A post from Pams House Blend which might put Bruno in perspective

[dsc]

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/11979/i-am-not-bruno

I just went to get my mail a few minutes ago and overheard the college kids who live next door talking about me as I came up the stairs. My name is pretty rare. So when I hear somebody say it, I can usually bet they're not talking about another person named Fritz.

College Kid #1: "...he kind of reminds me of Fritz."

College Kid #2: (Laughing) "Yeah, maybe we should start calling him Bruno."

College Kid #1: (With accent) "Ya! How do you protect yourself from a man with a dildo?"

Needless to say, I was stunned. These are seemingly nice young men. They have been very polite and friendly since I moved in a couple of months ago. When I stepped onto the landing where they could see me, their laughter stopped cold. It appeared that their girlfriends were not amused by the conversation. One of them turned quickly and walked through the open door of their apartment. I just went inside my apartment without saying a word.

So there you have it. Thanks to Sasha Baron Cohen, people now have just one word they can use to slur both my sexual orientation and my ethnic heritage -- Bruno. Blond hair? Germanic? Gay? Yep. Must be a Bruno. (The Bruno character is supposed to be Austrian.)

end of quote

a lot more at the link

Just ask yourself. How many kids do you think are going to hear Bruno as an insult when they return to school? Would you want to be a gay kid in a audience of straight kids watching that film?

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. I recall on LA radio that it became a habit to use "earthquake lady" for lesbian

because one of Cal Tech's prominent spokespersons was a lesbian. I wouldn't be surprised if "bruno" replaced "brokeback mountain". But, from what I'm hearing, the brokback mountain portrayals of gays was waaaaaaaaaaaay more positive than Bruno

[dsc]

2. Yeah Brokeback Mountain did become shorthand for 'gay' for a time

but earthquake lady is a new one for me.

[dsc]

3. gee negative territory already

and people wonder why minority groups have a problem with unrecommend.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. I can't believe it! unrecs for no apparent reason.

[JVS]

7. Evidently they don't want to go through the effort of posting "oh, but it's all just a joke"

:eyes:

[shireen]

5. i just recommended it back to zero.

i don't like the unrecommend feature either. If it's going to be there, i want to see the number of negatives.

There must have been only one negative. Still you would not have known how many were there and would be wondering how many insensitive jerks are out here.

[marmar]

9. Yep. I've noticed quite a few posts about issues related to racism and homophobia immediately.....

..... go into the negative rec numbers.

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. The unrec feature allows DUers to anonymously express freeper views

[crickets]

16. This is a succint summation of why I don't like the unrec button.

People who recommend often post a comment as well, if only to say "K&R" -- the unrec button seems to be a way to torpedo topics without saying why, and as someone else said, "without having to own it." Also, it can push topics off the front and greatest pages that otherwise might have reached more people over time. The "oh, it just hurts your widdle feelings" and "too bad for your ego that you didn't make the greatest page" arguments skip right past that reality. For me, it's not so much a slight to the people who make posts as it is to people who want to read posts without skipping back and wandering through pages and pages of prior posts on the off chance of having missed an important one.

edit: punct.

[Hepburn]

21. Freeper trolls....

...hopefully. It is an embarassment to see that on the DU ~~ no matter what the source ~~ and a good reason to get rid of this stupid unR system.

JMHO

[JVS]

6. K&R

Nobody took me seriously when I pointed out that Borat was based on Slavophobia and Western European bigotries with regard to both Eastern Europe and the US. Cohen deals in stereotypes, and he's essentially made a minstrel show around the stereotype of Gay Germans. In fact the character is so overblown that it gives Mike Myers' Dieter an air of dignity in comparison.

[HamdenRice]

8. Why would anyone unrec this?

I can understand disagreeing with the analysis. In fact, I do disagree, because skewering racism and homophobia through offensive caricature is Cohen's stock in trade.

But this is an extremely reasonable, thoughtful "one side of the argument."

Btw, I when I saw Borat, as an African American, I was at first embarrassed and offended by the black prostitute scene, until I got just how profound a point Cohen was making -- namely, that these genteel white southerners were more comfortable with a bag of human shit at the dinner table than with a black woman.

Cohen is simply over the top all the time, but in an extremely thought provoking way.

