Just keep swimming

I remember laughing and chanting those words all over the house, when I first saw Finding Nemo, followed at times by ‘This too shall pass’. We rarely need a philosophical treatise to make it through our daily lives.

Just one inspirational moment that stays with you, and it can bring light and laughter to an otherwise dark, ominous day.

So, as we debate roti prices, in other news this week, Ellen DeGeneres received a Medal of Freedom at the White House for the changes she has brought about by her own courage and authenticity. If we ever question the validity of popular culture Ellen exemplifies its power.

Not only does pop culture reach a large audience, but it can also have profound impacts on individuals and communities. It has the power to change and inspire. People depend on it for sustenance of their inner lives.

In 1997 on the sitcom Ellen when Ellen DeGeneres’s character came out as lesbian, just after she did in real life, the effects were phenomenal.

She had risked career and name, at a time when the American society was not yet ready to deal with such a public affirmation of homosexuality. While the ‘Puppy episode’, as it was called, was hugely popular, the repercussions were largely negative, leading to the eventual cancellation of the sitcom as ratings began to drop. Despite this, this one moment in television history, changed the discourse on homosexuality, making it possible for other public figures to come out of the closet. This one moment made possible characters like Will in Will and Grace, Cyrus Beene in Scandal, television series like the L-word, Orange is the New Black and others that feature gay content and characters in lead roles.

The world has come a long way since Ellen’s breakthrough. Today many nations, like Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, have legalised homosexuality and same-sex marriages.

Prejudices are still prevalent even within these societies, controlled as they are, by law. But, though this may be so, the change in law allows for slow changes in the larger society.

And sometimes it takes one person to bear the burden for the rest of a community fighting for equal rights.

The world is no stranger to discrimination — The Feminist, Civil Rights and the Gay Rights movements are just some of the major ones the push against it. Within societies, there are always smaller groups of people fighting just to find a space and to be afforded the benefits that all citizens should enjoy under their respective governments.

One would think that by now, many of us would be open to arguments that speak about abolishing archaic laws that infringe on other citizens’ human and civil rights, but unfortunately people’s memories are short.

(Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming). And so we have victims of ethnic cleansing against the feminist movement, civil rights fighters against the gay rights activists and so it goes. If that isn’t evidence of the hypocrisy inherent in many one of us, I can’t think of any other that is.

With every new movement, the process begins again, a never-ending cycle of fights to be seen simply as human and to be given the respect that should be afforded to any human being. Saddled with the burden of morality, many cease to see clearly. The idea of morality is too often, a dark, frosted window that blocks our view of what lies outside and does not allow the light from outside to reach inside. Our lives are all like The Truman Show, a script, written for us.

We know no better, because the sets have been created for us and many of us know no other. But so be it. It is what it is.

Today, the fact that the American government has awarded Ellen a Medal of Freedom, is a powerful statement as to how much she has changed the attitudes and scripts of many, in her advocacy for LGBT rights.

Through her humour she has entertained countless people, bringing laughter to millions across the world, including us here in Trinidad. She stands now as a model of courage, and the power, as Oprah Winfrey puts it, ‘to step out of the lie of your life and allow yourself to blossom in the fullness of your truth.’