BOYCOTT Vanity Fair
The following is an article from this months Vanity Fair that I was HORRIFIED to read....I think you all will be too.
Below it is a letter to the editor
Excerpt, Vanity Fair (February 2003), p. 116, Ask Dame Edna:
Dear Dame: Edna, I would very much like to learn a foreign language,
preferably French
or Italian, but every time I mention this, people tell me to learn Spanish
instead. They say, 'Everyone is going to be speaking Spanish in 10 years.
George W. Bush speaks Spanish.' Could this be true? Are we all going to have
to
speak Spanish?
Torn Romantic, Palm Beach
Dear Torn: Forget Spanish. There's nothing in that language worth reading
except Don
Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care of
that. There was a poet named Garcia Lorca, but I'd leave him on the
intellectual back burner if I were you. As for everyone's speaking it,
what
twaddle! Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help?
Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are a t least a few
books worth reading, or, if you're American, try English.
Dame Edna
Petition Letter Requesting Apology:
Dear Editor,
I was infuriated at Dame Edna's response to Torn Romantic, Palm Beach
(Vanity
Fair, February 2003). Dame Edna could have chosen any number of amusing
responses; however, she responded using cheap, two-dimensional stereotypes
of
Latinos and Latin Americans, revealing not only her racism but also her
profound ignorance of who we are.
We are not just 'the help' and the 'leaf blowers'. We are architects and
activists, journalists and doctors, governors and athletes, scientists and
business people. We are Nobel Prize Winners and Rhodes Scholars. We speak
Spanish, but we also speak fluent English, and many of us speak other
languages
as well. As of last week, we are officially the largest minority population
in
the United States at 37 million and 13% of the population.
Without us, the economy of this nation and the Americas, and consequently
the
world, would come to a complete standstill.
If Dame Edna were even remotely cultured or educated, she would have read
and
lost herself in the exquisite writings of Nobel prize winners Octavio Paz,
Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, and Pablo Neruda. She would know that Sor Juana Inez
de
la Cruz was one of the first feminists and poets in the Americas.
She would admire Isabel Allende and Sandra Cisneros for their passionate
prose and vibrant spirits. And of course, if it had not been for us, the
world
would not know chocolate! And everyone knows life would not be worth living
without chocolate.
Finally, I would like to point out that Dame Edna would have NEVER written
such blatantly offensive material about African-Americans or Jews, for
obvious
reasons. It seems that Dame Edna AND the Editors of Vanity Fair believe that
Latinos and Latin Americans cannot read, and even if we could, we would
never
be Vanity Fair readers. For the life of me, I still cannot figure out why
you
chose to feature Salma Hayek on the cover and in an article celebrating her
success immediately following such an offensive piece.
I demand an apology in print in the next issue of Vanity Fair from the
Editors and from Dame Edna. In the meantime, I will be mobilizing everyone I
know to boycott and protest Vanity Fair.
By the way, I am a 31-year old Mexican-American woman, with three Ivy League
degrees, working in New York City at a major firm. I sure as hell am NOT the
leaf blower or the help, and I think all of you need to go to college.
Wendy Maldonado
Below it is a letter to the editor
Excerpt, Vanity Fair (February 2003), p. 116, Ask Dame Edna:
Dear Dame: Edna, I would very much like to learn a foreign language,
preferably French
or Italian, but every time I mention this, people tell me to learn Spanish
instead. They say, 'Everyone is going to be speaking Spanish in 10 years.
George W. Bush speaks Spanish.' Could this be true? Are we all going to have
to
speak Spanish?
Torn Romantic, Palm Beach
Dear Torn: Forget Spanish. There's nothing in that language worth reading
except Don
Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care of
that. There was a poet named Garcia Lorca, but I'd leave him on the
intellectual back burner if I were you. As for everyone's speaking it,
what
twaddle! Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help?
Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are a t least a few
books worth reading, or, if you're American, try English.
Dame Edna
Petition Letter Requesting Apology:
Dear Editor,
I was infuriated at Dame Edna's response to Torn Romantic, Palm Beach
(Vanity
Fair, February 2003). Dame Edna could have chosen any number of amusing
responses; however, she responded using cheap, two-dimensional stereotypes
of
Latinos and Latin Americans, revealing not only her racism but also her
profound ignorance of who we are.
We are not just 'the help' and the 'leaf blowers'. We are architects and
activists, journalists and doctors, governors and athletes, scientists and
business people. We are Nobel Prize Winners and Rhodes Scholars. We speak
Spanish, but we also speak fluent English, and many of us speak other
languages
as well. As of last week, we are officially the largest minority population
in
the United States at 37 million and 13% of the population.
Without us, the economy of this nation and the Americas, and consequently
the
world, would come to a complete standstill.
If Dame Edna were even remotely cultured or educated, she would have read
and
lost herself in the exquisite writings of Nobel prize winners Octavio Paz,
Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, and Pablo Neruda. She would know that Sor Juana Inez
de
la Cruz was one of the first feminists and poets in the Americas.
She would admire Isabel Allende and Sandra Cisneros for their passionate
prose and vibrant spirits. And of course, if it had not been for us, the
world
would not know chocolate! And everyone knows life would not be worth living
without chocolate.
Finally, I would like to point out that Dame Edna would have NEVER written
such blatantly offensive material about African-Americans or Jews, for
obvious
reasons. It seems that Dame Edna AND the Editors of Vanity Fair believe that
Latinos and Latin Americans cannot read, and even if we could, we would
never
be Vanity Fair readers. For the life of me, I still cannot figure out why
you
chose to feature Salma Hayek on the cover and in an article celebrating her
success immediately following such an offensive piece.
I demand an apology in print in the next issue of Vanity Fair from the
Editors and from Dame Edna. In the meantime, I will be mobilizing everyone I
know to boycott and protest Vanity Fair.
By the way, I am a 31-year old Mexican-American woman, with three Ivy League
degrees, working in New York City at a major firm. I sure as hell am NOT the
leaf blower or the help, and I think all of you need to go to college.
Wendy Maldonado
