Fuck you, Streisand

[Winston Smith]

Dude, Richard Simmons is jewish, too.

Nope, Catholic, unless he converted and I didn't know about it. Don't let the Carole King hair fool you: he grew up Catholic and even briefly considered entering the priesthood. :smile:

Hmmm....

Wikipedia says you're right, but Howard Stern says he's jewish. I honestly don't know who to believe.

[Orual]

OK, so not only is Barbra an obnoxious purveyor of tiresome show tunes AND one of those odious celebrity liberals who make the rest of us look bad, but she profaned the work of Isaac Bashevis Singer?

The very same Isaac Bashevis Singer whose spectacular short stories introduced me to his unadulterated Jewish/Polish folkloric awesome???

What a cunt.

[Baldwin]

I'm not trolling. Maybe I'm a bit hyperbolic here, but fuck man, how boring is this place if you're all: "Oh, this is an unreasonable rage. I shall be polite and quiet and refrain from caps lock and frothing."

So, you've got fuck-all. We do tend to like that boring old "evidence" thing when somebody makes a flat assertion, such as "Streisand hates transgender people." All you've demonstrated is that Streisand is an egomaniac; not unusual in show business. Thanks for wasting my time.

[DocCathode]

Being Jewish , I've seen Yentl many times. That rant is the first thing that made me want to read the original story.

And who's Barney Frank?

[OneCentStamp]

Being Jewish , I've seen Yentl many times. That rant is the first thing that made me want to read the original story.

And who's Barney Frank?

Democratic Senator from Massachusetts. Jewish. Openly gay.

[Count Blucher]

Well, the sequel was annoying, too. In Yentel Ben a transgendered jewish grizzly tries to find peace in the judgemental world of nature.

I thought the sequel was when the boat landed and Yentl was bitten by a vampire in Brooklyn. You know like that Billy Joel song says:


I never ask you where you go
After I leave you in the morning
We go our different ways to separate situations
Its not that easy anymore

Today I do what must be done
I give my time to Goyim slayers
But now it feels as though
their posing goes on forever
(More than it ever did before)

Yentl, the night! Yentl, the night!
I just might make it
Yentl, the night! Yentl, the night!
When I see you again...

Now I'm afraid that we have changed
And You're afraid I'm getting older
So many broken hearts, so many bleeding faces
So many suckers come and gone

Yentl, the night! Yentl, the night!
I just might make it
Yentl, the night! Yentl, the night!
When I see you again...

When the sun goes down, And the day is over
When the last of the light has gone

As they pour into the street, I will be getting closer
As the cars turn their headlights on

While theyre closing it down, Were gonna open it up
And while they're going to sleep, Well just be starting to touch
Im just beginning to feel
Im just beginning to give
Im just beginning to feel
Im just beginning to live
Before I leave you again
Before the light of the dawn
Before this evening can end
I have been waiting so long...

[Nrblex]

I concede the point, and I apologize for calling you a troll.

It's all good. I've seen it's a term that gets tossed around a lot here.

Now: is her reworking of the script blatant gay-hateration on her part, or is it just an attempt to make the ending a happy one, or what she thought American film audiences would feel was a happy one? That happens all the time to literary works (look at Disney's The Little Mermaid or The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and it's usually about money, not bigotry.

Now, this is where I am conflicted. I don't think it is BLATANT gay hate on her part. I don't think she was sitting around all, "Ahahahaha, fuck the tranny Jews" or something. I think it's far more an example of her not understanding the story/play and trying to force it into her worldview. What she thought of as a happy ending is anathema to the actual character concept of Yentl, because she didn't get it. She didn't know what Yentl felt. To her, studying the Talmud was just a MacGuffin to get her dressing like a boy so there'd be excuses for singing and wacky love triangles. She didn't see that the character's entire existence revolved around her passion for this study and that taking a male role wasn't simply a means to an end, but an end in and of itself. She felt on a spiritual level--and she was a deeply spiritual character--that she had the soul of a man.

Gay hate...okay, maybe I was over the top. So shoot me. It was more fun just to scream that than be all logical and write a fucking dissertation on my annoyance.

Indifference and lack of understanding is really her sin here, IMHO. Which can be just as destructive.

[Cartooniverse]

I don't know a thing about Barbara Streissand. Is this all true? I mean, generally speaking?

No. For one thing, she spells her name Barbra.

She's also an egomaniac nutjob. She makes the entire crew wait into overtime, shows up, is rude to the Director and re-stages her number at the 2001 Primetime Emmy Awards. That rehearsal, hooooo boy. That was something.

She's one zany

Cartooniverse

[featherlou]

<snip>
Gay hate...okay, maybe I was over the top. So shoot me. It was more fun just to scream that than be all logical and write a fucking dissertation on my annoyance.<snip>

More fun to read, too.

[Sarahfeena]

I concede the point, and I apologize for calling you a troll.

It's all good. I've seen it's a term that gets tossed around a lot here.

Now: is her reworking of the script blatant gay-hateration on her part, or is it just an attempt to make the ending a happy one, or what she thought American film audiences would feel was a happy one? That happens all the time to literary works (look at Disney's The Little Mermaid or The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and it's usually about money, not bigotry.

Now, this is where I am conflicted. I don't think it is BLATANT gay hate on her part. I don't think she was sitting around all, "Ahahahaha, fuck the tranny Jews" or something. I think it's far more an example of her not understanding the story/play and trying to force it into her worldview. What she thought of as a happy ending is anathema to the actual character concept of Yentl, because she didn't get it. She didn't know what Yentl felt. To her, studying the Talmud was just a MacGuffin to get her dressing like a boy so there'd be excuses for singing and wacky love triangles. She didn't see that the character's entire existence revolved around her passion for this study and that taking a male role wasn't simply a means to an end, but an end in and of itself. She felt on a spiritual level--and she was a deeply spiritual character--that she had the soul of a man.

