[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I wrote: If I told you that Em makes a strong stand against violence against > women, a > strong stand against homophobia, would you believe me? > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] responded: I promise I will believe you, but can you be > specific? And do you believe that Mr. Em is really making those statements, > or just acting? > There are those of us who don't think that Em ever advocated homophobia or violence against women. Oh, I know if you pull a lyric here and there and take things out of context or at face value that it may seem so, and that has been done with great extent against Eminem. You can do that with, oh, say, Verdi, Mozart... I think you have always had Em describing life as it is and when the whole albums have been listened to, it has always been clear who Em is saying that the losers are. Then again, I also believe the Bret Perry Ellis was using his artistic abilities to describe life as he saw it as opposed to advocated violence in American Psycho. I also believe the Oliver Stone was describing, not advocating, violence in our society in Natural Born Killers. I don't think the original Willy the Shake was advocating murdering family in Hamlet or your rivals in MacBeth or turning your father out to die in Lear. What Em has always done is describe life as it is. If one stays with his lyrics long enough, you see that he flips it back on the perpetrator of violence. Stan in the song of the same name was always portrayed as someone who desperately needs help and needs to start living in the real world, perhaps with counseling. Everyone focused on the lines that Stan has in that song and ignored what Em speaks in his own voice in reply. But then too, I don't think the painting The Rape of the Sabine Women advocates rape, nor do I think Guernica advocates war. The very depiction can be the protest and that has been very true of Eminem. I have been privy to some of the court filings on Michigan cases regarding Marshall Mathers and the one of the most conservative courts in our state awarded Marshall Mathers physical custody of his daughter. The reality to Em and his music is far more than the surface that has been used to trash him. And it has always been clear in all of his music that he adores his daughter. Oh well, don't need to rehash all that. The first proponent of Em on these boards was Michael Yarbrough, and then me, and both of us are gay and rather non violent and support feminism. Elton John stood with Joni and Em in recent past - might be his way of saying something. And I agree with Bobsart that I have been (more than) a little defensive here. Brian, I'll let you see the movie to see for yourself. The movie is based richly on Em's life and world. (Mom does come out as much better than she is in real life.) After I saw 8 Mile, I went to a local night spot and was in the dj booth for a while and a lot of folks were dropping in quoting lines from the movie. One of them was a woman who teaches 12 graders and she was pumping me for information about the movie because she wasn't able to see it Friday but she knew all her students already had! She knows Em's work quite well, as she said, "when all my students know something, I learn about it." Her big question: would it be ok to take her 10 year old nephew to. Now either she is the world's worst teacher and aunt, or she has seen behind the hype. And when I told her of the scene where Em's character makes a very major stand against bashing gays - and the word is he wanted that scene in the movie to address that issue - I was impressed that this teacher, not having seen the movie but knowing Em's work, was able to guess exactly what he said in that scene, and was pretty close to guessing how he did it. So for some of us at least, these things are very true to his music, and to him. very defensively, I guess, Vince
