(the) American (Novel of)

220 Robin Truth Goodman
problems as a consequence of European exploitation. She insisted on removing
the NEH’s name from the credits and refused to approve endowment publicity
funding for the series—actions she termed ‘a defense of free speech.’ The
controversy enabled her to seize the limelight for her own brand of political
correctness. . . . Cheney’s initiatives at the NEH aroused cries of dismay from
much of academia, but she stumbled only once, in her effort to pack the
advisory panel of the NEH with right-wingers, who lacked the requisite
qualifications—especially Carol Iannone. Iannone had gained fame for a Commentary
article in which she said that giving National Book Awards and Pulitzer
Prizes to African-American women writers like Toni Morrison and Alice
Walker sacrificed ‘the demands of excellence to the democratic dictatorship of
mediocrity.’ ” John Wiener, “ ‘Hard to Muzzle’: The Return of Lynn Cheney,”
The Nation, October 2, 2000, retrieved from http://past.thenation.com/issue/
001002/1002wiener.shtml. It seems contradictory, and yet immensely believable,
that such language would serve as credentials for defending etiquette in
the arts.
16. Murray, “Prole Models,” p. A18.
17. I would not want anyone to understand here that I am defending
Eminem in this regard. Not only his lyrics, but also his movie (8 Mile, directed
by Curtis Hanson, 2002) make reprehensible statements about women. In 8
Mile, white women are seen as trophies for the successful rappers, and black
men who fuck white women are severely punished for being out of line and
transgressing property boundaries. Objectifying women maintains the propriety
of race, class, and heterosexuality. Therefore, though I do believe that
Eminem’s misogyny needs to be criticized, I also think that censorship is most
often simply a more legitimate form of misogyny, not the answer to it. What
needs to be asked, then, is why the corporations that distribute such products
want to promote such misogyny, what they stand to benefit from it, and why
popular audiences are pleased by it—in other words, why it works and what
it accomplishes.
18. Murray, “Prole Model,” p. A18.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Assistant to George W. Bush administration’s Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld in the Ford administration and arms control director and
ambassador to the U.N. in the Reagan administration.
22. Kenneth Adelman, “Why Are Europeans Still Fighting Missile Defense?”
Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2001, p. A18.
23. Murray, “Prole Model,” p. A18.
24. Adelman, “Europeans Still Fighting,” p. A18.
25. Kevin Whitelaw, Mark Mazzetti, and Richard J. Newman, “Wishing
Upon a Star,” U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 19, 2001.