Episode 177: Cry Me A River

What's it like to be so represented in mass media that not being centered for 15 minutes has people losing their minds?

Transcript

Laura 0:00

I am so tired of white people.

Male VO 0:04

This is Bad Attitudes.

Laura 0:21

Hello, friends and strangers. Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitudes, an uninspiring podcast about disability. I'm your host, Laura.

Laura 0:31

This week's supporter shout out goes to Erica Sue. Thank you for your support, Erica.

Laura 0:37

If you would like to hear your name on a future episode, consider supporting the podcast on Ko-Fi. Visit ko-fi.com slash bad attitudes pod for more information.

Laura 0:51

You can also support the pod by visiting our merch store at badattitudeshop.etsc.com where you'll find podcast merch and satisfyingly sarcastic designs, especially for the disabled and chronically ill communities.

Laura 1:08

For questions, comments, or ideas, visit the website at badattitudespod.com, email badattitudespod at gmail.com, or reach out through social media. Follow at BadAttitudes Pod on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Blue Sky.

Laura 1:28

As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community, but I am not the only voice.

Laura 1:44

When this episode drops, it'll be about two weeks post-Super Bowl, but at the time of writing, the halftime show is still fresh in everyone's mind, and as a white person, I just have to say, I am so fucking sick of white people.

Laura 2:00

On February 8th, Bad Bunny made history as the first artist to perform a halftime show almost entirely in Spanish, and certain demographics have been losing their shit ever since he was announced as headliner. Specifically the white MAGA demographic. A lot of poignant choices were made for Super Bowl 60. A halftime headliner who sings in Spanish. An opening performance from Green Day, one of the most popular and outspoken bands performing today, an out lesbian performing America the Beautiful. Messages were delivered. But MAGA was so butthurt over the choice of Bad Bunny, they had to throw their own retaliatory halftime show put on by Turning Point USA, the organization spearheaded by the late Charlie Kirk. Their headliner, Kid Rock, whose most recent pop culture relevance was that time he was shown shooting up a case of Bud Light because it featured a trans woman, and then getting caught on camera drinking Bud Light.

Laura 3:05

Just as a side note, does anyone else giggle a little when you see the mention of TP USA because, well, TP, it makes sense since everything about it is shit.

Laura 3:16

There's no law that says you have to be excited by every halftime performer. But the reaction and backlash to Bad Bunny has been outsized, to say the least. And if you're wondering what any of this has to do with disability, don't worry, I'm getting there.

Laura 3:32

Did I understand what Bad Bunny was singing? No, I don't speak Spanish. To be fair, I also don't understand what most of the halftime acts have been saying because A, I'm not intimately familiar with their music, and B, the sound is usually mediocre at best. I was actually impressed by Bad Bunny's sound quality if I'm being honest. Just because I couldn't understand the words didn't mean I didn't understand the message. And the most important message was in English. The only thing more powerful than hate is love. But the MAGA Base doesn't want to focus on that. They want to throw around false information about Bad Bunny's citizenship and claim it is the most vulgar halftime show ever.

Laura 4:17

You want me to believe this is worse than Nipplegate 2004? Why? Because he grabbed his crotch? Oh hey, have you heard of Michael Jackson? He was the halftime performer in 1993 and practically invented the crotch grab. I bet if I rewatched Halftime 2022 with Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige, I would see nothing but crotch grabs. Was it the dancing? Because I don't remember the outrage being quite so vitriolic in 2020 when Shakira and Jennifer Lopez were literally dancing on poles. Sure, people were upset, but nothing on this level. Were some lyrics problematic? Maybe. But were they as problematic as I like them underage? See, some say that's statutory, but I say that's mandatory. This from Kid Rock, headliner of the All-American TP USA alternative. And at the time of the 2004 Super Bowl, didn't Justin Timberlake's big song contain the lyric, bet I'll have you naked by the end of this song? The hypocrisy is deafening.

Laura 5:27

Honestly, most complainers are just grasping at straws, trying to find something to be offended by, so they don't have to admit what actually upsets them. A non-white performer performing an entire show in a language that isn't English. On a friend's Facebook post, someone commented that they wish Bad Bunny had performed a mix of English and Spanish so more of the country could understand the message. Quote, I watched TP USA on my iPad. That message was clear. It's because the message was racism, Carol. Of course it was clear. A handful of mediocre white men who are past their performing prime threw a televised tantrum because they don't know multiple languages. Interestingly, Kid Rock has performed on the halftime show before, 22 years ago, when he was still culturally relevant.

