Meet The Stinkies

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I don't believe in whining but yesterday's Mo'Nique thread ("Keep It Up") was one of the ugliest of the year for all the name-calling and rhetorical mud-slinging, much of it directed as yours truly. All day I was ducking spears thrown by a pack of hysterical p.c. queens for two perceived sins. One, my decision to use the term "lard ass." And two, observing that if Precious was about some scurvy white crackers in Alabama or Mississippi it wouldn't have gotten the traction that the actual Precious has because it wouldn't have the liberal-white-guilt element propelling it along.

I realize that if you provoke in one direction you're going to get provoked right back -- that's the game I play on this site from time to time -- but imagine what it feels like to express one or two specific opinions only to see aspects or side-angles of these views amplified and distorted and made into a slander meme in which you're portrayed as a racist. It's a fairly horrific thing, and I have nothing but contempt for the principal torch-bearers out there. They're not as bad as the Roman Polanksi haters -- by far the ugliest bunch to be heard from on this site -- but they park their cars in the same garage. (Or in a garage owned by the same chain.)

And all I did was comment about Tom O'Neil's reporting about how Mo'Nique isn't planning on attending the New York Film Critic's ceremony. I didn't open up an old can of worms for perversity's sake. Tom's piece was posted and I linked with some opinions and comments -- that's all, big deal. And the shutters flew open and a swarm of p.c. banshees flew out.

One of them, a howler named Renfield, said that I lacked "common decency toward [my] fellow man" and admonished me for that pointing out the racial angle in Precious. He urged me to respect the fact that filmmakers are "individuals" and asked, "Christ, do you really need to be taught this?"

Again -- I pointed out the racial angle only to explain the "scurvy white cracker" point articulated above. In my humble but earnest view Renfield is a reprehensible slanderer -- a Body Snatcher pod person pointing and screaming the words, "He's not talking the p.c. talk! He's not using the right terms....Eeeeeeeee!" I said in response, "I don't think I need to be taught anything by a tut-tutting sanctimonious p.c. drone like yourself, but thanks for the offer all the same."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 20, 2009 at 7:24 AM

comment #1

BizzarroJeffWells says ...

Whine all you like, Wells, but Monique is going to win this hands down. it's a too strong, performance out of nowhere that won't be denied.

FYI: Awards don't matter.

Posted by BizzarroJeffWells at December 20, 2009 9:07 AM

comment #2

poseidon72 says ...

In her defense Jeff I did she her give an interview to Joy Beher this week on Joy's Cable show and Monique did seem very upbeat and respectful of the critical acclaim. It actualy was a really good interview.

Posted by poseidon72 at December 20, 2009 9:24 AM

comment #3

LarryGopnik says ...

poseidon, shhhhh. He don't wanna know.

Posted by LarryGopnik at December 20, 2009 9:30 AM

comment #4

Atticus Grinch says ...

I love this post, and hope the term "scurvy white crackers" catches on.

Posted by Atticus Grinch at December 20, 2009 10:04 AM

comment #5

Irving Thalberg says ...

Imagine a world wherein, say, Hitchcock had raped a child. Jeff wouldn't know where to turn-- Support Hitch's release due to his sterling filmography or condemn him to hell thanks to his wildly unhealthy body mass index. Thank goodness we don't have to deal with that quandary!

Posted by Irving Thalberg at December 20, 2009 10:14 AM

comment #6

Irving Thalberg says ...

...and in all seriousness, isn't there an even richer irony in the Mo'Nique/Polanski of it all? (I'd say forgive me for playing the "Roman Card" but Jeff opened that can of worms himself.)

An overweight black woman plays a character who allows her child to be raped. She--the actress, not just the character--deserves our approbation and eternal hatred according the gospel of Wells.

A trim white man (one might say dwarfish white man if one hurled invectives around with the acumen of Jeffrey) actually rapes a child in real life and he deserves our forgiveness because he made CHINATOWN?

You wanna play the "what if PRECIOUS was about white people" game, Jeff? I just did.

[Countdown to Wells parsing rapeyness in 3, 2, 1...]

Posted by Irving Thalberg at December 20, 2009 10:35 AM

comment #7

Irving Thalberg says ...

#6 should've read "...not our approbation but our eternal hatred..." OK, I'm done now.

Posted by Irving Thalberg at December 20, 2009 10:40 AM

comment #8

zyg says ...

"I don't believe in whining but..." love that

wells

i'm not sure what you expect when you call someone a lard ass.

"...was one of the ugliest of the year for all the name-calling... much of it directed as yours truly" -- is this not at least hypocritical? at the very least?

maybe it would be more accurate to call it a double standard. that is, you may call someone a lard ass but no one may engage in name-calling when directed at you. is that not a double standard?

we are to conclude that you are the only one allowed to treat people with disrespect on this site?

ps -- can anyone elaborate? is irving thalberg's comment (#6) accurate? did wells trash mo'nique's performance because she portrayed an ugly character?

