I'm not exactly sure if this post is a response to my post about class and the theater or not, but it still makes me want to kick in a fucking window.
Of course he's right that playwrights need to work hard, but his attitude represents a larger sort of American thinking that's outdated and dangerous. It's the idea that we live in a meritocracy where the cream rises to the top. The truth is, privilege exists in theater because it exists everywhere in America.
We do not live in a meritocracy.
I love when straight, white, dudes are brash enough to argue that disadvantages against women, racial minorities, poor folks, gays etc. are completely imagined despite oodles of evidence to the contrary. Minorities are poor because of LAZINESS.
The line of thinking is: "I've never found X to be a problem, so it must not exist." It's a selfish, myopic understanding of life in America, whether it's about theater or any other profession. In short, it's the argument of somebody who benefits from privilege.
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9 comments:
Bingo.
Should clarify...
"The line of thinking is: 'I've never found X to be a problem, so it must not exist." It's a selfish, myopic understanding of life in America..."
Bingo.
Well said, sir.
How did I never know about Privilege Denying Dude?
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/privilege-denying-dude
On the other hand, I'm still seeing plenty of mediocre plays written by people whose only credentials are an MFA and someone's idea of correct politics-- and this tells me that people aren't working their butts off.
On the other hand, I'm still seeing plenty of mediocre plays written by people whose only credentials are an MFA and someone's idea of correct politics-- and this tells me that people aren't working their butts off.
How DARE you imply that the MFA From Prestigious School does not make me inherently BETTER at playwriting than anyone who doesn't have one.
I nearly punched a straight, white, gentile man (who outmassed me by at least 50%) in a bar on my birthday this weekend because he was trying to pick me up by telling me that women and queer folk "finally are equal to men in the workplace".
RAGEGASM.
How DARE you imply that the MFA From Prestigious School does not make me inherently BETTER at playwriting than anyone who doesn't have one.
I'll take that dare and up the ante: Before I decided to try my hand at playwriting, I was a poet, and let me tell you: if the feature poet at a reading was introduced as having an MFA, I knew it was naptime.
There's something about writing that doesn't lend itself well to conservatory pedagogy.
Obviously some people are being produced because of privilege, but some people are being produced because they fit a certain director's ideology.
Thank you for beinng you
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