I've never read the story, although now I can assure you I will. Question for you about it...does the character believe she has the soul of a man BECAUSE she wants to study the Talmud, which is something that is inherently a male desire? If so, I'm guessing that Barbra wasn't about to make a movie with that kind of statement in it, becuase it's not very feminist. In which case...

Gay hate...okay, maybe I was over the top. So shoot me. It was more fun just to scream that than be all logical and write a fucking dissertation on my annoyance.

Indifference and lack of understanding is really her sin here, IMHO. Which can be just as destructive.

I would agree that it's not gay hate, but it may not be indifference and lack of understanding...it may very well have been calculated agenda-pushing.

[Glazer]

Being Jewish , I've seen Yentl many times. That rant is the first thing that made me want to read the original story.

And who's Barney Frank?

He and his boyfriend are the the primary reason our economy is in the shitter.

[jayjay]

I've seen me naked.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[Nrblex]

Preferably with a Gay/Jew Venn diagram freshly tattooed.

[prr]

SInce when do you need a reason to hate Barbra Streisand? The title works for me just fine, no OP needed.

[Nrblex]

I've never read the story, although now I can assure you I will. Question for you about it...does the character believe she has the soul of a man BECAUSE she wants to study the Talmud, which is something that is inherently a male desire? If so, I'm guessing that Barbra wasn't about to make a movie with that kind of statement in it, becuase it's not very feminist. In which case...

I got the impression from the story that she didn't really feel a tie to either gender and transcended it. Her spirituality made her identify with a masculine role within her culture, and she had no or very little identification with her physical body or gender. As a girl, she was clutsy, tall, and awkward. As a young man, her true strengths could be appreciated. Her declaration that she was neither gender implied it wasn't about just wanting to study the Talmud and it would have been fascinating to see this explored at length on screen. Was she transgendered, or simply rebelling against societal constructs? I'd love to see a treatment of this with a more modern view on things, daring to ask the questions that weren't asked before.

I would agree that it's not gay hate, but it may not be indifference and lack of understanding...it may very well have been calculated agenda-pushing.

Also possible. My feeling is that it was mostly about Streisand's ego (she was far too old for the part, but gave it to herself anyway) and her inability to grasp the gender issues at play.

[Exy]

I've seen me naked.

Pics or it didn't happen.

agreed

[Quasi]

Ah reckon we won't be seeing this one as a tv series then?

*shuffles out of room picking toilet paper bits out from between his ass cheeks*

Yes, I KNOW: "Eewwwww" !

Sure do love you little shits, though!

Q

[Exy]

Sure do love you little shits, though!

Awww . . . we like you much better than Streisand, Quasi!

[Fenris]

Now, now. In the midst of all this (well deserved*) Barbra hate, leave us not forget the one worthwhile thing she's ever done--provided a foil for Madelyn Khan (arguably the funniest woman who ever lived) to play against in What's Up, Doc?. Barbra was annoying every! single! second! in that movie, but that made for Kahn's performance to be just so very much better. If Barbra had been less of a "Golly! Aren't I charming!? See This is ME being charming? Are you charmed yet? How 'bout now? I got dimples. Does that charm you?" shrew, Kahn's tour-de-force wouldn't have been 1/3d as wonderful.

So, by dint of being a ginormous pain in the ass, we got a all too rare Madelyn Kahn starring vehicle.

*I don't know if this story is true. But I've heard it a few dozen times and if it's not, it should be. Streisand (during the mid-90s) was offered a guest lecturer job at some Ivy League school (Princeton? Wellsly? I dunno) to talk about economics--she got it 'cause at the time she was doing an incredibly subtle ( ) stage show featuring stuff of such nuance and depth as showing pictures of Bush I and playing "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" and segueing into "Happy Days Are Here Again" with pictures of Clinton. It's really, REALLY subtle, but she was commenting on how Bush 1 was like the Great Depression and Clinton was like the recovery from it. I know-it's so nuanced you might not have gotten it.

Anyway, the story goes, she gets this part time job teaching economics and her first day, she spends the first half of the class making some sort of tortured metaphor about how little trickles of pennies add up to big bux. When the class returns from break, she goes back into the metaphor and the students start tossing pennies at her and she leaves, humiliated. Like I said, if it's not true, it should be.

[Cartooniverse]

Preferably with a Gay/Jew Venn diagram freshly tattooed.

This got me. I laughed so damned hard at the idea of it. I imagined little face cut-outs. You know, just the face, not neck or throat. Harvey Fierstein, Barbra, etc.

[jali]

The Barbra Streisand Album is one of the best albums of all time. Best, All Time.

Soon It's Gonna Rain, Keepin' Out of Mischief, I'll Tell The Man On The Street, Cry Me A River, Sleeping Bee....

All of these songs are so beautiful. I don't care if she's a total idiot - this album made me love her. So I remove the 'fuck you". Poof.

[OneCentStamp]

Harvey Fierstein

He would have been a great choice for the middle of my Venn diagram.

[Clothahump]

You actually wasted time out of your life watching a Streisand movie?

No points for you....

[vison]

Barbra Streisand is responsible for The Decline of the West.

Since she, as a rogue comet, appeared in our heavens, things have gone all wonky, like.

"Yentl" is merely the worst omen of this wonkiness. There are others she said darkly.