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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: "Curiosity killed the cat....
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 03-21-2003 09:44 AM
My point is that the words we use influence the way we think, and our thoughts influence our actions. We grow up with language, and seldom think of the connection.
James Baldwin, experiencing a lifetime of insults, titled his
book "Black Boy," forcing the reader to reflect. Similarly,
Kinky Friedman called his band "Kinky Friedman and His Texas Jew-boys," forcing music lovers to confront a most insulting term
perhaps never before seen in print.
Do we hire boys and girls to run our theatres, or men and women?
Isn't there a connection between how we speak of them, how we
think of them, and how we treat them? Do we treat them as children, giving a weekly allowance, or as men and women earning
their pay? If we call our employees "boys" and "girls", why should we expect them to behave as adults?
Don't we speak of a girl's school, but of a women's college?
I suggest we reserve the terms "boy" and "girl" for those who have not reached puberty. Do we have girls or women in our military academies?
We better consider language before we go abroad. A French woman
if married, or of matronly status, would be offended if called
"madamoiselle,", and a girl would not look kindly at being called
"madam." Language usage varies from culture to culture, which is why it is essential we study the languages that other people think in and dream in to understand them.
A good beginning book in general semantics, highly readable and fun, is Hayakawa's "Language in Thought and Action." And for pictures of boys and girls sent to perform the work of men and women, see the photographs of Lewis Hine. Or for poetry buffs, I suggest "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" of William Blake.
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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"
Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 03-21-2003 08:27 PM
quote:
Do we hire boys and girls to run our theatres, or men and women?
Gerard:
In principle I agree with everything you've said and my intention isn't to disagree with you. Again: I agree with you.
However, based on what we're typically paying for these services, I'd have to say that, in general, this industry is in the practice of hiring boys and girls and this is part of the problem.
I've been saying for years now that we need to go out and hire more adult labor and pay them as such....only then can we expect more from them in terms of better presentation and general work ethic. There are exceptions but, as the saying goes, "kids is kids."
Then again, maybe I'm just speaking for myself.
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 03-21-2003 09:55 PM
Manny,
I agree we need to hire more adults at livable wages to upgrade the standards of exhibition.
In NYC where I worked IATSE, a candidate had to be trained in projection school or by a mentor, vouched for by his mentor, be 21 years of age and a citizen of good character and clean police record, pass a writen exam plus performance exams in electrical wiring, safety, splicing and projection, and before swearing in pay a non-refundable initiation fee of $500 (later $1,000.)
Projectionists usually worked beyond retirement age at this vocational career, renting or buying a home and sending their children through schooling, often college, and receiving a union pension and SS wwhen they had enough. Seniority offered a choice of better positions, and most theatre patrons could not remember ever having had a show cancelled.
There were long periods in the US when boys worked in coal mines, and girls in cotton mills and factories from the ages of six or seven, instead of attending school. Fortunately, child labor laws, championed by labor unions, put a stop to that.
Maybe we ought to force the exhbition industry to observe higher minimum age and higher qualifications and training, with realistic livable wages.
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