Ricky Martin's Memoir "ME" due OUT in early November 2010

this is the cover of Ricky Martin's 2010 memoir

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A quartet of posts about Ricky Martin:
http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/2010/11/abrazos-to-ricky-martin-for-saying-out.html 
http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/2010/08/ricky-martins-memoir-me-due-out-in.html
http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-on-ricky-martin-coming-out-from.html
http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/2010/03/la-vida-loca-is-far-less-loca-as-ricky.html
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It was a whole new layer of education for me, as a white U.S.er, to witness reactions to Ricky Martin coming out. Almost without exception, white folks joked about it in a kind of "AS IF WE DIDN'T KNOW THAT!" sort of way. We white people don't tend to consider the importance of events for many communities who are not white. I believe LGBTI youth, particularly and especially Puerto Rican and Latino gay youth, have benefited by a decades-long international celebrity coming out as not heterosexual.

White cynical or casual response only demonstrates that when one has privilege, one usually doesn't "get it" about what events mean for people without it. This is glaringly obvious when I witness what WHM with class-privilege organise about: challenging feminists; pretending women have more institutional power than men; freaking out about white populations decreasing--regardless of whether or not they are; freaking out about people of color generally--varying the ethnic group by the year or decade; ignoring the conditions Indigeous people live with due to global WHM supremacy and globalised capitalism. Currently in the U.S., this is the era of scapegoating two specific groups, while never not stigmatising African Americans. With specific focus, Muslims of color who are from what's termed the Middle East, or Central Asia--which is not where most Muslims of color live, btw. Most Muslims who are not white live in Indonesia. Also, Mexicans (who, due to Mexico being in the Americas, are already "Mexican American") and Mexican U.S. Americans are being targeted as the 'dangerous populations'--by the folks who control and own Western mass media: white het men. When will WHM realise whites and men are perpetually 'the dangerous populations' here, in the U.S.? I predict "not soon".

Meanwhile, non-dangerous South American people are doing some amazing things that whites could and ought to learn about such as how to shift politics away from corporate capitalism's imperative of serving the needs of the few, to instead prioritising the experiences and wishes of the many. (I think in English it's called "democracy", but I've become confused about what that really means, because I keep hearing in WHM U.S. press how we go to war with nations of color, mass murdering the civilians there, to promote "democracy". This has been the government and racist patriarchal press position for so long that I think in English, the term "promoting democracy" has become a synonym for "behaving in a genocidally racist manner, using military force".

What the white media in the U.S. could do to support the older understanding of "democracy" is supportively welcome the perspectives of people who are not white het men. Accordingly, and because I respect the man, I am posting this, to promote Ricky Martin's new memoir, Me, due out in a couple of months or so.

Memoir usually differs from "autobiography" in structure. They are typically more likely to actually be written by the person themself, not by someone else to whom biographical information was provided. Western autobiographies tend to be organised around linear chronology: perhaps a bit about one's grandparents or parents, then about one's birth through the time of writing. Memoirs may or may not be structured that way; they may also be more creative in style and have come under critique by some for purporting to be "true" while containing fictional elements. That most people's own versions of their lives contains fictional elements is ignored in that critique. I guess the issue is intentionally, willfully fictionalising parts or aspects of one's life without letting the reader known the degrees to which that was done. Memoirs may also focus on a few themes, and not necessarily tell you what happened every single year of someone's life.

Regardless of the book's structure, I'm looking forward to reading its content. Thank you, Ricky, for writing it. I have little doubt it will be VERY important to many gay youth, of many colors and ethnicities, even while too many whites, men, and heterosexuals roll their cynical, callous, casual, or cruel eyes.

What follows is cross posted from *here*.

Aug 19, 2010

Ricky Martin to talk sexuality, fatherhood in memoir

Ricky Martin will get personal about livin' la vida loca in his upcoming memoir, Me.

USA TODAY's Cindy Clark reports that the Grammy-Award winning artist opens up for the first time about his early childhood, his experiences as a member of the boy band Menudo, and coming to terms with his sexuality. Martin also talks about being a father and his work with children around the world.

Both English- and Spanish-language editions, called Me and Yo respectively, will be published in hardcover on Nov. 2 from Celebra, a division of Penguin Group.