I am a TV snob. Not as in snobby about what I watch on TV,
as in so snobby, I just won’t watch TV. I don’t have one, and I can’t remember
the last time I went to the cinema.
Despite this snobbishness, this month I have been
overwhelmed by not one, but two things on TV. Spurred on by cold weather,
shoulder surgery and the increasing difficulty in downloading stuff from the
internet, I signed up to a free month of Netflix. I’m a little embarrassed
about that. Not only am I admitting to watching TV, I signed up to an online
streaming service. But, having put aside my shame, I discovered Dear White
People and learnt that I can binge TV watch just as well as I can binge read.
You know when you really should go to bed, but you just can’t put the book
down? As a child, did you find yourself reading under the covers with a torch
after you were supposed to be asleep? (Hi Mum! I’m sure you knew I did that. I
doubt I really got away with anything I thought I’d gotten away with in my
childhood). This was me with Dear White
People. Netflix just continues on with the next episode without even going
through the credits, so before I had even had time to guiltily reflect on if I
should really go to bed, the next episode had started and I was hooked. 2
entire series in 4 days. Not bad for a TV denialist.
What was so captivating about it? Well, everything. It’s
clever, political, funny, moving, quirky, queer and sexy. Each episode shows a
different perspective on the events, whilst also developing the story a little
further. So it grows and grabs you in multiple directions. It explores the
diversity of experiences, responses and behaviour of the students, refusing the
idea that there is one black experience. And they are beautiful. Stunningly
beautiful people. Do people that beautiful really exist? I’m sure I haven’t met
any. Am I fetishizing black people? Actually, Gabrielle was hot too. Go watch it. Just make sure you’ve got some
time to get caught up in it.
Then there was Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette. Holy fuck. How does
anyone write something like this? How do you rehearse it? How do you perform
it, again and again and again? It’s incredibly personal, and incredibly brave.
Plus it’s funny, clever, political, heartbreaking and repeatedly side swipes you out of the
blue. Just watch it. A thousand other people have probably told you that
already.
Of course, the world being as it is, somehow there are angry
men (and the odd woman also strangely angry on behalf of the straight men) still commenting on her performance as sexist, manhating, not funny etc
etc. For example, some of the comments
of this review https://dailyreview.com.au/nanette-review-hannah-gadsbys-brilliant-netflix-special-going-set-fire-internet/75701/.
What is so hard about just listening?
She is telling stories of her experience. Her feelings. Her pain. And whilst
she is doing so, she is pointing the stick of her humour firmly at straight men.
Then contextualising it in how straight men have been telling women to put up
with their behaviour by “lightening up”, “it’s just a joke” for years. They never see the problem in their behaviour; it was women’s response to it. The stick is in the other hand in this
performance. She is not using it to perpetuate entrenched oppression. She is using it to reveal another tool of that oppression. To the men who can hear her through the challenge of
that medium, congratulations. To those who can’t, well, my expectations of you
were low enough already. Thanks for confirming them.
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