I haven't seen Bruno yet, but from seeing Borat and Ali G, I would say he's a comic genius in a very, very disturbing way.

On edit: K&R

[dsc]

10. I didn't see Borat due to not liking Cohen's humor going in

and I surely am not going to see Bruno. As to the unrecommend feature, the lack of a reason is a huge problem. It might have been precisely that they didn't want to see a well written post opposing theirs. It might have been that they didn't want gay topics on the greatest page. They may have an axe to grind with me. Who knows. But the unrecommend feature is asking to be abused by a popular kid clique mentality.

[noamnety]

11. I think of it as the status quo button

If you're going to challenge the status quo in some way, there will always be a backlash. In this case, you're challenging the "rights" of people to enjoy a good laugh at the expense of gay people. I suspect for some, hitting that button is the equivalent of typing "lighten up" along with a snide comment about being PC.

[dsc]

13. both of which they would have to own

I refuse to use the unrecommend button without at least saying I did it so that I can be accountable. Others, not so much. I have no problem with people being accountable and having to explain their actions and using an unrecommend feature, but this will allow a mob to render certain subjects off limits on a near permanent basis or even worse to render certain posters off limits on a near permanent basis with no accountability whatsoever.

[noamnety]

19. I will use it as long as it's here

to vote down fluff posts with no substance. But that's not what skinner described its purpose as ... so I guess in that sense I am abusing it. He described it as a tool to vote down divisive posts - which I think means posts that the majority disagree with.

It's understandable in a cultural sense that the majority might disagree with a post that objects to mocking minorities. At least one person justified it by saying humor is always based on stereotyping (implication being that if you object to popularizing bigoted stereotypes it's because you don't have a sense of humor). By the rationale given for the unrec function, not upholding the majority view (the view of primarily white straight people here) is the proper reason to use the function. Those white straight people may or may not be benevolent, I'm not judging what their individual views are, but the admins feel that they should have more voice over what's on the greatest page. When something is divisive, admin wants majority rule to prevail.

The more I mull this over, the more I suspect I will similarities between it and institutional racism, where nobody overtly discriminates against an individual, it just happens that the traits, values and concerns of the white people in power are held in higher esteem than the traits and values of minorities, and the people who exhibit the "good" traits get promoted more. From wikipedia (I know, lame source): "Another difficulty with reducing institutionalized racism is that there is no true identifiable perpetrator. When racism is built into the institution, it appears to be an act of the collective population."

[csziggy]

18. Same here - I just do not like that style of 'humor' that denigrates a minority for laughs

It leave a bad taste in my mouth.

[cwydro]

12. I agree with this.

I think Bruno is asinine.

[susanr516]

14. I never thought Cohen was funny

It took about 2 minutes of his Borat routine for me to decide he was insulting, rather than funny.

[crickets]

17. Borat didn't appeal to me, and Bruno appeals to me even less.

What little exposure to them I've gotten in previews on TV has completely turned me off. I have no plans to ever see either film. You're right, I think 'Bruno' is going to be turned into an insult. Bleh.

[Hepburn]

20. My best guy pal and I went to see a movie about two weeks ago and...

...there was a preview of BRUNO. Gag me. Not only homophobic, but STUPID ~~ totally stupid. If those college assholes who were downing you thought Bruno was cool ~~ 'nuff said.

Sorry that happened to you ~~ had to be painful...but consider the source: A bunch of young male assholes who went to see that dumbass movie.

JMHO

:hug:

[dsc]

25. to be clear I was quoting a post that wasn't mine

but thanks.

[depakid]

22. Haven't seen the film yet- but my understanding is that it riducles homophobes

[KittyWampus]

23. Your neighbors don't need a movie to spout crap about you. And if it wasn't "Bruno" they were using

as a shorthanded slur, it'd be something else behind your back.

And if it wasn't from some movie they just saw, it could be from a magazine, video game or drunken homophobic idiot at their frat house.

I grew a very thick skin because of how I was treated in school.

And the issue isn't kids might get called Bruno, it's that they get called ANYTHING and that bullying of ANY type is tolerated in schools.

[dsc]

26. I was quoting a post written by someone else

and I agree that any bullying is a problem but I fail to see how yet another negative stereotype is helpful.

[Vidar]

24. I walked out of Borat. I find Cohen's humor hateful & unappealing.