for the state game department, stressed that the sting had uncovered only the "tip of an iceberg" in the black market for illegally harvested traditional medicines. She also said that like farm-grown ginseng, legal alternatives exist for coveted bear parts such as gall bladders.

Traditional Chinese medicine considers black bear gall bladders to have the ability to treat spasms and skin lesions, among other conditions. Ginseng's properties are believed to include the ability to combat diseases in which the body is wasting away. Wild versions of both are seen as stronger.

Here’s the link.


Posted by dmorse at 05:13 PM

Tony’s Triumph

Diversity scored big at the 2004 Tony Awards. Three of the four acting categories for women were won by black women, the strongest showing in Tony history:

Phylicia Rashad, Best Leading Actress in a Play, A Raisin in the Sun
Audra McDonald, Best Featured Actress in a Play, A Raisin in the Sun
Anika Noni Rose, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Caroline, or Change.

Incidentally, Ms. Rashad became the first African American woman to take the leading prize for a dramatic role. She attributed her victory to “tremendous self-effort” and “amazing grace.”

It was a big day for gay folks as well. The winner for Best Play was “I Am My own Wife,” a groundbreaking play about transvestites. Avenue Q, a sarcastic spoof of Sesame Street featuring two gay puppets who fall in love, won for Best Musical. And out artist Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins," which told the story of nine people who shot U.S. presidents, earned the win for best musical revival.

Too bad no one was watching. 2004 set another Tony record. It was the least watched Tony Awards in history.

New from Pew: Money Transfer Study

The Pew Hispanic Center has just released a detailed study on money transfer to Latin America. The study coincides with the G8 Summit meeting in Sea Island, Georgia where money transferring will be on the agenda. Facilitating money transfer is a big issue, particularly given that it’s a major source of revenue for developing nations. Some of the findings:

Since the late 1990s the cost of sending a $200 remittance to Mexico has fallen by half from about 15 percent of the amount sent to 7.32 percent in early 2004. However, most of the reduction took place at the beginning of this time span. By 2001 the cost stood at 8.07 percent and the declines have been minor since then. Meanwhile, the amount of money sent to Mexico has increased dramatically from $9.2 billion in 2001 to $13.2 billion in 2003, a growth of 43 percent.

Despite substantial marketing campaigns and very large investments over the past three years, U.S. banks have only captured a small fraction of the remittance transfer market. The four largest banks in this field -- Citibank, Wells Fargo, Harris Bank and Bank of America -- conduct less than 100,000 remittance transactions a month. The vast majority goes to Mexico. In 2003, an estimated 40 million remittance transactions carried money from the United States to Mexico, which means the banks have captured about three percent of that market.

Marketing campaigns designed to encourage Latino immigrants to open accounts with banks and credit unions, often with remittance services as an enticement, have had somewhat more success. About 400,000 new accounts have been opened as a result of these efforts. That is about 5 percent of the estimated eight million Hispanic immigrants who currently do not have bank accounts.

Click here for complete results.

Color-less TV

The organization “Children Now” has released its annual report on television diversity. In a nutshell, the study found a significant increase in the number of Hispanic characters on TV, though the number of Asians in “opening credits” characters declined. Not surprisingly, the study found that Hispanic and Middle Eastern characters tended to be typecasted, and Hispanics are still twice as visible in real life as they are on TV. Here are some of the key findings:

The number of Latino characters has increased to more than six percent of the 2003-04 prime-time population, up from 4% in 2001-02. Among opening credits characters, the percentage increased threefold, from two percent to six percent. More than half of all prime time shows now include at least one Latino character.

The percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander characters has not changed over the past five years, and the percentage of Asian "opening credits" characters actually declined, from two percent in 1999-2000 to one percent this season.

Nearly two-thirds of all characters were male (65%) while one-third were female (35%), a proportion unchanged in five years.

Nearly half of Arab/Middle Eastern characters (46%) were criminals. Both Latinos and Middle Easterners were more likely to be criminals than to have a professional job such as a doctor or a judge.

There were no Native American characters in any episode in the study's sample.

The 8 o'clock hour, when children are most likely to watch television, is the least diverse hour on prime time.

Sitcoms, children's favorite program genre, are the least diverse shows in prime time.

In their introduction to the report (click here) the authors give an eloquent and beautiful explanation as to why this is so damn important. I won’t even attempt to paraphrase.

Today, 40 percent of American youth ages 19 and under are children of color. Yet few of the faces they see on television represent their race or cultural heritage. Thus, much of the racial diversity youth see every day – in school, at sporting events, at the doctor’s office – is not visible on prime time, when they are most likely to be watching television. Similarly, though females slightly outnumber males in the real world, prime time television continues to present a world that is overwhelmingly male.

These disparities between real life and the prime time world have important ramifications for young people. As one of our culture’s primary storytellers, television provides stories and images that help shape the worldviews of millions of people. When certain groups are privileged and others are excluded it sends a message – especially to young viewers – that these groups are valued differently by society. This, in turn, can effect how viewers feel about themselves and others.

While the influence of television images may not be immediately apparent, effects from media use are “like the steady drip, drip, drip of a faucet; measurable effects at any one moment may be small, but they accumulate over time.” Therefore, it is essential to examine the television images that young people view and assess how those images change, or remain the same, over time.