When Lizzo met Sun Tzu
The art of peace is far more beautiful than the art of war
When Lizzo recently came out with her song “Grrrls,” she unintentionally included a derogatory term for people with disabilities, and some were upset. So she fixed it.
This concludes today’s column. Thanks for reading!
All right, so maybe life is a little more complicated than that. (And I’m a lot more long-winded.) Here’s what Lizzo wrote:
Twitter being Twitter, the tweet got all sorts of responses, including a bunch who said her critics were overreacting. Since he died around 500 B.C., Chinese general Sun Tzu probably didn’t have a Twitter account, which is one of life’s great shames. He said a lot of things that would have been great tweets, like “Who wishes to fight must first count the cost” and “The wise warrior avoids the battle.”
Lizzo is a wise warrior.
She could have steamrolled past the concerns and most people would have ignored them, just as parents and teachers and bosses can pretty much have their way whenever they want. Like them, she has the power. But some of her fans wouldn’t have felt as good about her, and maybe she wouldn’t have felt as good about herself.
Domineering parents and bosses never realize that the best use of power is to share it, because then both of you can celebrate a victory without having any scars to show for it. Even if some of the words aren’t perfect, you’ll be in harmony. That’s more important.
I can’t find a great Sun Tzu quote that applies to Tom Hanks, but he’s a wise warrior, too, constantly showing the kind of empathy that strengthens people, including himself. While he was promoting his latest film, Hanks talked about his first Oscar-winning role, in 1993’s “Philadelphia,” playing a gay man with AIDS who faced workplace discrimination.
“Could a straight man do what I did in ‘Philadelphia’ now? No, and rightly so,” he said, adding later: “I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.”
Sun Tzu was pragmatic enough that he would have appreciated Hanks’ stance, then and now. A gay actor would have been far more authentic in the “Philadelphia” role back then, too, but there weren’t exactly a ton of openly gay actors with Hanks’ box-office clout.
AIDS was a dog whistle for anti-gay bigots, feeding off people’s paranoia at a time when we were still learning about the virus. One way to combat that was to make a powerful film — and then get people to see it. That’s why they needed the box-office power of not only Hanks, but of Denzel Washington, who played his homophonic lawyer.
“The whole point of ‘Philadelphia’ was don’t be afraid,” Hanks said. “One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man.”
Murphy Slaw
Something old: A nice thread — in a warped way — about our newest national holiday, Juneteenth.
Something new: We all can use a friend like this one.
Something borrowed: If you know someone who has been hit by high pharmacy bills, this story might help. If you can’t read it because of the paywall, here’s the website. Cuban is the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and is often on “Shark Tank.”
Something blue: This isn’t exactly news — it happened three years ago. But it isn’t exactly blue, either — there’s too much sweetness for that.
