Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1507380
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 SEPTEMBER 2023 COMMENT The Skinny Malta, shrunk down EDITORIAL Rights, favours and a sick political culture PAGE 2 JOSANNE CASSAR How do you solve the problem of job vacancies? PAGE 6 The gender pay gap significantly affects women's lives in both the medium and long term RENEE LAIVIERA | PAGE 11 What are we skinning? Israeli Euro- vision contender from 2018, Netta, headlining the opening event to Eu- ropride last Thursday, to predictable protests from individuals sensitive to the Palestinian cause. Why are we skinning it? Be- cause the complaint about Netta was lodged in no uncertain terms months ago when her involvement was first announced, and because the choice presents an interesting (read: baffling) conundrum involv- ing the stacked (read: conflicting) dynamics of oppression at play here. But are you suggesting that every single Israeli performer be boy- cotted from such events? Not at all. And that's not what the protestors are suggesting either. But Netta is a problematic contender: she has often performed at events serving as pinkwashing exercises for the current Israeli regime -- a contro- versial political configuration, no matter which way you slice it -- and has gone on record claiming that her country chequered human rights re- cord is merely a matter of "bad PR". Ideally, Pride should never be mixed in with prejudice. This is the kind of complex geo-political scenario that Jane Austen wouldn't have been able to prepare us for. I mean, the Napoleonic Wars where raging while she was churning out her classic rom-coms, and there's nary a mention of them in her books. And subsequent literary crit- ics have taken her to task for that. Crucially, however, these critics had no access to social media. And neither would their argument have been so loaded (and let's stop this already-overwrought comparison right here): in this case, it jars be- cause Pride is meant to be both a celebration of the LGBTIQ+ commu- nity, and a reminder of the struggles they faced as an oppressed minority, and which they still face to this day. Yeah, I can see why putting an ide- ologically contentious figure to kick off such a celebration may come across as iffy. Look, nobody can be ideologically clean at all times. But whether she likes it or not, Netta ceases to be "just" a singer when she takes the stage for an occasion of that kind. Representing Pride lends a degree of cultural capital. Capital which needs to be balanced out with an adequate degree of increased ideo- logical scrutiny. Ah well, Christina Aguilera has no such baggage, at least. Yes, and by September 16th, all of this will be for- gotten either way. Do say: "One cannot expect every- one to be perfectly aligned on every single controversial political issue. Neither should we expect representatives of the LGBTIQ+ community to be squeaky-clean and politically correct at all times. But the international headlining act to the opening event for Eu- ropride carries particular weight, and Netta comes with baggage which cannot in good conscience be ignored, and which casts an unpleasant -- and in the long run, unnecessary -- pall over the pro- ceedings." Don't say: "Didn't the Barbie mov- ie perform enough pinkwashing to last three or four lifetimes, gay or otherwise?" The Skinny - No. 208 - Pinkwashing Blues MICHAEL FALZON Looks like organised crime PAGE 7 SAVIOUR BALZAN How to steal from the State PAGE 5 Netta Barzilai was greeted with cries of 'Free Palestine' during EuroPride opening