Laura 6:21

Prior to the actual performance, nobody had anything to say about Bad Bunny's lyrics or any potential dancing. He's the most streamed artist on Spotify. People know his lyrics. If you were concerned about vulgarity, the time to raise that objection was before, not after. But you weren't concerned about his lyrics, only that he was singing them in Spanish. That was and remains the only reason TPUSA put on their show, because the primetime halftime show wasn't going to be in English.

Laura 6:54

Another random internet troll said it more succinctly. Not a single white person in sight. Diversity means erasing you. I have exactly zero sympathy for white people who spent less than 15 minutes not being the center of attention. They aren't centered for a single musical performance and they lose their fucking minds. Tell me you've never had to search for representation without telling me you've never had to search for representation. Tell me your identity has never been used for tokenism without telling me your identity has never been used for tokenism. Tell me you've always seen yourself in movies, TV shows, and books without telling me. Tell me you've always been the main character without telling me you've always been the main character.

Laura 7:49

Disabled people struggle with finding quality representation every day across all media. We get one disabled character and well, that's it. We get one disabled character. Whatever representation we do get is almost always used to center someone else. Another character, practically guaranteed not to be disabled. We are props in someone else's story.

Laura 8:16

Consider two semi-recent movies featuring a disabled main character. First, Me Before You, starring Emilia Clark and Sam Claflin. Spoiler alert, Claflin plays a disabled man who eventually ends his life with assisted suicide. Clark's character, Lou, is hired to act as his caregiver. Based on a novel, the entire arc, including the other character's death, is used to launch Lou out of her dead-end life and set her up for love and success, chronicled in subsequent books. The second, The Upside, starring Bryan Cranston as a paralyzed billionaire and Kevin Hart as a parolee, focuses on their unlikely friendship, but is primarily a redemption vehicle for Hart's character. The Upside is the English language version of multiple foreign films, all inspired by a true story. Both films use disabled characters to advance the stories of non-disabled protagonists.

Laura 9:16

I'm not saying this automatically makes the movies bad, but this is just the perpetuation of a common trope when featuring disabled characters. Both films also perpetuate the use of non-disabled actors to tell disabled stories. I cannot tell you how many times I watch a movie or TV show with a disabled character only to discover the actor isn't actually disabled. It is incredibly frustrating and disappointing and leads to an outsized reaction when we do get authentically disabled actors in disabled roles. People wouldn't have talked about Marissa Bode so much if we were used to seeing disabled actors playing disabled characters. Not that we shouldn't have been talking about Marissa Bode. I think she did a great job as Nessa Rose. At least in the first movie, I still haven't seen the second one. My point is that if hiring disabled actors were a common practice, we could talk about other stuff.

Laura 10:17

I grew up disabled, and from my childhood, I remember exactly one instance of disability representation in the media available to me. Her name was Kathy, and she appeared in four episodes of Different Strokes. Actress Melanie Watson also had osteogenesis imperfecta, but beyond that, I don't feel like I related all that strongly to the character. In the first place, she could go to her friends' houses, something I couldn't do since none of my friends' houses were accessible. And her friends were also super rich. Can definitely not relate. I had characters I could relate to, but no one I could identify with completely.

Laura 11:01

Still, I'm not going to pretend like I haven't also benefited from the prevalence of white presenting representation. For all I'm a disabled person, I'm a disabled white person. And white privilege exists even if I belong to a marginalized community. White people need to stop demanding that everything center whiteness. You aren't under threat because people speak languages other than English. You aren't at risk when we celebrate other cultures. And for that matter, most of so-called white culture is stolen from other cultures.

Laura 11:38

You were not harmed by Bad Bunny's performance. If you feel you were harmed, it's time to admit you're racist. White people are the only ones consistently at the top of the food chain. For most of history, white people have always been the heroes in our stories. Unfortunately, for most of history, those stories weren't white people's stories to tell.

Laura 12:03

Marginalized people have stories to tell too. Stories of triumphing over adversity. Stories of love and heartache, stories of family. Every human has their own story. On Super Bowl Sunday, Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio shared his. It was a story of Puerto Rico and all of America, not just the United States. We live in a global community. It is futile to keep trying to isolate ourselves from people who look or sound different from us. The United States was built upon their shoulders, not the shoulders of white people. It is beyond time to stop pretending otherwise.

Laura 12:49

Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you in the next one.