Comments on: The Help, ethnography, and ickiness http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2011/08/20/the-help-ethnography-and-ickiness/ Secularism, religion, and the public sphere Thu, 16 May 2013 19:41:38 +0000 hourly 1 By: Jennifer Brewer http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2011/08/20/the-help-ethnography-and-ickiness/comment-page-1/#comment-73799 Jennifer Brewer Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:54:08 +0000 http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/?p=25401#comment-73799 I am taking a Comp. course and was just introduced to ethnography. The first thing that came to my mind was The Help – maybe because I just watched the movie. I read the book when it first came out and was bothered by these same issues. I work in a child care center and passed the book and my concerns on to some of my black co-workers. It has actually made a big difference in our little community, leading us to discuss our frustrations about the book and talk about race issues that wouldn’t normally be easy to bring up. I appreciate your putting into words the overall problem I had with it. I think it is one of those stories that makes white people feel good about not being as evil as we were in the past. It makes us feel like we’ve come such a long way and feel proud of that as though individually we had anything to do with the progress of the past century. I also noticed the bus stop scene and thought it should be so obvious what a self-centered, oblivious character Skeeter was. The entire premise of the book is frustrating, since in reality it never happened because it would have been too risky. Somehow, it seems to me, the story candy coats the whole civil rights movement, making it easier to swallow for white people who can tell themselves that at least they aren’t as horrible as Hilly Holbrooke. I am so confused that more people don’t see it this way.

]]> By: Kathy Schlossmacher http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2011/08/20/the-help-ethnography-and-ickiness/comment-page-1/#comment-53876 Kathy Schlossmacher Sun, 21 Aug 2011 11:47:41 +0000 http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/?p=25401#comment-53876 I think it is an age old question. Can male write female, rich write poor, white write black? Feminist theorists have written for decades about how men should not be writing for and about woman. Latino/a Theologians have criticized the largely white, male religious industry for dictating preferential options for the poor when most have never been either Latinos or poor. Who for that matter can write period when approached from that perspective. If that is the case, the only one I can write about is the I and my own location.
I am not even sure there is a solution here except that novelists, ethnographers, theologians etc, need to examine their moments, recognize that purity is sham and do the best they can, as people with good intentions generally do.
Maybe the most positive thing about this movie and book or any movie or book is that it compels a thinking society to ask these very questions. I have never met an issue that couldn’t be opened for discussion and most things that act as a catalysis for discussion have a value. Maybe it is in the discussion that we find the real honesty and purity.

]]> By: Kathy Schlossmacher http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2011/08/20/the-help-ethnography-and-ickiness/comment-page-1/#comment-53864 Kathy Schlossmacher Sun, 21 Aug 2011 10:35:02 +0000 http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/?p=25401#comment-53864 I think it is an age old question. Can male write female, rich write poor, white write black? Feminist theorists have written for decades about how men should not be writing for and about woman. Latino/a Theologians have criticized the largely white, male religious industry for dictating preferential options for the poor when most have never been either Latinos or poor. Who for that matter can write period when approached from that perspective. If that is the case, the only one I can write about is the I and my own location.

I am not even sure there is a solution here except that novelists, ethnographers, theologians etc, need to examine their moments, recognize that purity is sham and do the best they can, as people with good intentions generally do.

Maybe the most positive thing about this movie and book or any movie or book is that it compels a thinking society to ask these very questions. I have never met an issue that couldn’t be opened for discussion and most things that act as a catalysis for discussion have a value. Maybe it is in the discussion that we find the real honesty and purity.

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