Re: <nettime> Dear Halle Berry

[Josselien Janssens <j.g.janssens@chello.nl>]

Dear Nina,

What a pity you didn't seem to have read my message entirely right-and it
was of course a bit deliberately provocative. So is the plot of Monsters'
Ball, and of most movies that get made in fact-because otherwise they
would not attract an audience. It has in fact nothing to do with the color
of anybody's skin, since I was taught at various occasions in my youth, by
various wise people who totally managed to convince me of this fact, that
although sometimes historically relevant, it isn't important but it is who
you are inside that is. My message has to do with precisely how much I
respect Halle Berry as an intelligent individual and as an actress. And
how much I will do what is within my means to stand up to defend her human
rights if necessary, from any prejudice and misguidedness.

My point is that she took that Oscar as a triumph, a victory, for black
actresses. Where at this point in the history of the world and of Oscars
in particular, it is merely a sad token, that more illustrates how much
inequality there still is and how long that has been going on for, than
the other way around. So long overdue in general that it has become almost
an insult the other way around to mention her colour of skin in the
equasion -- especially with all the other Best Actress nominees being
equally deserving of awards in terms of artistic capacity. If there had
been another "non-white" female contender in the list, it would have been
a different story. That's why Halle should have beaten that drum for all
it was worth. The US industrial film culture unfortunately probably has a
lot to do with why she didn't.

Where in the US artist community, there are numerous African-American,
Hispanic/Latino, Cheyenne, Apache, Navaho, Chinese, etc. etc. etc.,
actresses with screen presences the size of Out Of Africa, A Passage to
India, The Piano, The English Patient, or In Bed With Madonna, whom we
have hardly seen enough of in the commercial main stream because they
never got a proper chance to enter it. My guess is they know very well who
they are, and naming just one or two in this context would be doing them,
as well as to the great movies or (TV) films they've been acting in, as
well as all the others who then STILL don't get named, a disservice. The
only place where "non-white" actresses are still, even after this year,
mostly nameless and faceless is once a year in the Hollywood Bowl, and in
the large business community associated with that event.

At this years' Academy Awards ceremony, Halle Berry did wear a truly
stunning dress but had clearly no energy and screen presence left in store
for the occasion to do justice to the names and faces of all those unseen
actresses of the last century that she referred to, and to all our
immensely complex and painful cultural legacy of the centuries before. And
I believe that is because of a medical condition of which I know very well
how rotten it feels - and how much you need others around you to overcome
it. The experience and genuine concern of strangers, and the care of
people you know.

Halle IS now a symbol for racial politics, and she was there when that
happened. She is furthermore an adult who can think for herself and she
must be able to stand some serious but constructively intended criticism,
otherwise she wouldn't have gotten as far as she has. She could have
refused the nomination, as I suspect other actors and actresses have done
for various politically principled reasons in the past. It's too late to
refuse this Oscar now, but she can still take that stage whenever she
chooses!  She does put herself up as a feminist and is thus likely to be
singled out as such.

And she IS, clearly, anorexic, I trust my eyesight and her photographs,
and my own photographs from around when I was 17-21 on that. I am giving
my interpretation of those combined observations, on the basis of my own
personal experience. You are of course free to disagree with it.
 
Anorexia Nervosa is chronic self-inflicted starvation, a dangerous, much
misunderstood medical condition that has to do with low levels of physical
and psychological self-esteem. It threatens both men and women alike. It
causes structural undernourishment, which results in a form of numbed
lethargy which the person who suffers from it experiences as security, a
"cushion". It may sometimes go hand in hand with obsessive exercising to
"keep the weight under control". Where the feeling of hunger is associated
with being in control and getting rewarded and is mentally experienced as
"good/strong/coping" and already eating little bits can be experienced as
"bad/weak/lack of will power/something you should get punished for". Where
in reality the condition gradually erodes your mental, emotional, and
physical immune system. It affects your ability to defend yourself
adequately against the challenges of life in general, and against
unnecessarily energy-draining human behaviour in your direct surroundings
in particular.

Our commercial culture promotes and rewards young people deliberately
attaining this serious disease way too much. Although relatively more
women suffer from it, that means it's likely that as many men suffer from
it as much but indirectly and in a different way. That dangerous medical
condition should not get prestigious awards, but serious acknowledgement,
attention, understanding and treatment! From (Western) society at large,
but particularly from individuals around the sufferers.

