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I remember back when Brave come out some white American blogger (I think it was Shakesville or something like that?) decided that because her last name was McEwan she was thoroughly authorised to declare the presence of kilts and accents as offensive and an appropriation of Celtic/Scottish culture. Of particular focus was the thick Doric used by Kevin McKidd for one of his characters, the joke being that Doric, the North-Eastern dialect of Scots, when thick enough, is nigh incomprehensible to other Scots, as McKidd would well know from growing up with his family in Elgin (where Doric, if not now, used to be prevalent). While it is true that media depictions of Scots quite often go for a very beleaguered stereotype (think Brigadoon, with its all-American cast, or most Scottish characters in traditional British media being drunks or sidekicks), Brave had actually done a fairly decent job at giving a light-hearted portrayal of a semi-mystical version of Scotland familiar to most Scottish cultural enthusiasts or nationalists, especially since most of the main actors were Scottish themselves- a welcome reprieve to people used to Hollywood getting Americans to play Scottish characters with terrible fake accents (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-25413482 there's loads more). Everyone I spoke to in Aberdeen found the Doric especially representative- McKidd doesn't exaggerate it to the point of ridiculousness, as it's thick enough as it is for non-locals to not understand it (and Doric speakers watching the film will understand the character no problem). When this was pointed out to the blogger by actual Scottish people, she started banning them left and right. It was funny. Not to say cultural appropriation doesn't happen, but sometimes it's just white middle class liberal Americans looking for something to be guilty about because they're intellectually lazy. Coohoolin fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Mar 24, 2015 |
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Mar 24, 2015 18:09
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