My bloggy friend "deemacgee" wrote this comment to an earlier post on
Steve Irwin:
"He...exploited a disgustingly exaggerated version of the Australian
accent in a way that pre-knife Paul Hogan made famous... then
exhausted... and also in the US! We don't speak like that anymore, and
presenting the people of this country as the Southern Hemispherical
equivalent of your average sub-human alligator-eating bayou-dweller is
offensive in the extreme. Australia is not just a pop-culture
reference but we're always trivialised as such."
And:
"Of course, it's sad for his family and all and I'm sorry for his
little ones who won't get to know their Dad, and it's a terrible thing
when someone who is truly passionate about their work is snuffed out
too soon... but the mass media has gone all messianic on him, and I
can't respect that level - or type - of coverage. Aren't there more
important things?"
Great comments - here's my take on things.
**The Stereotypical Australian**
A fantastic parody of Australian stereotypes is found in Terry
Pratchett's The Last Continent - it's hilarious and spot on. (Had to
mention my favourite author).
But you know what? We *are* just a pop culture reference to the rest
of the world. And the people of other countries are just as
stereotyped by us.
I do think that Australians need to stop cringing at the way the rest
of the world sees us. Images of us - they're not *that* bad. We're
liked by most people. (Well, except in South East Asia. Also, the
English have some superiority complex - loving our ridiculous pop and
soap star exports, wanting to immigrate here, and yet, always trying
to slip in comments that we're "convicts". Yet *we* know they're just
pissed off that they shipped their petty thieves to a sunny, spacious,
beautiful land, while they stayed in their cold, polluted, crowded
cities. But I digress.)
Look - we know how varied and diverse a people we are, we know how
multicultural our cities are, how industrious and dynamic we can be.
We know the strengths and weaknesses of our own country like the
citizens of any other.
But the rest of the world have no clue. They really don't. They can
get *some* clue by visiting as tourists or by being friends with us.
But other than that, their view of our country is as limited as our
view of theirs. And I don't think we need to get too frustrated by
that.
I mean seriously, look at our own view of other countries. Before Mary
married the Crown Prince of Denmark, I knew nothing about that country
except for the fact that Hamlet was set there. And they have danish
pastries. Hmmm - hang on, I *still* know nothing about Denmark. Except
that the Crown Prince is cute.
You know, despite my multicultural heritage, I subscribe to
stereotypes as much as anyone else does. And like most people, I'm
smart enough to know that their *just* stereotypes. I mean, not all
Americans are fat, stupid, arrogant, fundamentalist Christian
dickheads (sorry, blog readers, I'm laughing here - I love winding
people up. But hey, I'm a typical Australia, right?). I'm smart enough
to know that not all people from India work as taxi drivers. I'm smart
enough to realise that not all people of "Middle Eastern" background
are crazy. And before I finish offending all my readers, I do think
that stereotypes aren't all bad. They can be used to create an image
of a people and can be used to encourage awareness and discussion.
So, I don't care if people think we talk with a thick accent and
wrestle wildlife in our spare time. It puts us on the map. It's better
than being some obscure country that no one hears about until the
Olympics when they watch the opening ceremony and think "where the
hell is Azerbaijan?!"
**The Courting of Celebrities**
Yes, courting celebrities is the new religion and there are most
definitely more important things to be worried about. But it's not as
if the life of one person hasn't affected the masses before and
provoked a large-scale response. It happens time and time again.
Normal person dies tragically. Media response - minimal.
Famous person dies tragically. Media response - fury, craze, like
vultures, circling.
It's not new. It happened in the way back when (although the famous
people were more likely to be kings and queens and popes and the such)
and it still happens now.
Why? Because the public needs it. The lives of famous people affect
us. Knowing about them and their lives is part of our collective
experience. When they die, we have many memories of them and
therefore, we are able to share in a collective grief.
Which quickly turns into tasteless email jokes - the public can only
care about someone they never new so much...
But the media circus doesn't mean Steve Irwin's life was anymore
important that anyone else's. It just means his life was known to more
people than your average joe.
I think the thing which seemed strange to us was the extent of the
reaction his death. However, I don't think people in Australia realise
how well-known he was in the US and UK. He acheived fame overseas well
before he was known here and a lot of Australians were put-off by his
Paul Hogan-esque image and regarded him with the level of slight
embarrassment that you feel when Aunt Ethel pulls her dentures out
during dinner.
But people are affected when they hear that someone they knew about
died. Some people are affected more than others. Some don't give a
shit and just snort cynically at it, while others really, and quite
genuinely, feel pain. Most people are somewhere in the middle.
