GLAAD: `Bruno' reinforces negative gay stereotypes

[jefferson_dem]

GLAAD: `Bruno' reinforces negative gay stereotypes



LOS ANGELES – The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said Friday that "Bruno," the new film starring Sacha Baron Cohen, reinforces negative stereotypes and "decreases the public's comfort with gay people."

GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios, who saw the film Friday, said that "the movie was a well-intentioned series of sketches — some hit the mark and some hit the gay community pretty hard and reinforce some damaging, hurtful stereotypes."

In a style similar to his popular Borat character, Baron Cohen brings Bruno, a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista, into ridiculous situations with unsuspecting everyday people.

Universal Pictures, which released "Bruno," sought GLAAD's input on the film and invited staff members to advance screenings, Barrios said.

The organization "shared a number of concerns, and unfortunately, the scenes that we had the biggest concerns about remained in the film," Barrios said.

One such scene shows Bruno in a hot tub with his adopted infant son and two naked men involved in a sex act.

"Scenes like that don't help America understand the hundreds of thousands of gay families who get up every day, do the carpool then rush home to make dinner and be with their children," Barrios said.

<SNIP>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_en_mo/us_film_bruno_glaad_2;_ylt=Aqu3e.9p8N.eS_taec5p.uh0fNdF

[Oregone]

1. Whatever. Its going to be hilarious. And Im going to love it.

[jefferson_dem]

2. Sorry, GLAAD. No offense but I will be checking out Bruno this weekend...

Been looking forward to it for a long time, in fact. I loves me some Sacha Baron Cohen.

[mitchum]

3. I find it hilarious how much he looks like Gomer Stardust...er...I mean Kevin Barnes...

from the band Of Montreal

[LostInAnomie]

4. Meh... I'll still watch it.

[dsc]

5. Would any studio release a film featuring a white actor in black face

appealing to racist sterotypes to show the ridiculousness of racism? Somehow I doubt it.

[seabeyond]

7. that's the thing.

i see it so much in the sexism today. and the first handful of posters in this thread, there dismissiveness of the issue. absolutely no consideration or thought. but it is exactly what is happening with this movie.

reading this op, my first thought was to talk to my two brother in laws, who are gay, and get their take on it. see how they feel about it. i am not gonna watch this movie. i am not entertained by stupid, or making fun of people, my preference, not something i enjoy. but i certainly take into account how the community be effected by this movie perceives it.

[jefferson_dem]

8. Actually, they did last year.

Did you see Tropic Thunder, with Robert Downey, Jr. in blackface?

[dsc]

12. while potentially offensive I think that was quite different

It was a send off of method acting and he was clearly the but of everyone's scorn for being a white person faking being black. Here the joke is that the person is considered gay by everyone he meets and indulges in stereotypes to the hilt. No one in the film thought Downey was black everyone in the film thinks Bruno is gay.

[MellowDem]

25. Erm... Tropic Thunder, anyone?

[JackDragna]

6. Isn't being offensive and over-the-top the point?

"Bruno" is supposed to be about people's reactions, not the character.

[Deja Q]

22. For Cohen, Britney, Madonna, and others, yes. That's how they make their living.

By being crude or trying to make people respond to their crudity.

I'm also aware of my own irony in all this... The question is, will other people see their own? (that's not just a riddle, it's three rolled into one...)

[Dramarama]

9. Offends everyone so its cool

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. I've seen only the trailer, but it looks like traditional homophobic shit....

... thinly disguised as social satire.

It will appeal to the( recently) thinly disguised homophobia that still runs rampant throughout the culture.

[MADem]

11. Based on a real person, so some say???

http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/18/bruno-based-on-a-real-gay-austrian/

The Austrian media is going crazy over the new movie
"Bruno" -- claiming Sacha Baron Cohen based his fake flamboyant Austrian TV host ... on a real life flamboyant Austrian TV host. The dude caught in the middle is Alfons Haider -- he's proud to be gay, he's into fashion, and (just like Bruno) he's also been known to compare himself to Zac Efron.

Want more evidence? -- Alfons is the highest-paid presenter on Austrian state broadcaster ORF. In the film, Bruno works for a channel called OJRF. Coincidence?

The controversy has been raging in Austria for a while, but Haider just told The Telegraph newspaper, "I never understood the comparison to myself at all. The only comparisons I can think of is that I'm Austrian, I'm gay, and I work for television, but the rest is completely fiction."

