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Title: Snowman is a sexist, racist: UK academic
Source:
India Abroad News Service
URL Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20010611 ... .com/2000/12/22/22snowman.html
Published: Dec 22, 2000
Author: Shyam Bhatia
Post Date: 2008-12-18 02:42:49 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 174
Comments: 11
As snow starts to settle in the northern hemisphere, a perennial symbol of the festive season has been dismissed by a British academic as racist, sexist and politically inappropriate for the 21st century. For Birmingham University lecturer Tricia Cusack the snowman is unacceptably white and male and his presence is "a reminder of masculine dominance, ordering and surveillance." Cusack's 15-page paper on the representation of snowmen in Christmas cards also argues that they are "phallic symbols" which condemn women to second-class status in society. In the traditional setting of the front garden "snowmen symbolize man's domination of the outside world -- while all women are indoors slaving over the Christmas dinner in the kitchen," Cusack writes in the left wing periodical New Formations. "Is it accidental, in view of the Western narrative of active masculine domination of nature/female, that out of virgin snow a male icon is built -- or erected?" she asks. "Some members of cultural minorities in Britain find the central power relationship of Christmas threatening, not to speak of its whiteness -- a white Christ, a white snowman," she adds. Her answer is to create more "ethnic diversity" in snow people, so as to give snow role models to the downtrodden. On Thursday, one of Britain's largest Christmas card companies, Hallmark, said the snowmen they displayed were neither racist, nor sexist. "We know from our research that they're hugely popular with the public," said a company spokesman. Children' author Raymond Briggs described Cusack's analysis of snowmen as sexist and racist as "absolute rubbish." Briggs, the author of the popular children's book The Snowman, added, "They are only white because snow is white and a female snowman would be very difficult to do -- it would be very hard to model bigger hips and breasts unless the snow was absolutely freezing." "I would say my snowman is a non-sexual, non-racial being. It's got no sexual characteristics and couldn't be other than white," he adds. Poster's comment: A rebuttal by Terence Blacker: "Dr Cusack cunningly avoids presenting the complete picture. The snowman is indeed a perfect emblem and symbol. He stands there, immobile amid the jollity, a figure of fun whose main function is to be kicked and pelted with snowballs (or whatever Dr Cusack would like us to call them). Then, after a moment as the centre of attention, he begins to melt and shrink, becoming a pitiful grey blob, before disappearing. And has Dr Cusack ever seen what happens to that proudly erect carrot when the weather turns? Far from being a forbidding symbol of male domination, the snowman provides a heartbreaking representation of contemporary masculinity in decline as he is left in the cold while the family gathers in the warm, watched over by the benign, all-powerful, female figure of the angel or fairy on the top of the Christmas tree. Perhaps it is time to allow both the snowman and Dr Liam Fox to follow their true, slightly tragic nature, while the rest of us enjoy a culturally diverse, unthreatening and, above all, appropriate happy Christmas."
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
For Birmingham University lecturer Tricia Cusack the snowman is unacceptably white and male and his presence is "a reminder of masculine dominance, ordering and surveillance." Mental Disorder
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams
Hmmm, I could take some black food-coloring for mustache/eyebrows/hair-do and turn Frosty into a Hitler-snowman to TERRORIZE passing jewish-drivers. Unfortunately, it never really snows here...and there's not any jews around here.
Piss on it and make it chinese. :)
I shall not vote for evil, lesser or otherwise. Didn't know you were into that.
What? Pissing on snowmen? I sneak up and do it to my neighbors' all the time. ;)
I shall not vote for evil, lesser or otherwise. Here's your white male snowman, you liberal feminist whackjob.
Republicans believe in abortion -- they just wait until they're born and then call them 'collateral damage'.
Typical silly feminist c#nt. Men = bad, women = good. Until there is a really big hairy spider that needs killing, or oil needs changing, or houses and factories need building, or any number of things that men do. It seems any tard can get some press, just by making really stupid statements. And she is a picture perfect example.
Click for Privacy and Preparedness files Nehemiah 4:14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
P.J. O'Rouke said that without men civilization would last until the next oil change. In college I knew a girl who never changed her oil, even though the check engine light was always on. She was surprised when her car quit running.
Republicans believe in abortion -- they just wait until they're born and then call them 'collateral damage'.
Thats why they call them "idiot lights"... LOL!
Click for Privacy and Preparedness files Nehemiah 4:14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Seek help immediately, Cusack.
Mud people?
And they write innumerable books; being too vain and distracted for silence: seeking every one after his own elevation, and dodging his emptiness. - T. S. Eliot
As snow starts to settle in the northern hemisphere, a perennial symbol of the festive season has been dismissed by a British academic as racist, sexist and politically inappropriate for the 21st century.
#2. To: Rotara (#1)
(Edited)
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#3. To: X-15 (#0)
"I would say my snowman is a non-sexual, non-racial being. It's got no sexual characteristics and couldn't be other than white," he adds.
Funny Video Sharing Site
#4. To: Critter (#3)
Piss on it and make it chinese. :)
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss — The Who
#5. To: farmfriend (#4)
Didn't know you were into that.
Funny Video Sharing Site
#6. To: X-15 (#0)
#7. To: X-15 (#0)
#8. To: PSUSA (#7)
#9. To: Turtle (#8)
#10. To: X-15 (#0)
In the traditional setting of the front garden "snowmen symbolize man's domination of the outside world -- while all women are indoors slaving over the Christmas dinner in the kitchen," Cusack writes in the left wing periodical New Formations.
#11. To: X-15 (#0)
Her answer is to create more "ethnic diversity" in snow people, so as to give snow role models to the downtrodden.
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