Letters

Rip It Up, Issue 92, 1 March 1985, Page 4

Letters

Post to-‘RIU' Letters, PO Box 5689; Auckland 1. Gay Anger • It’s sad to see that homophobia is still so hip in parts of RIU. Specifically, Mark Phillips’. reviews of Sylvester and Bronski Beat in the February issue come to mind. . Jokes about"flabby faggots" and ' .'AIDS are not funny,' they are as stupid as humour about rape or racism. As for Phillips’ sarcastic reference to those “oh-so-persecuted boys" in Bronski Beat, • we don’t need any idiots telling us we’re not oppressed. Jesus! Were not even legal! Neil Anderson Wellington • Sexual Violence Irony of ironies. February's RIU included an excellent article: on the Freudian Slips, where they quite justifiably bemoaned the male dominance of the music industry. In the same issue Russell Brown reviewed Shivers in the video column. A movie in which we are told a parasitic creature 'takes humans and creates a ram- ■ pant sex drive with sexual violence

as the means of spreading from one people (English, Russell, English!) to another" He then goes on to say the movie is "genuinely scary", "wonderful" and “the splatter's good too." Well to my suspicious mind sexual violence would probably include a lot of violence against women. I see nothing wonderful about that. Even if this movie does not include violence against women Russell does not consider this important enough to alleviate any suspicions. If RIU and Russell Brown want women to read this newspaper without their blood pressure soaring, there needs to be some serious thinking about the politics of violence and its "artistic” portrayal. Sue Wynd Ponsonby I’m glad to have the opportunity to reply to the writer and am concerned at the suggestion that my review connotes any approval of violence against women. Yes, ‘Shivers’ does depict sexual violence against women, also against men, and both heterosexual and homosexual in the final scene the male protagonist is swamped by a horde of both sexes. But you'll note I used the words "moral satire" the irony of Cronenberg's film is that the parasite has been misguidedly developed to take over the human race and make everybody love each other; but its dispersal can only take place through violent aggression. A

good review of the film certainly doesn't demonstrate approval of what goes on. To take a "respectable" example, to laud Jonathan Swift's famous essay on "the Irish problem" is not to approve of the cooking and eating of Irish babies. That Cronenberg has used the trappings of splatter simply makes his film all the more twisted his portrayal of violence, like the best of the genre, is graphically messy rather than brutal. If my review did not contain any specific condemnation of violence against women, it is because to me it goes without saying that that concept is shameful. Thanks for writing. RB ’Arry 'Airlines Whilst 'overing round the bar with an 'orrendously 'igh-priced 'Eineken, me 'earing being 'arangued by 'ideous 'eadbanging 'eavy metal and 'oping for a good 'oot with the Feelgoods, I couldn’t 'elp but notice that 'Arry needs an 'aircut, the fuckin’ 'ippy! Mike O’Mangere And the funny thing is, everyone south of the Bombay 'llls think 'e's a skin'ead ... RB Quotas (Again) On the second weekend of May, the Auckland Regional Conference of the Labour Party will be held. One of the remits under discussion regarding its adoption as

government policy will be the question of a proposed local music quota on commercial radio stations. A figure of 25 per cent has been suggested. The conservative view has regrettably prevailed when this topic has been discussed in recent years and if the remit is to survive the Auckland and national Labour Party conferences it will need to be well .-

gued, with reference to a wide range of supporting material and facts. I would therefore appreciate any feedback or opinion from any people or organisations with an interest in this matter and they may be sent to me at the address below. David Major 23 Franklin Rd, Ponsonby, Auckland.

Korrespondence Kontinues Dear WEA, So pleased to hear my thoroughly discredited view of Nik Kershaw has not hurt his record sales, which are are, after all, what quality music is all about. By the way, after several days of despair listening to the record, I place the cover on the turntable and played that instead. It sounded better. Duncan Campbell