Strange Fruit #105: TV That Shatters Stereotypes (and Porn that Reinforces Them)

02/06/15 • 29 min

After spending January looking back at some of our favorite conversations, we're back this week with a brand new episode — and we have a lot of hot topics to catch up on! So this week, we're doing an all-Juicy-Fruit episode, and we're joined by PR guru and friend-to-the-show, Walter Walker (you might remember him from WFPL's 2013 Defining Fairness series: http://wfpl.org/life-without-labels-walter-w-walker-ii-defining-fairness/). We talk about a Huffington Post article last week by Mike Alvear, which looked at racial dynamics in gay porn. The piece, "Why Are Whites Always the Bottom in Interracial Porn?" says the porn industry caters to white people, who they say are their highest-paying customers. We talk about the ways in which we're socialized to view black men as hypersexual and aggressive, and how those images are perpetuated (and even exaggerated) in the fantasy world of porn. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-alvear/why-are-whites-always-the_b_6503674.html) We also talk about the Ghostbusters reboot — both our own opinions, and internet fanboys' sexist reactions. Also, remember Mary Cheney? She's the white lesbian daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and she was apparently confused this week about drag and blackface. She wrote on her facebook wall, "Why is it socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for men to put on dresses, make-up and high heels and act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.) — but it is not socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for a white person to put on blackface and act out offensive stereotypes of African Americans? Shouldn't both be OK or neither?" As a public service to Mary (because our Fruitcakes already know) we break down the differences between subversive and oppressive entertainment, and talk about the roots of each phenomenon. We're also not sure what kind of drag shows she's been to; when we see drag done in queer spaces, it doesn't tend to poke fun at women at all. And finally, while we were on break, Empire took television completely by storm! We talk about the new resurgence in scripted black television, and the importance of three-dimensional characters of color with complex relationships and lives.

Previous Episode

Strange Fruit #104: Why Would Straight Men Sleep With Men?

Everyone knows that gay men sleep with men, and straight men sleep with women. Right? On this week's show, we learn it’s not always that simple. Today we’re listening back to a conversation we had with Dr. Joe Kort. He’s a sex and relationship therapist based in Detroit, and when we talked in September 2013, he’d just had an article published at the Huffington Post about why straight-identified men sometimes have sex with other men. In it, he shares a whole list of reasons why this phenomenon might happen. These reasons are by turns predictable (they’re in prison with no access to women), poignant (they seek to replace the affection they didn’t get from their fathers), hilarious (narcissism!) and taboo (we’re pretty sure this was the first time the word cuckholding has been uttered on Strange Fruit). It was a fascinating conversation and Dr. Kort shed some light on a lot of things. (NOTE: This conversation includes some blunt talk about human sexuality, and some discussion of sexual abuse —if that’s not something you can listen to, consider sitting this one out, and we'll see you next week! ♥) To close out today's show, labor historian Toni Gilpin shares a little-known story from 1940s Louisville. A local chapter of the United Farm Machinery workers organized at Louisville’s International Harvester plant in the late 1940s, and began advocating for racial equality both inside and outside of the plant. Their efforts would lead to an entire factory of mostly white workers walking off the job to protest the unfair treatment of their African American colleagues. Outside the factory walls, union members tried to desegregate the Brown Hotel and Cherokee Park—both whites-only at the time—and were met with violence and forcible removal by police.

Next Episode

PROMO: Coming up on Strange Fruit #106

Coming up this weekend on Strange Fruit, Frederick Smith, author of "Play It Forward," talks about the importance of three-dimensional black and brown characters in literature, and his own path to becoming a writer. And charges are dropped against Shelton McElroy, a Louisville activist who was arrested after being asked to leave 4th Street Live. He says racism is at play in the entertainment complex's dress code enforcement. Plus, all the tea from the Grammys, from Bey & Ledisi, to Kanye & Beck. We have a lot to catch up on... See you Saturday night at 10!