Thursday, June 02, 2011

You could call this naïve...

Take a few moments to savour these hilariously blinkered, paternalistic remarks made by Carole Mallory on The Wrap this week on the topic of Arnie's love-child with Guatemalan home-help Patricia Baena.

"Baena is from Guatemala. Some years ago I lived in Guatemala while shooting a film in Antigua, its major city. The people were the most charming, compliant people I have ever met and largely Indians. You could call them naïve. Baena would have been in awe of her master and could have seen succumbing to his wishes as part of her duty. Clearly he was attracted to her enormous breasts and Guatamalan naiveté, seeing a live-in opportunity to turn her into his sex slave, satisfying his need to dominate women. A Guatemalan woman by nature would have respect for those in charge of the household, both Maria and Arnold.

"She would probably be in awe of Maria Shriver, seeing such respect as her duty. She might well have been torn and conflicted about where her true allegiance belonged. The fact that Arnold's advances —which could have been deemed rape — turned into an affair is understandable, given the power structure of the household. Arnold was her master. Many argue that this is like Thomas Jefferson having an affair with his slave. While Jefferson had six children with one of his slaves, let's rejoice that Arnold was caught after having only one child. Schwarzenegger is no Thomas Jefferson, an otherwise good politician who fathered illegitimate children with a woman who worked in his household."

This knee-jerk respect for the sophisticated foreign master doesn't exactly square with all those reports from the front-line of class conflict that we used to get from Don Marco, does it? Though he did seem to have a thing about breasts. Still, he always gave the impression that he was the mouse and the maids were the mishes.

5 comments:

scott said...

Excellent...I also thought about this article's viewpoint vis-a-vis the esteemed Don.

norm said...

Is the Don still walking about a free man?

Begonia said...

In a way, this garbage really is similar to Don Marco's combination of parternlistic/sexist/racist remarks. Both start from the basic assumption that American culture is superior and Guatemalans are stupid.

Excuse me while I go vomit.

Anonymous said...

A woman known mainly because of the famous men who have bedded her is in no position to say anything about Baena. Anyone who calls Antigua Guatemala's major city is a moron.

Anonymous said...

@Norm- Don Marco will not be walking about as a free man for 4 years:

http://nashvillepost.com/news/2011/7/1/cassman_gets_four_years