I do not review books and do not intend to, but I will make an exception for Blink. Blink was written by Malcolm Gladwell and tries to uncover some of the mysteries of the unconscious and split second decisions. Very interesting, right?
My book reading experience was going ok until I read the following passage on page 200: “The rest was of the Kukukuku, a hostile and murderous tribe with a homosexual ritual in which preadolescent boys were required to serve as courtesans for the male elders of the tribe.” (these are Gladwell’s words). And nothing else in the book tries to counter the damaging effects of such words. It actually gets worse. I e-mailed Malcom and he responded, keep on reading.
The quote is related to an experiment that a psychologist conducted in which a hundred thousand feet of film had been shot in a jungle of Papua New Guinea. Apparently, some of the footage was of a tribe called the South Fore, described as peaceful and friendly, and the rest of the pictures was of the Kukukuku tribe. The psychologist isolated the faces of the natives in the pictures and after careful analysis concluded that faces do tell a lot about a person (what a shocking, earth shattering discovery, huh?), and the (and now Gladwell quotes the psychologist) “these [the South Fores] are a sweet, gentle people, very indulgent, very peaceful”, while the Kukukukus are “violent, and there is lots of evidence to suggest homosexuality.”
Now, seriously. I had to read those passages over and over to make sure I was reading them right. I was really trying to read the passages in the best light possible because the book really seems to have tried to caution its readers, demonstrating how racism (against African Americans mostly) can be, and often is, dangerously written into people’s (including black people) unconscious. But the passages above are quite damaging to us, because, as the book goes on to prove, stereotypes play a major role in how we respond to certain people and situations (especially stressful situations), and the book goes on to contribute to a very dark stereotyping of gays (that homosexuality is linked to child abuse of the worst form – and, of course, I do not need to consider here whether such monstrosity is or not a crime or something immoral in Papua New Guinea in the time the pictures were taken). It is just wrong for Gladwell to put those words out there, especially when that is the only mention of gays in the book.
This book, with its little, but very harmful, remark about us is precisely what this site intends to bring to light and scrutiny. Shame on Gladwell for allowing that type of mean spirited misinformation make its way into his mind and into his book.
When I expressed my concerns to Malcolm, he responded: "it is a wierd comment, isn't? but he actually said it, and apparently it was a reasonably accurate description of the tribe in question. cheers,m."
What do you think?
it's about Tomkin silvan and Ekman right? ayaya, that's in Indonesia. that's why Gay people never have any rights to complain. Indonesian people are holding on this 'east culture'. gay is taboo. but that tradition is true. even tribe war are still happening.
Posted by: Grace | Sep 27, 2006 at 08:26 AM