Alice Walker is fally breakg her silence about the Brish mil actrs’ who was fired om Color Purple after makg anti-gay remarks.
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ALICE WALKER SPEAKS ON ANTI-GAY REMARKS OM ‘COLOR PURPLE’ ACTRS
'"Overripe, " the term The New York Tim' Ben Brantley recently ed to scribe the 1985 film The Color Purple, is a way of stavg off the emotnal power of Hollywood's greatt gay film. "Overripe" beltl the same way words like "sensive" and "severe" were once phemisms that stereotyped gay men and lbians.
Its spirual and historil reclamatn was based on regnn of Celie's gay cred nied The Color Purple may be lked to the overpraise acrd such later films as Brokeback Mounta and this year's Carol, both startg wh ut, vert implitns of gayns reprented by whe characters--as if Spielberg and Walker had not already broken-through popular Doyle's new, mimalist stagg of the mil gets s license om The Color Purple's morn velopment of gay inty. Walker njugated the term "lavenr" om the days of the Mattache Society when was for gay passn as "different" om nventnal romantic hu--she moved across the spectm of affectn (now symbolized the pri flag) om same-sex attractn, oppose-sex attractn, both sex attractn. " It piss some people off when gayns is seen as somethg other/more than a social prciple or reprented terms that don't ply wh secular nventn--or when ialized by figur who don't e om society's domant Tim review praised Doyle's show wh racialized clich "Hallelujah, " "born aga, " "glory to behold" and "gospel-flavored" as if we were back the days of fx naif Harlem Renaissance knock-offs.
) Doyle may strip Walker's story "to s sence, " but Spielberg's movie mov dienc by givg the black gay female experience the same cematic richns that Hollywood had long rerved for Joan Crawford, Jane Wyman, and Lana Turner melodramas about middle-class heterosexual whe women. Carol repeats that prejudice, m the athetic Color Purple teach enlightened dienc to boldly accept gay emotn. Gay dienc get shamed of their emotns and straight dienc get shamed of their affiliatn and empathy.