'The Baseline Is, You Suck': Junot Diaz on Men Who Write About Women
The Atlantic: It sounds like you're saying that literary "talent" doesn't inoculate a write—especially a male writer—from making gross, false misjudgments about gender. You'd think being a great writer would give you empathy and the ability to understand people who are unlike you—whether we're talking about gender or another category. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
Junot Diaz: I think that unless you are actively, consciously working against the gravitational pull of the culture, you will predictably, thematically, create these sort of fucked-up representations. Without fail. The only way not to do them is to admit to yourself [that] you're fucked up, admit to yourself that you're not good at this shit, and to be conscious in the way that you create these characters. It's so funny what people call inspiration. I have so many young writers who're like, "Well I was inspired. This was my story." And I'm like, "OK. Sir, your inspiration for your stories is like every other male's inspiration for their stories: that the female is only in there to provide sexual service." There comes a time when this mythical inspiration is exposed for doing exactly what it's truthfully doing: to underscore and reinforce cultural structures, or I'd say, cultural asymmetry.
Since doing just one type of meme is boring let’s do a bunch! Leave something (movie, book, show, whatever you like) in my ask box and it will somehow get remixed, whether it be AU, genderswap, recast, genreswap, something else that strikes inspiration! YAY MEMES!
it's another theatre survey!!!
1. Disney/Pixar wants to make an animated film out of one of your top ten favorite musicals. Which one should they make and why?
2. What do you think about breaking the fourth wall?
3. Pick a show. Any show. Got it? Okay, now every single character is now being played by someone of the opposite sex. So who's in it?
4. Stephen Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd Webber? No, we won't judge. NOW EXPLAIN YOURSELF.
5. Cast one of your least favorite shows with people who would make you want to see it.
6. Who killed Edwin Drood?
7. You're in charge of some prime advertisement space in Times Square. Which shows are you giving this space to and why?
8. Movie musicals: awesome or awful?
9. Bootlegs: best things ever or worst things ever?
10. How many playbills do you take when you see a show?
11. Weirdest/funniest/most memorable stage door experience. GO.
12. What is your most prized theatre-related possession?
13. Which Book of Mormon missionary would you let in your house?
14. Jukebox musicals. Are they a waste of space or super fun?
15. What shows are you most excited for this season (on Broadway, the West End, or on tour)?
16. It's an understudy extravaganza! Cast the two lead roles of three of your favorite shows with understudies who have played those roles before.
17. Let's pretend for a sec that you don't need a big star to have a movie musical success. Pick out a cast for the movie version of one of your favorite musicals. No Hollywood stars allowed.
18. Name a film or television actor/actress you think would actually do really well onstage. And while you're at it, tell us what show s/he should be in.
20. Do you prefer large theatres with a billion seats and the technology to have super crazy effects happen onstage while the stage itself is spinning around and shit, or smaller theatres where everything is lower-key and simpler?
21. Give one-sentence reviews of the last five shows you've seen.
22. What is the show that you went into with low expectations but then came out completely obsessed?
23. Are there any shows you think are worth seeing at least once? Like the big-name ones. The ones people think it's cool to hate on because it makes them a theatre hipster or something. Those ones.
24. On that note, what's an underrated show that closed way before its time?
25. If you received a full scholarship to any college with the stipulation that you must go into a field that is at least related to the performing arts, what would you study?
26. Do you believe in love, would you stay high, or do you want to be invisible?
27. Everyone has those shows they wanted to see but were never able to get to. What are some of your favorites you never got to see?
28. Which shows first come to mind when you read the following song titles: "I Believe," "Santa Fe," "Ever After," and why the hell not: "Overture"?
29. Congratulations! You're now a really rich theatre patron with enough money to make your own awards! So go ahead and tell us what those awards would be called, what sort of categories you'd hand them out for, and if you can think of some winners, tell us who they'd be!
30. Pick a book, a movie, and a TV show you'd like to be made into either a stage play or a musical, and tell us which one and why.
Henry: Why did you call me Henry?
Chuck: That was the name I used after I got shot, which was after I refused to give them your mother's engagement ring which i only bought her because i slept with a child, after trading her for the very hotel you'll inherit. You know, the one i had to murder your grandfather to keep. I used the name Henry with Eva, the real love of my life. The one whose departure forced me to declare war on your mother.
You are insisting that the University of Texas at Austin denied your application for undergraduate admission because they were required to fulfill a federal diversity quota, which subjected you to bias. In blaming affirmative action for that denial letter, you are disregarding your responsibility as a college applicant. It is much easier to fault affirmative action than to hold up a mirror and see that you just weren’t qualified.
You told The New York Times that attending UT had been your dream since the second grade, so before submitting an application, you had to be aware of the admissions requirements. You knew that the institution automatically accepts the top 10 percentile from every high school in Texas and that the average SAT score is in the 1200s. It is common knowledge that UT is one of the most prestigious institutions in the United States, so it is challenging to be gain admission.
Before securing those letters of recommendation and forking over that expensive application fee, you knew that despite your legacy as the child of UT graduates, a spot on the coveted honor roll and a lifelong affair with the cello that admission wasn’t guaranteed.
In blaming affirmative action for that denial letter, you have failed to mention that you graduated number 82 in a class of 674 with a 3.59 grade point average on a 4.0 scale, which alienated you from the automatic admissions bunch. You conveniently omit that you scored an 1180 on your SAT, which is way below UT’s average, so that automatically diminished your chances of being accepted.
You suffer from selective amnesia, Abigail. You are aware that the University of Texas at Austin uses two indexes, the Academic and the Personal Achievement, to determine admission for students. You know that the Academic Index combines grades and standardized test scores while the Personal Achievement Index considers the submitted essays along with extracurricular activities and special circumstance (which can include race). You have been told that these two scores are combined and plotted on a graph and that everyone above a certain combined score is admitted while everyone below is rejected.
This leads to one conclusion: Affirmative action is not the issue. Now, before you attempt to bash me as another black woman benefiting from federal mandates, let me clarify: I scored a 1680 on the SAT and I was accepted into every undergraduate institution that I applied to. I graduated from Bennett College Summa Cum Laude and valedictorian with a 4.0 grade point average and I’m on a full ride merit-based fellowship for graduate school.
From academic to academic, it’s time to wake up and smell the ashes Abigail. You were not accepted into the University of Texas at Austin because you’re white. You were not qualified. But of course because African-Americans students were chosen for admittance and you were not, it must be reverse racism in the form of affirmative action.
I’ve seen this time and time again. It is owed to the prevalence of white privilege, which leads to unwarranted entitlement. You do know what white privilege is, right?
“So, I didn’t lose you to Chuck, I lost you to the idea of Chuck? At some point in the hopefully not too distant future, maybe? Blair, you had someone who loved you unconditionally, treated you right and wanted to be with you every day and then you threw that all away to let Chuck Bass decide when he’s ready for you? You think you two have an epic love, but all you have are excuses.”
