So, I am a big Eminem fan. It can be embarrassing to admit. And the more aware I become of gender issues, the harder it gets to justify this liking of Eminem. Regardless, I know that I'm still going to listen to him, because it's just something that I probably won't give up.
It's embarrassing because he speaks/raps/acts so horribly about women. I kept thinking of him when we read the "Bitches and Hoes" section of our text, because he is no doubt a pusher of that narrative. In our text, it states that often rappers justify the "bitches and hoes" stuff by saying it isn't all females, just the bad ones, yet they don't talk about any other kind of females. With Eminem, I'm hard pressed to even think of a time when he has talked favorably about any female other than his daughter. And even though he's progressed some on his homophobia, he definitely hasn't been any model citizen for acceptance. When I listen to those parts of his music, it does make me cringe, and there are certain songs I won't even listen to. It's in no way a romanticized fan thing. I realize that he has issues.
But at the same time, I have been listening to him for almost twenty years, since I was a teenager in southeast Michigan, where he is a huge deal. He is like embedded in me at this point. Also, I can relate to him, and in some ways that are awkward to bring up and hard to find other people to relate with. I think that because of that, I sometimes make excuses for or just cringe at his overtly sexist ridiculousness.
I think many people have celebrities they enjoy, or artists who speak to them, that they don't always agree with. For instance, not long ago, I read an Instagram post that stated John Lennon was a domestic abuser. Initially, I thought there was no way this could be true! So I googled around, and yup, it looks like it is. Which is just crazy to me! Like, this is the "Imagine" guy! No one ever talks about this side of him.
In a more recent example, I keep seeing ads for Daddy's Home 2. It stars Mel Gibson, who has been known to go on anti-Jewish rants. In addition, he is also known for being verbally abusive toward women.
Yet despite his severity, he's popular enough that he is now being accepted back in Hollywood, and in what is supposed to be a mainstream family Christmas movie.
If fans (such as myself) are unwilling to give up certain celebrities for social issues which we would usually support, are we hypocrites? I will admit that yeah, I think so. But at the same time, if I'm being honest, I'm probably still always going to listen to Eminem, or at least want to. It does make me wonder, is there anything else can we do to influence mass media and its stars other than boycott? And if not, should people like me get better about giving up our fandom for the sake of the message?
Terry Gross had an interesting conversation yesterday where she tackled this same subject. The fact is that many celebrities are great people in 'real life.' When I met Ian McKellen it was outside of an off-broadway show he was in and he was the sweetest man I have ever met. He took the time to get to know his fans, take pictures with them, give out hugs, ask about their lives, what brings them to New York, etc... It was an amazing experience.
ReplyDeleteBut there are a lot of people whose art touches us and moves us deeply who have troubled personal lives, who are less-than-ideal citizens and members of the community. It can be very difficult to reconcile who a person is in their personal life with the art they produce when their art is so meaningful to so many people. It may be a form of hypocrisy, but it's a form that everyone is guilty of participating in.
My hypocrisy is Michael Jackson. I love his music and I don't foresee myself stopping, even if I find some of what he did in his personal life to be deplorable. And I'm sure there are some Harvey Weinstein movies out there that I like, too.
As a Eminem fan my self. I can relate to how it feels to like a artist, but be totaly put off by some of their songs. The question is why do we keep listening to them? That question might be a difficult one to answer but here is a thought. Maybe we keep listening to these artists because majority of the time we can maybe relate to their overall message and some of us know that the offensive language that is sometimes used is just on the surface not underneath/overall message.
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