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C O N T E X T
PopPolitics Weblog
a weekly roundup of pop culture and
politics in the news
Week of Sep 9. - Sept. 15, 2000
Quote of the Week:
"Entertainment is just that - entertainment. Politics should be about the
issues."
– Rock the Vote’s Mario Velasquez
source: Wired
News Entertainment Empire Fights Back (Sept. 13)
Washington
Doesn’t Care for "Kids"
The big news this week was the release of the Federal Trade Commission report
which found that the entertainment industry has been marketing violent
entertainment to children, even though the material is deemed inappropriate for
a young audience. The FTC isn’t in favor of legislation, however, but would like
the entertainment industry to regulate itself. David Stout of The
New York Times writes that Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture
Association, questioned the validity of the findings. "If we are causing
moral decay in this country, we ought to have an explosion of crime. The exact
opposite is happening," says Valenti. (The full report can be read on the FTC
Web site. Additional comments by Valenti can be viewed here.)
The report sparked a Senate committee hearing on the
matter, during which Eminem’s lyrics and the movie "Kids" came under
fire. In an interview with The New York Times, Vice President Al Gore and
his running mate Sen. Joe Lieberman said they
would give the entertainment industry six months to clean up its act, and
then they would propose legislation allowing the federal government to sanction
the industry, writes Kevin Sack.
Plus: Read the text of
a speech Gore delivered this week on violence in entertainment during a campaign stop in Belleville, Ill.
When
Harry & Sally Met Reservoir Dogs
Some film directors agree that the movie rating system does a poor job of
identifying films that are not suitable for young audiences. The Washington
Post’s Sharon Waxman wrote that eight members
of a Directors Guild of America task force on violence have "advocated a single, uniform rating
system for all forms of popular entertainment." "I’ve made R-rated films"–
including
"When Harry Met Sally" and "A Few Good Men" — "and I’d
submit that there’s a difference between the R-rating for those and for movies
with more violence and sex," said director Rob Reiner. "This should be
made more clear in the system."
You
Gotta’ Fight - For Your Right - To Party
Meanwhile, Gore was the toast of the town in New York Thursday, as he raised
more than $6 million during a fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall that drew the likes
of Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and Harrison Ford, and featured musical performances by Jon
Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz and others. According to Molly Knight of Fashion Wire
Daily, Julia Roberts made her political debut by noting "that word
"Republican" falls between "Reptile" and
"Repugnant" in the dictionary." Earlier in the evening, Gore
appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman." From the Top 10
Rejected Gore-Lieberman Campaign Slogans: "Remember, America: I gave you
the Internet and I can take it away." Read more about Gore’s
appearance with Letterman in The Washington Post.
Plus: Ty Burr of EW.com writes
about the presidential candidates showing up on "Oprah" and
"Late Show."
They’re Playing Our Song
Music on the campaign trail isn’t sounding so sweet to some musicians. Jake
Tapper reports in Salon that Fatboy Slim might be OK with Gore’s
use of the techno song "Praise You" during campaign stops, but
musicians including Sting and John Mellencamp have asked George W. Bush’s
campaign to stop spinning their tunes. "It doesn’t take a genius to figure
out why Sting wouldn’t want his music associated with the Bush Republican
presidential campaign," a source close to Sting tells Tapper. The article
also features a look back at the political mis-steps some campaigns have made
with regard to music choices.
Hemlines
as a National Security Threat
"Why do politicians turn their attention away from the oppressed and focus
instead on the underdressed? And how does a brief bit of fabric cause so much
consternation?" Jenny Lyn Bader ponders these questions and more in an
engaging piece in The New York Times about the miniskirt and other pieces
of clothing that affect national politics. Bet you didn’t know that Congo
President Laurent Kabila’s first act after overthrowing the dictatorship of
Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997 was to get rid of the miniskirt.
We’re
Here, We’re Queer …
Move over "Sex and the City." This fall’s most controversial show
about sex is likely to be "Queer as Folk," a new Showtime series about
gay life set in Pittsburgh. The show is an adaptation of the British TV series by the
same name, which became a critically acclaimed hit after shocking viewers with
its frank discussion and display of sex. Writing in New York magazine,
Charles Kaiser says "Queer as Folk" is "the most important gay
drama" since Boys in the Band debuted Off Broadway more than 30
years ago. "Not only are its characters completely lacking in the
self-hatred that permanently dates Boys to its birth in 1968,"
writes Kaiser, "but it also tackles the last taboo for enlightened
liberals, the one that still makes even the most liberated straight person
squeamish: the fact that every gay adult begins life as a gay child."
Love’s
Labor Lost
Defenders of Vermont’s civil unions faced tough primary battles this week. Jack
Hoffman of The Rutland Herald (Vt.) writes that four of the eight House
Republicans who supported the law - which grants many rights of marriage to
same-sex couples - were defeated, as was one of two Republican
senators. Gubernatorial candidate Ruth Dwyer, a staunch opponent of civil
unions, won the Republican primary. "Dwyer’s victory sets up a rematch with
Gov. Howard Dean, who predicted Tuesday night that the General Election would be
a ‘knock down, drag out campaign,’" writes Hoffman.
Image
Is Everything
Ken Parish Perkins, a columnist for the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, didn’t particularly like
"Girlfriends," a new series on UPN about the lives of a close group of
black friends. One of Perkins’ readers didn’t particularly like the fact that
the columnist didn’t throw his support behind a television show with a predominantly black cast.
But Perkins argues that viewers have a right to see shows of high quality, shows
that do more than
depict "black caricatures," like "The Parkers." "Be
happy to see black folks no matter the role? No matter how silly? No matter how
humiliating? Don’t think so. Low standards beget low standards,"
writes Perkins. "… But are we as black Americans so
starved for images that we’ll accept anything?"
More "Lively Art"
Henry Jenkins, director of the Program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT,
has written an interesting piece in MIT’s Technology Review about the
impact computer games are having on art and culture. Jenkins recalls the manner
in which other art forms (such as cinema and comics) were at one point
considered "disreputable" before gaining "cultural
respectability." "[A]re video games a massive drain on our income,
time and energy? A new form of ‘cultural pollution,’ as one U.S. senator
described them? The ‘nightmare before Christmas,’ in the words of another? Are
games teaching our children to kill, as countless op-ed pieces have warned? No.
Computer games are art — a popular art, an emerging art, a largely unrecognized
art, but art nevertheless."
Sorry we were a day late this week with posting!
- Christine Cupaiuolo
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