Anyone really buyin' that?
http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/18/bruno-based-on-a-real-gay-austrian/

I don't go to first run movies, so I'll wait and see what others have to say about it after it's been seen and reviewed to death. I still haven't seen the Borat film yet....

[Hugabear]

13. 'Borat' played up on xenophobic stereotypes

Seems to me that Cohen is going for cheap humor by appealing to stereotypes. What will be his next movie? Will he don the black makeup and masquerade as an Amos-and-Andy era minstrel, offering up yet more stereotypes?

[Yukari Yakumo]

14. Dear GLAAD, LEARN TO TAKE A FUCKING JOKE! {nt}

[Touchdown]

16. That's right. They're only jokes, and he's only a comedian.

Andrew Dice Clay: Little Miss Muffet...along comes a spider... Hey! What's in the bowl Bitch? Get over it ladies. It's only his character he's playing!
Eddie Murphy: Hey Fred! How would you like to fuck me up the ass? It's only a joke! Get over it!
Jackie Mason: Obama's a Schwartze! What can I say? He's a muslim! He's only joking. Don't be so sensitive!
MIchael Richards: You know what is funny? You're a nigger! That's what's funny! He's only trying to quiet a heckler. Get a fucking sense of humor!
Eddie Murphy: ASHO ASHO ASHO! hehehe. Yeah I show you! I make special wonton soup for you! It's funny because he's making fun of anti-asian bigots! Get over it!
Al Jolson: Mammy! Mammy! He's only an entertainer. There's a proud history of singing in black face! Don't be so thin skinned!
Donna Summer: I don't want those queers playing my music in their pervert bars! She's got such talent. She really didn't mean it.
I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry: Sure, it's got an hour and a half of insulting fag jokes, but the inclusive lecture at the end makes up for all that. What are you griping about?
Amos & Andy: An Dat what he gonna git! They were funny! They gave many people joy in the Depression.

You nailed it!LEARN TO TAKE A FUCKING JOKE!

Just one more... Touchdown: Anime lovers are usually pedophiles, cause look at those cartoon children having sex. It's only a joke. No offense intended. Just laugh at the humor in in it all... because humor is reality based.:eyes:

[Yukari Yakumo]

17. And if we take your implied logic to its end...

Comedy would be dead, as you would sterilize it to the point that it offends no one. But in the end, all humor potentially will offend someone, that's how comedy works.

[Touchdown]

24. Bullshit.

One can be funny without being an asshole.

[1]

15. but isn't all humor based on stereotypes?

i'm sure hundreds of thousands of (pick a target of humor) families aren't that way at all.

yet each and every one of us have laughed at such stereotypical jokes.

and if you say you haven't, then you are lying to yourself and all of the posters here.



i haven't seen this movie. i probably never will (unless it's free on tv). i surely won't pay money at a theater to see it. movies pretty much suck across the board these days. it's no big deal...

[slampoet]

18. Like Humorless gays aren't a stereotype.

[depakid]

19. Anyone remember a movie called Blazing Saddles?

A bit different genre- from a different era.

[slampoet]

20. That is why i like Mel Brooks, "Everyone's Ox Gets Gored"

And like most things in life he starts in on the Jews first.

My favorite line....."Okay We'll let the Blacks and the Chinese in BUT NO IRISH!!"



Mel Brooks is the person who taught me, through humor, that most homophobes are closet cases.

[Deja Q]

21. In that case, so do gay pride parades and mardi gras.

:shrug:

Gay, bi, or otherwise, I couldn't care less about Cohen, "pride", or mardi gras.

Well, only enough to have responded here, but I think GLAAD is **wrong** on their claim and that Cohen is just a freak who uses shock jock antics to be seen. He doesn't need any organization to give him free advertising.

GLAAD can say what it wants, but I find their double-standard most interesting. So it's okay for GLBT parades to show people doing unsavory things (including flashing their privates and I haven't gone to these ersatz circus events since 2005) yet it's wrong for this cohen piece to do... the same thing.

Whatever.

[Incitatus]

23. Borat was funny, but the previews for this one just look stupid.

It looks like Bruno scripted and everyone else in the film is in on it. I'll give it a chance when it comes out on DVD, but the previews don't make me want to go to a theater for it.

[JVS]

26. It is sad that people decided to unrec this thread to the point where it has less than 0 net recs

While I understand both those who agree with GLAAD on this issue and those who disagree, and I also understand that to some people this might not be a big enough deal for the greatest page, it seems mean to actively vote it down.