East is East

[TheThreeHeadedBeast]

I have just had an argument with DD about this. I think it is a brilliant film, the conflict of cultures, children rebelling about expectations etc.
DD can only see the misogyny the racism the homophobia etc.
Yes it is all there, but that was life in the 70's. To me, what makes the film powerful is the fight against it, how difficult the challenges the wife and the children faced and what they had to endure.
I believe that a lot can be learnt by watching this film, it is not acceptable with today's values, but you can learn from the past.
So, you need to understand the past and learn from it.
What do others from different ages think - I am mid 50's

I think it’s a fantastic film. I see girl power, the kids pushing against the father, and. a great supportive friendship between the wife and her mate.
Its a film about the times it’s set in.

You can't really do a film about every day British culture in the 1970s without misogyny, racism and homophobia. It wouldn't have been a credible film without it.

But I'm a similar age to you, OP.

It’s a film that is a very good representation of a different time.

I agree with you OP. It disturbs me that so many young people (like my students) expect to be served up a sanitised version of the past. Whitewashing history serves no good purpose, least of all for those groups who have suffered historical oppression.

I'm 38 and a British born Asian, that film does highlight a lot of issues faced by Asian(and mixed race kids) about trying to fit in, clash of cultures, unreasonable expectatinns and etc. It was very relevant to my generation as well, sadly some of this stuff was still going on when I was younger and still is happening in some places.

Thank you, DD and I have a few disagreements (JK R is not the devil incarnate or possibly is), so I find it hard to decide which battles to fight

Great film. As well as all the things mentioned there's also the father's realisation that the life he expected his children to have isn't what they want and he finds it so hard to deal with.

You're meant to see the misogyny, the racism and the homophobia. I'm not sure I understand why your daughter can't see that's part of the point of the film.

well i grew up in the 70s, and it was shit in so many respects for so many women.

Your daughter, OP, is enjoying the freedoms and benefits that we and our mums fought for at that time. She's welcome

Those issues are portrayed in the film because they were part of life at that time. Some are still relevant today.

What does your daughter think the film should show?

You wouldn’t think contemporary ‘safe spaces’ had had to be fought for at all, would you? That the much derided ‘boomers’ endured discrimination (when it meant legal lack of rights and lower wages, for example) fought prejudice , worked themselves to the bone with a low standard of living.

Proper struggle that some woke snowflakes can’t even cope with hearing about.

However, the original play stirred up controversy. It was criticised, at the height of pro-multicultural activism and an emphasis on ‘positive imagery’ as being a negative portrayal of Asian culture.

A healthy debate took place.

Agree OP, it's a great film and an excellent social history lesson for kids now. Have you told her everything you wrote in your first post? What's her response to that - is it just that she doesn't want to have to view the racism, homophobia etc or does she not believe it's true?

She believes that my acknowledgement that was life in the 70's is that I think it is acceptable.
I am 50 years older!
However, I do think that there is a difference between cis women and trans woman. Which is why she is fighting

Interview with the writer, who recounts the autobiographical nature of the piece
amp.theguardian.com/stage/2009/oct/21/east-is-east-ayub-khan-din

It's like objecting to Schindler's List because you don't like anti-Semitism.

I saw a theatre production of it at the National last year. The DV scenes in particular are very powerful. I explained to DD (in her 20s) how different things were in that in that era and we had a discussion about the various issues. I am a similar age to you OP and grew up with DV.

It’s dated but it’s an accurate record of life then. DD is a theatre designer so I guess she accepts plays set in past eras as reflecting their time despite the fact that she is ‘woke’.

Sounds like the truth offends her - so what does she propose doing - turning a blind eye to things she doesn't like?

Does she think that no films, plays or books should be set in the past, then? Or that they should whitewash what things were like to spare her sensibilities? That is very disrespectful to people who endured and fought against these historical prejudices. I grew up in the 1970s in a family of South Asian descent and I think it’s really important that people understand what we fought against back then. People were abused, assaulted, even murdered in Britain because of their race, and that shouldn’t be erased from our collective memory.

ask your DD when she thinks rape within marriage was made illegal.
When women were allowed to have a bank account or buy a house without a male co-signatory (husband or father)

As i said: a lot of the freedoms we have today are what we fought for long and hard. She's welcome (although actually, i begrudge the freedoms we won being sneered at and belittled in this way and I'd like some of today's young women to have to live like women in the early 70s or before and just put up with it)

Is she upset that it is being discussed in a film that meant to be funny (in parts at least)? That it is not being taken seriously enough?

(Hope she never sees Horrible Histories !)

I loved the film when I watched it. I'm mixed-race, British/Asian, and it was probably the only thing I saw in the media that actually represented any part of the conflicting feelings of trying to embrace my Asian heritage.
I lived in a very racist, very white and very backwards part of the country so it really hit home as a British bisexual teenager who was also trying to fit in with her friends whilst not disappointing an overly strict and always angry Asian man. I'm 33. I need to watch it again.

That’s exactly the thing. There were a number of British Asian films in the 90s, and that was the first time that many of us saw our experience represented on screen. I was a big cinema-goer back then, but those British Asian films were a revelation.

And yy re. humour that threefeettall mentions. Being able to laugh at some of those disturbing, traumatic or culturally-specific experiences was cathartic. It lessened their power over us.

Is she saying that it should be banned or just that it was an uncomfortable watch?

I'm under 40 and I love it, think it's brilliant. I've taught the original play to year nines and it's never elicited that response; always starts interesting conversations though.

I wonder how anyone with OP's DD's mindset would handle films like Cry Freedom (about Steve Biko) or Mississippi Burning (lynchings inthe southern US) or Rabbit Proof Fence (stealing First Australian's children)?

Is it that they can't handle the truth of how far we've come, and how far we still have to go? Is it disbelief that we haven't come far at all? About all the hard work we have all put in? (i know my DCs were ASTOUNDED that I'd been on protest marches, some for environment , even before they'd ever heard of climate change)

Curious.