Tuesday, February 4, 2014

About That Coke Ad


http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/02/03/about-that-coke-ad/

Dear every conservative getting his underwear in a twist about that Coca Cola Super Bowl commerical in which not only was the “deeply Christian patriotic anthem” sung in something other than the English that Jesus spoke, but also featured a gay couple being happy with their kid:

Dudes, you’re aware that Katharine Lee Bates, the writer of the song, was almost certainly a lesbian, right? And while undoubtedly Christian, Bates used her faith as a foundation for progressive social activism that would have given the conservatives of her time, and possibly some conservatives now, the shudders and shakes (she also nearly resigned her professorship at Wellesley when the school thought to force its faculty to profess their fealty to the Christian faith).

Bates was a pacifist with the dream of uniting people “from the Pacific to the Atlantic, around the other way… and that will include all the nations and all the people, from sea to shining sea.” Which is to say that it’s an excellent bet that Bates would be delighted to hear her song sung in as many different languages by as many different sorts of people as possible.

And as for the idea that “unity” requires all people to be the same and adhere to the same top-down political and social orthodoxy, there’s this useful quote:

In 1910, when a colleague described “free-flying spinsters” as “fringe on the garment of life”, Bates answered: “I always thought the fringe had the best of it. I don’t think I mind not being woven in.”

In their outrage about “America the Beautiful” being hijacked to represent something it does not, conservatives are perhaps missing the irony that the song has been hijacked at least once before, by them. Perhaps they’re just mad that someone had the temerity to hijack it back. I don’t think it’s entirely out of the realm of possibility that Ms. Bates would be amused by that.





3 comments:

whkattk said...

Just to show you how stupid some of those panties-in-a-bunch conservatives are: The Coca-cola co website received many complaints about ruining / disgracing the national anthem! Huh, what?? All you can do is laugh at their ridiculousness and ignorance.

JiEL said...

I didn't really know how to react to the add and the comments from your conservatives in USA..

As a CANADIAN (and a NORTH AMERICAN)I first thought that the add was so beautiful AND even was surprised that it was from a SO MUCH AMERICAN (US) company..

AMERICA (US) is aledged to be the "LAND of LIBERTY" but forced to see that this moto is NOT the one of ALL AMERICANS (US) and specialy for your deep right conservatives...

Those «bigots» in many matters, are too numerous in US and are beginning to give a bad perception and reputation to ALL the people of YOUR country...

For sure, it's not easy to accept that in your country, as in Canada, we have many different cultures AND many ways to live our lives and sexuality.
BUT, that is called «evolution» and being aware of the OTHER and his differences and respecting them is also called «LOVE and CHARITY» which is the MAIN law that Jesus gave to ALL Christians..

Conservatives ARE CHRISTIANS, no??
So they're real «hypocrites» and are going against that same law they so much cherish...
HO YES, their LOVE is just limited to «white-welthy-rich-normal-republican americans» and REJECTING all that are not in those parameters...

So, IS AMERICA (US) the real «LAND of LIBERTY» ??

The reactions I saw to that cute and nice add make me doubt of it.

Canada is not perfect too but our way to welcome the immigrants is more open minded..

Thank you.

MetroXian said...

As with Philip Seymour Hoffman, RIP, I am fortunate that I was not required to view U.S. TV on SuperBowl Sunday. Not one bit of it, and that is the advantage of streaming TV.

As far as the Coke ad which I have never seen and choose not to bother, I would imagine that there are plenty of those twisted panty conservatives, as well as enough twisted panty NON-conservatives. Some choose to get along by ignoring the complaints and enjoying the beauty they do find.

As it goes, we all have a choice, some choose to hear the complaints they want to hear. Some have better use of their time and bandwidth.