(apologies, but i rarely read wells' longer comments, so i don't really know what his gripe re: mo'nique's performance is)

Posted by zyg at December 20, 2009 11:03 AM

comment #9

zyg says ...

oh, forgot: 'meet the stinkies?'

wells, really. the stinkies...? how do you expect people to react when you express yourself in such a manner?

Posted by zyg at December 20, 2009 11:05 AM

comment #10

dixiedugan66 says ...

I also saw the Behar interview and have read a few others...she seems to be a very grounded woman who holds her family in higher regard than an award. Two of her children are just little ones so yes, I can see a mother pick a vacation with the kids over that.

I read the debacle and backed slowly away from the site yesterday. I'm trying to have a happy holiday season, the less strife the better. Or it could be that Jeff's pointed his barbs at the Midwesterners so often that I'm immune.

Posted by dixiedugan66 at December 20, 2009 11:26 AM

comment #11

cinefan says ...

Did you or did you not refer to Monique as a lard-ass? You can label us "hysterical p.c. queens" all you want but it doesn't change the fact that you used an ugly personal slur against an actress you don't know, a slur which has nothing at all to do with the question of whether or not she deserves a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Posted by cinefan at December 20, 2009 11:39 AM

comment #12

zyg says ...

dixiedugan

people often 'back away slowly' from this site

Posted by zyg at December 20, 2009 11:39 AM

comment #13

mccool says ...

Jeffrey Wells doesn't believe in whining? And Seymour Butts doesn't believe in pornography. And Don Murphy doesnt believe in french fries. And Bernie Madoff doesn't believe in conning.

Posted by mccool at December 20, 2009 11:41 AM

comment #14

Gabe@ThePlaylist says ...

Hollywood-elsewhere. All Mo'Nique, all the fucking time.

Most of us would just be happy about a moratorium on all Mo'Nique discussion of any type.

Posted by Gabe@ThePlaylist at December 20, 2009 12:46 PM

comment #15

Noiresque says ...

I don't think Jeff is racist, nor was it his intent to be racist, but he didn't link "with some opinions and comments" as he used very loaded language.

A reason why race was discussed in the past thread is because you constantly make mention of "white liberal guilt" - making assumptions about the people on this board who do like the film for starters - and toss around words like "cracker" (yes, I understand why you did) in a different context, which in reverse makes a value judgement on the characters.

And the notion that Mo'Nique should act more "grateful" to high-brow award-bestowers is disturbing to me in the context that she,
- is no Scott or Brando, who were worshipped by actors, directors and critics alike
- does not fit into the elite black actress crew like Viola Davies or Alfre Woodard
- in her role as a comic takes on a low-brow, ghetto-fabulous persona
- telling a black woman to "get her lard-ass" to NY to give thanks to those who like her, I'm sorry to say, does bring up images of Mammy.

As someone said in the last thread, where did the shuckin' and jivin' get Cuba Gooding Jr?

Posted by Noiresque at December 20, 2009 12:49 PM

comment #16

allstar397 says ...

I just find it amusing how you don't like it turned back your way after your whole "if you don't like Barack obama you're a racist" stance awhile back. karma is a beyotch isn't it?

Posted by allstar397 at December 20, 2009 1:49 PM

comment #17

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

"...I was ducking spears ...",

Would you care to borrow my shovel for that hole you just keep digging deeper and deeper for yourself there, brother?

Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie at December 20, 2009 2:00 PM

comment #18

crazynine says ...

"...I was ducking spears ..."

I don't know about ducking, but there's definitely quacking and walking.

Posted by crazynine at December 20, 2009 2:29 PM

comment #19

BriOut says ...

Uppity! That's the only word I'm hearing in this takedown of Mo'Nique and her decision to skip the NYFCC ceremony. As in, "How dare this fat, uppity negro woman skip this ceremony. Who does she think she is, a person who has the right to attend or decline any invite she wants to? No, put this negro in her place. Her movie is only good because guilt-ridden white people wanted it to be good anyway. It's not as if the story, the acting, or the craft was anything worthy of discussion. In fact, the only reason I'm writing about it every single day is because it wasn't worthy of discussion and I refuse to be one of those white people who thought so. So don't vote for the uppity negro and spare us from seeing that lard-ass on stage with an Oscar."

Sorry man, I'm just being blunt-spoken or as crass as you've been. All I'm saying is when you defrost the words, that's the sum total of everything you've written about this film... other than it was a good film that moved you. But that was way back in May or June, so that doesn't count, right?

Posted by BriOut at December 20, 2009 3:46 PM

comment #20

THE MovieBob says ...

If nothing else, I'm grateful to "Precious" (which, for the umpteenth time, I didn't like and dislike more by the day) for letting me peek into this alternate universe where Jeff Wells is complaining about "liberals," guilty-white or otherwise, while championing a 2:45 nerd-porn FX epic ;)

Posted by THE MovieBob at December 20, 2009 8:01 PM

comment #21