And yes, I agree, the constant media onslaught here, particularly
yesterday, was too much after a while. It was like slowing down to
watch a car accident. And I don't think the overseas media realise
that using the word "crikey" in every newspaper article related to him
is extremely tacky.
(deemacgee - I do hope you feel oh-so special that you got such an
in-depth response to your comments :-P )
11 comments:
Great post, Jezzy! And I do agree that deemacgee should feel very special to get such a detailed response.
I agree that even though you guys tend to get grouped into one "Aussie" stereotype by the rest of the world, everyone that I know seems to like the stereotype. (Unlike us... geez, there are so, so many kinds of people here in the U.S. Even in the South, there are many different groups that share a few cultural things but different drastically on the rest. Of course, everyone else in the world hates us, lol.)
I think it was just so tragic that people are still in shock, so the media is really playing up to that. Plus, he really was a good person who made a nice impact on the world. I'm glad that we have something new here to focus on instead of poor little Jon Benet Ramsey's murder. I feel so sorry for her dad. That's a story that needs to be left alone. (Now, I'd gladly trade having the Croc hunter back with us for more stories on potential Jonbenet murderers, but I guess that's not gonna happen sadly.)
You've been a busy little blogger!
Even though we all stereotype people, generally speaking, I think that the stereotype people from the USA have of Australia is very positive. You never hear "ugly Australian" or "rude Australian" or "materialistic, shallow Australian". You see where I'm going here?
I think the world is shocked by Steve's death...but not surprised. He was one crazy-assed mother scratcher!
I... don't know what to say... errr, thanks? ;o)
It might seem harsh and cynical of me to belitte and berate the world, especially when so many other people seem quite happy to live in it as is. That's cool! It's great that people can still be happy on this fucked-up little ball of silicon, iron and nickel...
...but jadedprimadonna brings up another curious point - JonBenet Ramsey. I'm sorry, but again... why do we care a) TEN YEARS LATER, and b) IN AUSTRALIA?
Yes, little girl is murdered. That really does genuinely-totally-really suck (and I say that free of the usual bile-blasting). It's truly tragic... she was so young.
But it's a fucking SOAP OPERA in its home country, complete with the surreal Shyamalan-esque (well, not really) twists of a confession denied by DNA evidence.
I can't take it seriously, and nor do I want to, because of how farcical it's become. It's offensive to the memory of JonBenet.
I mean... come on now... there's a fucking WAR in IRAQ. Did we forget? How is an illegal invasion of a sovereign country and the ensuing murder of thousands of innocent people less important than the murder of one little girl? All murders are horrifc and therefore important and noteworthy... but given the sheer scale of death (ie one vs thousands) how can we justify the endless stream of reports and analyses on JonBenet's untimely passing, when the fate of thousands of geographically (AND CULTURALLY) removed civilians barely makes the 5/6PM news? I say to you that modern news reporting on Channels 7, 9 and 10 are disgracefully lacking in an appropriate sense of priority to start with, if not actual integrity.
PEOPLE ARE DYING IN IRAQ BECAUSE OF A WAR THAT WE HELPED WAGE AGAINST THEM.
FOR OIL.
AND THE RIGHT TO SUCK ONE OF DUBYA'S TESTICLES.
Please. It's all very sad about Steve Irwin (again, snide sarcasm aside), but I can't understand why his tragic, though not-completely-unexpected passing, is more newsworthy than WAR IN IRAQ or THE GRADUAL DESTRUCTION OF OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES or ANY ONE OF A NUMBER OF OTHER THINGS WHICH ARE OF MORE FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE AND/OR RELEVANCE TO OUR SOCIETY.
(Not YELLING, emphasising)
My apologies if this is offensive to people... I don't mean it that way; I just know your readers are enlightened and intelligent enough to take my opinions and do with them as they please. :)
JPD - there's loads of different groups here too - you just don't know about it! But I agree - certain people have an effect on us and the media play it up.
Laurita - I'm a busy blogger, yep! It's cause I'm really bored at work. But Australians have their fair share of negative stereotypes, for example, in South East Asia. Oh, and New Zealanders make fun of us. But they're just jealous. lol
Deemacgee - it's a fact of life that a few thousand people can be killed in a train crash in India and the world doesn't blink and eye, but the death of, say, one princess, had thousands upon thousand of people bawling their eyes out.
Similarly, quite frankly, the war in Iraq is boring. It's not a good story, there's no end, there's no identifyable heroes, no one to identify with...it's not that the public don't care, it's just that it's hard to stay interested. Queue SBS news "fighting erupted today on the streets of [insert middle eastern country] and [insert number] were killed in a bomb blast." Freaking hell, you hear it everyday! Yes - tragic - but we're only human - we get bored with that shit!
