Another View of "Wendy Ho"

[Brian]

Mark recently posted about an act by a character named "Wendy Ho" and argued that the show was racist. I did not see her performance, which apparently received both jeers and applause at a San Francisco nightclub, but from Mark's description it seems as though the crowd was divided about the nature of Ho's performance.

I can understand the division. I looked at Ho's website and my initial reaction was actually not indignation but confusion. I didn't know what to make of it. Was it a satire of white women trying to "act black" (more on this problematic idea later)? Was she making fun of black women? Of course, there is the fine, but distinct line between laughing with someone and laughing at them. In the final analysis, it all comes down to context. In what I have seen from her website, Ho is not really pretending to be black, which makes her different from Shirley Q. Liquor, but is very open about the fact that she is a white woman who has been influenced by "inner city" culture and appropriates some of those cultural images to empower herself. She is "black" in the same way that Michael Jackson was "white" (the ludicrousness of the claim speaks for itself). In Ho's response to critics of her performance in San Francisco, she writes:

Wendy Ho is a character that celebrates over-the-top femininity and is by no means meant to offend, but rather to unite communities by blurring the lines of culture and sexuality. She is the product of a midwestern white girl, Wendy Jo Smith, who grew up listening to gangsta rap where the words "bitch" and "ho" were common terms for women. Wendy Jo was told repeatedly that she had a "big black booty," and, in her predominantly "white" choir class, was asked not to sing so "soulfully." With a tongue in her cheek, Wendy humorously calls herself a "Ho," thereby taking the power out of the word as an act of feminism, not an act of racism. And when Wendy takes the stage, she is saying that it's ok to be a loud white woman who is not simply confined to the "skinny," "quiet," "pretty," "submissive" stereotypes that still plague white women today. It should also be noted that Wendy Ho plays primarily to gay crowds who generally applaud her work because they seem to understand what it feels like to be judged and condemned for a part of who they are. Wendy Ho is the mouthpiece for Wendy Jo Smith to dismantle these stereotypes through the power of music and comedy, where the joke is always on "da Ho." So, the question that I have for these concerned audience members is, "Who is stereotyping who? [sic!]"

I think Ho's response should at least be engaged by her critics even if they do not agree--not least because she uses a lot of ideas central to "queer" politics. She says that she is "reclaiming" terms (a la "dyke," "queer" and even "faggot"), blurring boundaries and defying set roles for white women (who, despite skin color "privilege," are still oppressed as women). Her oppression as a woman as well as the anti-black racism of those around her influenced her character. She also juxtaposes her response with a poster for the film "White Chicks," which I did not interpret as a kind of tu quoque argument (i.e. black guys dressed up as white women, so white people can dress up as black women). I saw it as an example of how white women are caricatured and stereotyped as well and that this was a model of white femininity that she wanted to break free from.

I am not necessarily saying Ho's performance did not cross the line. As I admitted, I wasn't there and her decision to perform the same night as the infamous Shirley Q. Liquor at another club is troubling. Her reference to herself as "black" and the Asian name reference is also disturbing. Nevertheless, I think her response here poses a challenge to people who are quick to respond to comedy that employs stereotypes.

The importance of context speaks to the need for having some clear principles for responding to racist performances. Comedy is an art-form that is risky, edgy and pushes boundaries and our responses need to be extremely judicious. When there are grade-A racist assholes, who are actually laying the "intellectual" (and I use that term very loosely) groundwork for racism like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Dinesh D'Souza (does anyone read this guy anymore?), and others running around, comedians are the least of our problems. We need to ask ourselves: Is there humor that employs race and even racial stereotypes in a way that is not racist? And if so, how do we determine when someone has crossed the line? For example, I like Sarah Silverman, but think Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive and racist. How can I explain that difference? Silverman's comedy is clearly designed to be sarcastic and the statements she makes are obviously intended to not be taken seriously. Shirley Q. Liquor participates in a notoriously racist art-form (blackface), "becomes" a black woman and simply projects stereotypes of black people. More importantly, how can we continue to encourage pushing the envelope with humor and at the same time cultivate respect for people of color and other marginalized groups?

Finally, a note on "acting black." "Urban" and "hip-hop" cultures, even though they are often associated with blacks in the US, have gone international. Many people, especially in Latin America, Europe and the so-called "Middle East," have both been inspired by and added their own unique twists to "hip-hop" and "urban" culture. The proliferation of "urban" culture, like anything else, has been both empowering and problematic. Often, "urban" and "hip-hop" culture is an unintentional parody of itself with its overblown and cartoonish depictions of men and women (Have you seen a Reggaeton music video? It's hysterical!). Urban culture invites parody, but at the same time I do recognize that it is often used to index "black people" and so needs to be handled with care.

We should also be careful when we are quick to say that use of stereotypes in all contexts and all times are offensive. Remember, in the 1970s, some feminists argued that drag queens were parodies of women that employed offensive stereotypes. After reading some of the literature from that era, this seems to have been a big debate, yet we seem to have settled on the idea that drag queens are not offensive parodies of women, but actually live in the tension between male and female and can be forms of empowerment.

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

Wendy's response offers us a reminder to remember context and remember the points you bring up. Unfortunately Wendy herself doesn't practice what she is preaching here. First of all she said "I'm black yall," and asked the audience if they liked her "Afro," made reference to her Asian name etc. Then she appears on a poster for Hurricane weekend, a "level 5" with Shirly Q. Liquor. Already appalling, but given Katrina how disgusting is that? There is just no excuse for her bad performances. Even if she did try to exude the kind of intelligent humor like Sarah Silverman succeeds at, Wendy Ho fails miserably - hence your confusion at her website - and just comes across as racist when she performs. It's interesting how everyone is defending her based on this smart response of hers and her publicist, but I haven't heard from anyone who was at the show other than Anna Conda, the drag queen who invited her who said the performance was "Terrible" and that Wendy "lied to me."

