Bigotry's Many Faces

One of the most outstanding film comedies of the 20th century is the original 1988 version of Hairspray. At one point, the main character, Tracy Turnblad, triumphantly declares: "I'm big, I'm blond and I'm beautiful!" There's nothing wrong with that, is there? Then why was the veteran football commentator, John Motson, humiliated and forced to apologise for calling a Millwall stricker "big, black and brave"? The TalkSport radio station said that it treated the incident "very seriously", even though it was clear that the remark was meant as a compliment. Really, has political correctness lost any sense of common sense and decency? Which of those three words is actually and insult?

It is the same with much of the Me Too Movement. Fanatics in that camp are destroying the line between rape, sexual assault and serious harassment, on the one hand and healthy flirting and courtship on the other. Are adult women, or men, so precious that they feel violated if someone attempts to flirt with them, hold their hand or touch their knee? Thank heavens for people like the iconic French actress, Catherine Deneuve, who with another 99 signatories made up of female French artists and intellectuals, wrote an open letter trying to infuse some common sense into the controversy. At one point the letter states:

"Next we’ll have a smartphone app that adults who want to sleep together will have to use to check precisely which sex acts the other does or does not accept."

This is scary stuff, because throughout human history, bigotry has kept reappearing in different forms: religious intolerance, nationalism, homophobia, political indoctrination and so on. Narrow minds love it and the danger is that it can take any fashionable form, including atheism. Sometimes, people are even having to think twice before hugging their children in case they get accused of child abuse! The open letter was published at the beginning of last year, but it is still as fresh and relevant as it was then and well worth reading; you can read it in translation here. 

And here is the blond and beautiful Catherine Deneuve with Nino Castelnuovo in the romantic masterpiece, Les Parapluies De Cherbourg (1964), with music by Michel Legrand, who died a few weeks ago: