What Used to Be about M*A*S*H

What Used to Be About M*A*S*H


By Brother Tracy Gibson...






The film M*A*S*H used to be my favorite film. We learn & we grow. I recently watched it again after many, any moons and fund it still funny, but reeking with negative images and concepts about women especially and Black People also. The opening scene has Hawkeye Pierce calling a Superior Officer, a Black Gentleman, a racist under his breath; and women are portrayed a whores at best. The pivotal scene, which I thought was so funny as a teenager, -- where Hot Lips Hoolihan is exposed nude taking a shower after she is disgraced during a sexual romp that was made verbally public through an audio system at the camp-- is very humiliating to women. Sally Kellerman, who plays Hot Lips goes up to her superior officer's private tent -- mind you he is sleeping with a woman at the time-- and says she will resign her commission because of her humiliation. The Commanding Officer says ``Well, God Dammit Hot Lips Resign your God Damned Commission. '' I turned the video off and realized as a teenager watching M*A*S*H I was a male shuvinest. Had it not been for the women who serve on my Board of Directors at Brother Tracy Gibson & Associates, Incorporated, {Sister Carla Harris & Sister Charlotte Harris} I would have never begun my great journey into discovering that I have a second-class rating for women. I was raised by strong-willed women so I always took for granted that I LOVed women and never wanted to see them done wrongly. What I didn't realize is I had gained a great deal of disrespect for women somewhere along the way. I can't pin this one on my Father, who was mostly respectful of women around me. I have to say it must have been some programming I received from the media itself.    Maybe this shavinism is part of the Black male mystique or part of being a Black Gay man. I'm not sure. I know I have always done my best to be respectful of women, but I know I often must fail at this and more than I had originally thought. This is why it is so important to do what our City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown wants us as business People to do and invite women on all-male board of directors; and into the leadership executive positions as executive directors and presidents or major non-profit and for profit corporations.