Many famous female stars clearly visibly suffer from this illness
underneath those sparkling smiles (which they can then only keep up for so
long). Some have it not just for a while but quite permanently, and thus
so do some of their fans. Because all those usually very intelligent
people who are portrayed on photographs and in movies as successful
winners are just that significant bit too thin. Look at Gwyneth Palthrow's
photographs, and focus on her upper arms and neck, and tell me what you
see. Someone very talented who shouldn't let herself be put up as some
kind of a "popularity cash cow", but who clearly needs to give herself the
right kind of loving care and attention otherwise she is not going to keep
up the gruelling life of a super-star (which of course all girls in the
world, young and old, are -or should be- within their own direct social
circle!) If women in her position don't take care of themselves and don't
eat enough varied healthy -organic- food (with the occasional healthy
-organic- grease binge), they may either feel the need to revert to drugs
to keep going, and get seriously ill from that, or get seriously ill from
undernourisment and related side effects such as chronic depression.

You can only overcome this yourself, on your own decisive strength and
will power. There are no pharmaceutical drugs that help, although in some
individual cases professionally prescribed anti-depressants may work
temporarily to get you over a certain deadlock. Good information, and an
open and understanding attitude from others around you is key. The cure is
found in wanting to be engaged with life and the world around you as much
as the girlfriend who told me the right way that I was too skinny when I
was 18. It still took a few years then, but it was her putting it straight
to my face back then that made sure I deep down always knew well enough I
had something to work on. Healing will involve incurring the occasional
personal setback, because that is part of life. Particularly trauma
incurred while still anorexic/lethargic may need to be adequately
emotionally dealt with later on (because on a subconscious level you still
feel it all the way, despite the initial 'false sense of cushioning').

Note that not all skinny people are anorexic! Some just have a relatively
fast working Thyroid gland. Which can also lead to health problems, but if
at all, the kind that you can go to your doctor for to get some balancing
drugs. Good Acupuncturists in particular can help with this structurally
as well.

The more men and women overcome their personal difficult emotional &
physical times of the past, the better it is for the world - my prayers
are for that. Halle's personal experiences, and those of other actors,
singers and models, are important. Because of their fame, they can help
their many fans around the world by sharing some information about their
personal journey back to health.

Then maybe as a collective of intelligent individuals we can overcome the
enormous amount of shallow commercial misinformation we, men & women alike
(still) get rubbed in our faces on a daily basis. Nettime is a critical
forum for people who try to get active in resistance to cultural erosion
and injustice, but there are still too many people everywhere who are
somehow too scared *not* to swallow what they get served! While we're all
either lethargically or angrily trying to digest all the human social
imbalance that we get confronted with on a daily basis, abnormal flooding,
draughts, and storms wreak havoc and cause damage all across the world,
caused by human influences on the global climate. A toxic cloud pretty
much the size of Australia is hanging over Asia, large parts of Africa are
going in for another round of war & starvation and the old growth forests,
the lungs of the planet, our main global oxygen supply, are visibly
diminishing by the minute.

To the direct detriment of the safety and security of US citizens as well
as those of many other countries, the US is getting gung-ho to use it's
depleting, and in some places corrupted, economic resources to go to war
again. And so invoke even more hatred and misunderstanding from other
(equally misunderstood!) cultures than it already has so far. I have a lot
of neighbours from traditionally Islamic countries and we were all
immensely shocked, angry and scared when the WTC got attacked. I have a
very good relationship with them, they're always very friendly and if
there is some trouble, we simply knock on each others door, discuss it and
sort it out. It is clear that one of their most important cultural habits
is to get together with families and friends and share a great deal of
warm hospitality and great cooking!

So instead of trying so hard to be a threatening military force in
combatting terrorism, the US should take the global lead on investing in
structurally environmentally durable economic behaviour, which will set
the prerequisites for global peace. The US is of course clearly not the
only country in the world that could do with some serious change in
political direction. There are too many countries that believe you can be
a credible global talking partner as an undemocratic dictatorial regime,
or while in possesion of for example biological and nuclear weapons
without subscribing to carefully negotiated, clearly worded international
arms regulation treaties. Another generation of Middle Eastern children
will stumble on another generation of yet "newer and better" landmines and
get brought up to hate one another. And will probably never make it to the
cinema. Nor will the AIDS victims in the developing world.

And those are only some of the big issues of the moment, and they are all
interrelated. Collective human behaviour needs to change on a large scale
if we are to avoid further humanitarian disasters around the world.
Artists are important role models and icons who have the means and
opportunity to inform a large, and sometimes critical, audience of that
fact and many of them do. It is the responsibility of the individual
members of the public to remain constructively critical and overcome blind
consumerism the peaceful way.

Best regards, 

Josselien

Nina Temporär wrote:
> 
> what a pity the colour of your skin doesn´t allow you to REALLY belong to
> your favourite
> discourse, so it has to be represented by naive little somethings like
> halle.


[....]




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