By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Formerly Known As "Nothing Is Private" Responds To Complaints About The Name Change
As an Arab-American woman, I am of course aware that the title of my book is an ethnic slur. Indeed, I selected the title to highlight one of the novel’s major themes: racism. In the tradition of Dick Gregory’s autobiography Nigger, the Jewish magazine Heeb, or the feminist magazine Bitch, the title is rude and shocking, but it is not gratuitous. Besides the fact that the main character must endure taunting about her ethnicity (including being called a towelhead), so much of the novel’s plot is fueled by the characters’ attitudes toward race.
I was not contacted by any organization or group when my novel was released in 2005. I don’t know if this was because no one had heard about my book, or because they didn’t feel it would have as much of an impact as a film. Having lived in a world in which my book has existed without protest for the past three years, however, I feel I have at least some view onto what to expect from the public in terms of a response. The bottom line is, never once have I encountered anyone who didn’t understand the seriousness of the word “towelhead” and all its implications.
This is not to say that I don’t find these concerns legitimate — I absolutely do. We live in a racist society, one in which people continue to use ethnic slurs to delineate those who are different than they are. Realistically speaking, though, these people are neither the audience for my book, nor for the film. They will continue to use whatever language they wish whether or not a movie called “Towelhead” is released. For this reason, I am pleased that Warner Bros. is standing by the title.
Towelhead, like its many cousins — nigger, spic, gook, etc. — is an ugly word. The job of the artist, however, has been, and always will be, to highlight that which is ugly in the hopes of finding something beautiful. This charge, by necessity, will at times put the artist at odds with admirable groups such as CAIR. The solution, it seems to me, is not to force the artist to alter his or her work, but instead to use the occasion of that work as an entry point for meaningful debate and discussion.
ALICIA ERIAN — In addition to Towelhead, Erian wrote a book of short stories called The Brutal
Language of Love. She is currently working on a memoir.
*
As a gay man, I know how it feels to be called hateful names simply because of who I am. Therefore, I felt it was important to retain the title of Alicia Erian’s novel, in which she so effectively dramatizes the pain inflicted by such language, something many people of non-minority descent never have to face. I believe one of the unintended consequences of forbidding such words to be spoken is imbuing those words with more power than they should ever have, and helping create the illusion that the bigotry and racism expressed by such cruel epithets is less prevalent than it actually is, which we all know is sadly not the case.
ALAN BALL — “Towelhead” is written for the screen and directed by Alan Ball, Academy Award-winning writer of “American Beauty, ” and creator of “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.”
(Edited 9am, Thurs, for mistaken title)
One of the ideas conveyed in the film is that we all make assumptions about each other, without knowing, based on racial stereotypes. It was our goal in releasing “Towelhead” to help make this point.
Some of our past releases, like “Paradise Now, ” were extremely controversial and elicited demands that the film not be released; “Good Night, and Good Luck.” drew criticism from some as well. Warner Bros. supported the release of these films then, as they do now of “Towelhead,” as a medium to create dialogue and support the expression of ideas, as controversial or as unpopular as they may be. We apologize for any offense that is caused by this title but support Alan Ball and Alicia Erian in this effort.
WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES
The concept of cinema can be described as
Well, there are a few out there who I’m sure wouldn’t take offense with this movie if it was named “Shit”…
i just, this evening, watched the first two eps of the upcoming fx series, ‘sons of anarchy’ and a dvd screener of ‘the love guru’……
i obviously have no clue as to what is offensive anymore…..
that said, i feel the title ‘towelhead’ will attract exactly no one to the box office….
i’ll bet i’m off only a little bit….(btw – i saw the movie last week….not so good even though i was a fan of the book)…..
oh….at the risk of being called ‘a hater’ again, i’m watching (right now) the ‘speed racer’ dvd screener…..it’s still crap (pretty, shiny crap that will make a bazillion dollars on dvd but crap nonetheless)…..
Hey, scooterzz does ANARCHY OWN? That shit looks hardcore as hell. Is it Lexian?
lex — total lexian ownage….hardcore even by cable standards……ron perlman and charlie hunnam are great but the revelation is katy sagal…she totally owns…not sure the show will make it though, it might be a little too over the top to live….makes ‘the sheild’ seem pretty tame….
Except that the movie was originally called “Nothing is Private” (very different)
“lex — total lexian ownage….hardcore even by cable standards……ron perlman and charlie hunnam are great but the revelation is katy sagal…she totally owns…not sure the show will make it though, it might be a little too over the top to live….makes ‘the sheild’ seem pretty tame….”
You just made my day, scoot.