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

Also it's one thong to reclaim your identity like I did with sissy it's another to throw on a Afro and call yourself black and justify it because people used to call you black and expect your audiences to know that's why youre doing it. ...no?

[Carlo Baca]

Here's the thing though, Wendy Ho puts on a 'blonde' afro and calls herself black...it's pretty obvious that she's not black and I think that makes a huge difference than donning a black afro, and blackface and calling yourself black like Shirley Q.

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

It's different but still wrong unless your motive is clear which hers wasn't

[Brian]

Yes, Wendy's publicist's response was very smart and as a result it does raise questions about how to judge whether a use of stereotypes is satirical or truly bigoted. As I noted above, I wasn't there and acknowledged that it was possible that she crossed the line with her performance. It's not the criticism of Wendy Ho that bothers me, it's the "all-or-nothing" tone I got from her critics--all stereotypes in all contexts in all situations are "racist" and "offensive". If her delivery blew, she should be called out on it and improve her act. But I am not sure putting a taboo on the entire concept of "Wendy Ho" is a good idea.

My post seeks to find some broad guidelines by which we can talk about whether a performance is racist or not. How do we know when someone has crossed the line? As long as we don't come up with some ideas, people will continue to hide sloppy, truly racist performances behind "I was being subversive!" or "I was really making fun of the stereotype!" I heard a lot of comparisons (Silverman, Chapelle, Cho), but few are explaining the differences between those performances and Wendy's besides saying that the former "clearly" make fun of the stereotypes. Well, how? Not everyone thinks Silverman's humor is "intelligent." Some think she's offensive and take her jokes quite literally. It's not like Silverman stops the act and says, "Oh by the way, I'm just being sarcastic!" Whom should we believe, and why?

The issue of audience is also important. Audience was part of the screwed up Shirley Q. Liquor dynamic (predominantly white audiences laughing at the expense of black stereotypes). One principle we could use could be: If the artist is willing to perform his or her act in front of an audience that consists mostly of the people they are "parodying" and they receive a good reception, we will give them the benefit of the doubt. If the audience is not in on the "joke" then they should redo their act. If a progressive audience could not stomach Wendy Ho, I'm not sure it would have played to well with a predominantly black audience.

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

Agreed. Of course note that a black audience in Oakland may react differently than one somewhere else for example and audience alone isn't enough. We need to take onto account what the audience the performer usually has takes away from it. There is no doubt in my mind that Wendy and shirly q share similar audiences. Wendy needs to do more than say "I'm black and I'll steal your purse" if she wants them to see any satire. I agree we should brainstorm some clear "guidelines" or whatever . I think were on the same page . Sorry I'm on a mobile hard to respond

[Carlo Baca]

I'm going to go further than Brian when he says that he's "not sure putting a taboo on the entire concept of Wendy Ho is a good idea" and say that working to ban her from performing in Queer establishments may not be appropriate right now either. There's certainly been a lot of time and energy put into that and I'm just wondering if that was used to actually communicate with her first?

Why don't we start out with arranging a dialogue with her since this could affect her livelihood. There've been comparisons on QueerToday to her and white surburbans and the 'financially stable,' but, assuming her background is true about growing up in a trailerpark, those comparisons may not fit her.

Certainly criticizing her is important and should continue, but I'm not sure jumping straight to banning her from queer establishments makes sense at this point.

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

It doesn't take any more energy to write a mote to a club than a blog post. The fact that she performed with shirly q at hurricane night and the fact that in a loud gay club when a white girl gets up and says she's black and shell steal your purse is near possible to decipher any background context or satire from I think if people want to call for her ban it's fine . Growing up in a trailer park and being called black as a put down down shouldn't be an automatic pass and go for someone to perpetuate things. I saw a comparison to her audience amd white well off gays not her. If you think any of those gay guys were laughing because they saw that Wendy ho was offering up satire in the style of Silverman I assure you there's just no way. Trust me my friends and I are clever enough to have caught on to that. I don't see Wendy apogizing for level five hurricane night with shirly q. Why trust someone who wod be involved in that. we've agreed for the most part for gosh like 5 years but on this one guys I have to disagree. It just turned my stomach too much to watch that white crowd laugh so hard at her seemingly one dimensional act.

[Carlo Baca]

Well then good for you all. You brought down an irredeemably racist comedian by preventing her from performing in a gay club in San Francisco and possibly others as well. You didn't need to make an effort to dialogue with her, and you even got to avoid a sticky situation where you might have to know and explain why similar comedians like Sarah Silverman or Sandra Bernhard are in and she's out. I'm sure she'll come out with that apology about Hurricane night any day now. She'll come away from this for the better and with a complete understanding of tolerance, privilege and oppression that she can carry into her future endeavors. Victory!

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

By you all carlo you mean me and all I did was send two emails one to Anna conda and one to riverspace and posted a blog post. I highly doubt Wendy hos performance at a couple of dive bars is even enough to pay for a flight let alone be her livlihood. I dont think it's fair to be guilt tripped for this. She may not be racist but the performance you did not see so was. I'm happy to talk about why she's out and Sarah is in. But not now it's 2am and I'm on my cell