Julianne Hough Wears Blackface for Halloween Party- Page 2

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 10/26/13 at 9:49pm

Jungle Red, how do straight couples parade their heterosexuality in your gay bars, and why do you find it offensive? Was that a serious comment?

I'm not taking sides or anything, I just don't get what you mean.

[suestorm]

Posted: 10/26/13 at 10:11pm

Whenever there isas Russian or Ukraine on tv they are either spies or hookers or femme fatales tricking the hero into doing something illegal. Never anything good.. I don't get offended but it is annoying and tiresome so I do understand the hating of this.

But in this case I think JH was paying tribute. Not mocking or insulting.

Can't wait to hear Whoopies take on Mondsy since she and her bf did f the blackfaceand she collects those negro items from the 30s

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/26/13 at 10:34pm

Jay, I was recently in what used to be a serious leather bar that has grown less so over time. But it is still known as a dedicated gay male space 7 nights a week. I went there recently and found seven Snooki-alikes dressed in tight body-roll-coveting black dresses squealing as they did shots. One of the Snookii had a plastic tiara and a sash. Her loudest friend toasted her and all the Sookii agreed that "Jawny" was a great guy and they were gonna be 2gethuh 4evah!!!!!!! Squeeeeeeeeeer!

So that's one way in which heterosexual privilege can take over and change a space in an instant without any of the Snookii giving it even a first thought.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 10/26/13 at 10:43pm

Okay, I see. Something to ponder.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 10/26/13 at 11:29pm

At the time, I had friends who would go ballistic when women would celebrate their marriage in a gay bar. The future brides didn't see the hypocrisy.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/26/13 at 11:47pm

I don't think it's hypocrisy. It's presumption. Nobody is ever asked to think of the ways in which we use our privileges without thinking.

[tazber]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 12:13am

Well Chace Crawford wears gayface every day and no one says a word.

[ivanhoe180]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 5:19am

Hi, I've been lurking around this board for a couple of years and this may be weird for a first post, but I just feel like it today...

I think there are a lot of Halloween costumes out there that are offensive if you take them seriously... Just look at all the "sexy" native american costumes, or nurse costumes. I think it would be different if she went as a random gang member and decided to paint her face black, but she dressed up as a specific character. Could she have done without the makeup, sure, but is it really that offensive?
Of course everyone can/has to decide for themselves what offends them, but hopefully we can agree that it wasn't meant that way.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 5:45am

Hi, I've been lurking around this board for a couple of years and this may be weird for a first post, but I just feel like it today...

Mmmmhmmm...

[ivanhoe180]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 6:31am

I know there's been a lot of trolling lately, so I get where you're coming from JerseyGirl2. I had registered a few years back, but I'm not sure which email-address I used back then. It's even possible that I posted something once or twice under my old account, I'm not sure.
I should have done it before re-registering, but I'm a bit of a lazy person. I'll look through my old email-accounts later when I have more time and will use the old account from here on, if I can access it.

[Kad]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 7:49am

I find it funny the people who are the most laissez faire of things like this are the ones whom it doesn't affect in the least, and who are the ones who generally come out on top on the privilege chain.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 10:36am

Right, Kad. That's my point. I'm assuming Jungle Red is a caucasian; his skin is white. So I'm not really sure he can be in a position to decide what is "offensive." I think Henrik put it best earlier in this thread.

For me, I find it offensive on a more basic level: there's simply no need to even go there. It is complete nonsense and ignorance really.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 10:54am

I'm insensitive because I don't get offended when some celebrity makes a mistake? Her life has nothing to do with yours. Or mine. Could you have lived your life without knowing about Julianne Hough's Halloween costume? Why do you involve yourself with her?

As an Atheist, should I have been offended by Heidi's costume from a few years back? HOW DARE SHE go as the apple/snake from the book of Genesis when I don't believe in the BIBLE?! I AM OUTRAGED.

That's how I feel whenever Carlos gets outraged. About everything. I don't care to look up every example of you getting offended because there aren't enough hours in my day.

What's the point of Halloween if you can't have fun?

The point of all this nonsense is that someone will be offended by whatever you do, so fvck it all and do what you want.

And Kad, I'm hardly "privilege". Had a single mother from Podunk, TX until she died when I was 15. Gay from the get-go and teased relentlessly by my peers until graduation.

I am hardly privileged, no matter what color my skin is.

Which, Carlos, you can't seem to get enough of. Everything is about race to you. You see the world in black and white. I don't. Julianna Hough didn't mean to offend. Her intent was to have fun. Your intent is to see her as some racist who hates black people.

