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not represent Italians
It's a TV show, it's fiction, and viewers know that
By Andrew Wallenstein
Even after the latest season of HBO's "The Sopranos" has drawn to a close, the controversy lingers over the allegedly negative stereotypes it perpetuates concerning Italian-Americans.
As a non-Italian, I can't claim to be instinctively attuned to the matter.
But having written about troubling depictions of Jewish and/or male TV characters, I feel a responsibility to understand how the offended group is reacting.
Fortunately, C-Span broadcast the National Italian American Foundation's panel discussion about "'The Sopranos' & Italian-American Stereotypes" this past weekend.
Absorbing two hours of aggrieved testimony was sufficient to engender my sympathy, but it gave me additional insights that may come as a comfort to Italian-Americans who think "Sopranos" is just bad news.
After some introductory remarks from a few NIAF leaders, noted media-studies scholar Camille Paglia launched into a self-described "rant" of barely contained rage and weakly supported arguments.
Dismissing the series as "stupid," "graceless" and a "piece of crap," she excoriated "Sopranos" creator David Chase for grossly misrepresenting the reality of contemporary working-class Italian-American life and emphasizing "the psychopathology of urban life."
But for those who think Paglia is on the money, consider some problems with her position. For starters, while accusing the series of stereotyping is perfectly reasonable, it's disingenuous to dismiss the series as "crap."
Far be it from me to be the trillionth TV critic to rank "Sopranos" between sliced bread and the wheel, but the show is clearly of quality. If it weren't, Paglia wouldn't be so steamed.
Furthermore, lambasting Chase for focusing on "urban psychopathology" offers an incomplete picture of the program.
While Paglia and her fellow panelists cited dozens of violent or vulgar scenes from the series, not one person pointed out how several episodes have featured the character of Dr. Melfi's ex-husband addressing precisely the issues that the NIAF raised in the discussion.
Paglia's point about "urban psychopathology" is also a tad naïve.
Chase is hardly the first Hollywood writer to discover that depraved criminals lead lives of infinitely more dramatic allure than hardworking plumbers.
Besides, network TV already has a wonderfully quaint depiction of an Italian-American family in CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond," which often doubles the viewership of "The Sopranos."
Also on the panel was Bill Tonelli, the author of a book on his Italian family's history. His presence was one of token dissension, and a wan one at that.
Tonelli argued half-heartedly that the stereotypes perpetuated by "The Sopranos" could be interpreted as positive.
But with all this talk about positive or negative stereotyping, no one on the panel raised the possibility that perhaps "Sopranos" doesn't perpetuate any stereotype.
Bolstering my doubts about the influence of the program was an interesting analysis offered by the only non-Italian on the panel, "Vanity Fair" columnist James Wolcott. He attacked the show for the increasingly gratuitous displays of violence that he characterized as having almost comical frequency.
But that well-taken point only undercuts the position of the panel: If the series is nothing but a cartoonish hodgepodge of bullets, blood and boobs, what viewers in their right minds would take it as an accurate depiction of Italian-American life? Who would generalize the actions of a few criminals to an entire ethnicity?
On a recent interview on PBS's "Charlie Rose," Aaron Sorkin, creator of NBC's "The West Wing," mentioned that while he researched the inner workings of the White House for his program, his creative vision was also informed by a "romantic" idealization of how the presidential staff interacts.
Authenticity isn't paramount, he explained, because the show isn't simply a chronicle of White House operations per se, but an exploration of what it means to be a family unit. Sorkin didn't create a nuclear-family sitcom like "Raymond," but his aim is somewhat the same.
The same holds true for "The Sopranos," which HBO never marketed as a sociological study documenting Italian-American life.
To reduce the series to that function is to entirely miss its point. David Chase may chronicle a bunch of New Jersey hitmen, but his real focus is more universal.
Attention all Italian-Americans: From "Sopranos" going all the way back to "The Godfather," viewers across the country have realized that mobsters don't in any way represent their ethnic brethren. Don't let the portrayals of a few miscreants lead you to believe otherwise.
June 8, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Andrew Wallenstein is the television critic for Media Life.
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