I agree with you, the war is far more important than the life of one entertainer or one horribly-killed child. But these are individuals and families who we can identify with. We know them, we have memories of them, we're actually *touched* by their stories.
It's not more important - and I fully agree with you and your opinions, it just becomes more meaningful to the public.
War, and concepts such as the erosion of civil liberties, that stuff doesn't tug at the heartstrings of the public - us. It should, but it just doesn't. Maybe it's so big that we don't know where to start with it.
But if we had one person, say, a young girl, who was identified in Iraq, perhaps her parents were killed, perhaps she did something extraordinary, perhaps she was tortured. If the whole story about that girl was followed-up over a period of time, if we got to know her, that's the kind of thing that would make the public care about war.
"It's great that people can still be happy on this fucked-up little ball of silicon, iron and nickel..."
Yep. Basically, I'm a happy person. So sue me.
"the mass media has gone all messianic on him, and I can't respect that level - or type - of coverage. Aren't there more important things?"
Yes.
There are.
But media tributes to a man who was universally admired and loved are not out of line.
I can imagine a dinner conversation with "deemacgee":
ME: "So how is your dinner?"
deemacgee: "OMG, how can you talk about dinner when people are DYING in Iraq?"
ME: Sheesh, sorry. I just wanted to know what you thought about the salad!
deemacgee: Ask those poor IRAQIS if THEY have had a salad lately! It's tragic!
ME: Um...let's change the subject. Did you watch the news last night?
deemacgee: YES! And I can't believe they didn't cover THE IRAQ WAR for the whole 30 minutes! It's the only thing that matters!
ME: Uh...OK. I guess. But, you know, there's a lot more going on than the Iraq war.
deemacgee: IRAQ! LOSS OF LIBERTY! GW BUSH IS A PRICK! THE SKY IS FALLING! AAAAAAARRRRRGGHHHH!
ME: *sigh*
The media circus has been somewhat restrained here. He was very well-known, but all the reports I've seen have been almost tasteful, especially by local standards. I guess because he wasn't American they're not going overboard like normal.
Worse than constant reports of tragedy are when they have a story of minimal note and refuse to let it go. I am reminded of the time John Rocker, a local baseball player, made some racist and insensitive comments during an interview, and the stupid media here wouldn't let it go for months.
Well, at Clemson University (here in South Carolina, USA), somebody set up a memorial by the water/fountains in front of the library to him...and set up flyers asking people to line up for a nature walk in tribute to him wherein every so often everybody says at once, "CRIKEY!"
The only thing that disturbed me out of all this was that I THOUGHT my daughter would be crushed to hear about what happened to him, but instead, the first thing she asked was, "Is there footage of his death?" Sigh. I blame Grant's influence. That's just easier on me.
Oh Jezzy! I am so disappointed! I thought the real reason you were having trouble with your thesis was because you were fighting off crocs from your back door with your very large knife. I mean do you even wear clothes with colour or just khaki?
Just what do you think of Canadians anyhow?
What an awesome post. The media has gone a little overboard, but the outpouring of greif from the public is genuine.
Whether you saw him as a caricature or a genuine nature lover, he DID do so much to raise awareness about the environment and conservation.
He put his money where his mouth was and baught up entire blocks of land to preserve it. He appeared to honestly love his work, the animals and his family and made people laugh. Either with him or at him. He got a response.
Love him or hate him. He's leaving a legacy behind. Can any of us say we'll be remembered in such a way?
He didn't cure Cancer, he didn't stop the war. But he made people happy.
And in this sorry fucking world. Surely that is enough.
Someone told me once that "there are no strangers, just a lot of friends you haven't met yet". I really believe we would like to meet a lot of people but the "factors" we get subjected to tend to cloud our ability to actually meet them. For example, the way they dress, the ethnic variety, the accent, the size and shape, and all the rest of it.
Perhaps that's why I love blogging so much, I can't "hear" any accent, I can't seem over weight,"skinny", or "drop dead gorgeous", I don't hear a deep bass profundo, or a high "squeak", I don't know what you really do by your appearance, or any other thing, unless you tell me. Are you compassionate, crude, rude, a "gossip", or a genuinely caring person?
The internet and our "blogs" let us deaal with each other on a level of mind to mind, and what we really think and feel and dream, versus what we say we do at politically correct cocktail parties and those nasty face to face situations.
Would I enjoy "hanging out" for a couple of pints with someone I blog with or read more than someone else, yes, becasue I sense there would be more honesty, more non-stereotyping, and in general a better understanding of each other.
Sorry, it wasn't supposed to be a rant :)
He got paid to do what he loved best. I just feel terrible for the family.
Prayers.
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