Who is right? Who is wrong? Do I care? Not really.

[Kad]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 11:16am

The only thing I agree with you on is the fact that no, you don't care. You have absolutely no reason to care because, simply by being a white male - regardless of sexuality or upbringing or religion- society does not require you to have to care that an actress thinks it's fun to wear someone's race as a costume.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 11:26am

"Someones race as a costume"

If that is reason enough, then you should be outraged all the time. How many actors play different races on Broadway? Or on film? Or in TV? Let's burn all of our copies of EVITA, not because it sucks, but because they are both white playing Argentinians.

Or WEST SIDE STORY because Ms Woods isn't from Puerto Rico?

It's a costume. She's not saying I HATE BLACK PEOPLE.

I went as Aladdin once for Halloween. I wish I had a picture because it was really cute, but that would offend you because I'm not Arabian.

Should I go on?

Would you have been as offended if she didn't have the makeup? But she kept the hair and the outfit?

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 11:56am

Jungle Red---I think you're missing Carlos's point.

Nobody is saying you're insensitive because you don't happen to be offended by this. But they are saying you're insensitive because you can't see how others might be offended.

It's not your reaction to your own feelings. It's your reaction to their feelings that is being called out as insensitive.

You're showing a lack of empathy.

Explaining your own feelings further doesn't help and isn't what they're talking about.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 12:01pm

^ BIN-GO!!

[faithzilla]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 12:59pm

When I look at this, all I can think is, does this woman have a publicist or manager or something?? Was there no one there to stop her? I expect this from random people, but a celebrity who's under the microscope has got to be REALLY, REALLY idiotic to do something like this.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 1:08pm

She issued a pretty good apology, as public apologies go. None of that conditional "...IF you were offended..." She admits it was offensive.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 1:11pm

What seems to be missing in this thread, unfortunately, is a serious, respectful, informative discussion of why changing skin color for a costume is per se offensive, rather than offensive in certain cases where it is clearly belittling.

Mind you I'm not saying that I can't conceive of why it may be per se offensive. But I would much prefer a serious, informative discussion, one from which we could all learn something, than ad hominem attacks on those of us who don't quite understand it, perhaps because of our own ignorance.

Why is taking on a different hue by its nature different than taking on a different gender, hair color, etc. I understand this has a great deal to do with the history of blackface, but isn't there a valid question about whether that history is always the gravamen, rather than the intent and manner of the particular portrayal of someone of a different ethnicity?

Ok, just shoot me. But rather than calling me out as an ignoramus or a racist, please feel free to help me understand.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 1:15pm

I can't with some of you on this board. If some of you can't clearly see that the offense is as plain as the nose on your face then I can't help you. Google it, Wikipedia it, pick up a damn history book and educate yourself as to why it's offensive.

I'm off this thread, I've said my peace.


Updated On: 10/27/13 at 01:15 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 2:19pm

" I understand this has a great deal to do with the history of blackface, "

Didn't you just answer your own question, Henrik? You say you don't understand, but then you give us the reason why others may find it offensive. There is history involved. And while you may choose to view things a different way today, you can't rationalize the history away. It is what it is. There's no changing it just because things are better today. Some may argue as to how much better they really are. At the very least, they remember what they were. Especially when someone clueless comes along and does something like this.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 2:53pm

Here's one even more disturbing tha Julianne Hough.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/a-boy-wore-blackface-and-dressed-up-as-trayvon-martin-for-ha?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=buzzfeed

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 3:49pm

That's the kind of thing that's easy for me to get outraged over since there's overt racism and it's meant to be offensive and harmful, whereas Hough was just a case of bad judgement and not meant to be anything other than a humerous pop culture reference. I completely understand why people would be offended by her and respect them if they are but I hope that everyone who sees this other "costume" is disgusted by it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/27/13 at 4:07pm

By far the most offensive thing in this tread is Natalie Wood being referred to as "Ms Woods."

I don't think a lot of people who pull stunts like this, including Julianne Hough, are bad or overtly racist people. But it's clear that, at least until this costume went viral, that she has never really thought much about casual racism or microaggressions. Privilege means you don't have to examine those things. I agree that it's bad judgement, and I just hope that maybe this - and some of the excellent points in this thread - are food for thought for some of the people who need it the most. Because if you are looking to 1961's attitudes towards race to apply to today, I think you could stand to venture out of your bubble a titch.



Updated On: 10/27/13 at 04:07 PM