Orange Is The New Black

Cin · 09-14-2013, 03:59 PM

Interesting interview of Piper Kerman
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/06/the_...black_partner/

A couple of excerpts:

Was the prison staff as homophobic as the warden in the show?

I only reflect upon my own experience, so I definitely saw a lot of homophobia from the prison staff directed at prisoners and also towards each other in sort of an unfettered or unchecked way. No one is getting in trouble in prison for being homophobic, let’s put it that way.

Is the character of Sister Ingalls — the nun who is a protester — close to reality?

Sure, fairly close, yeah, though the show’s character of course is quite different than Sister Ardeth Platte, who gave me permission to use her real name in the book. But yeah, that’s a good example. Those folks are closely drawn.

In your book, you write about encountering other political prisoners, particularly those arrested for protesting the School of Americas.

There are many political prisoners in America, particularly in the federal system. That’s where they generally all go. Often, they were serving really short sentences if they were first-time offenders, like a 90-day sentence, which is sort of ridiculous on some level, but a number of those folks had short sentences, like 90 days or six months.

Someone like Ardeth Platte was considered a repeat offender because she had committed many protests of conscience, so she was serving, if my memory is correct from the book, close to four years, as were the two other nuns she was arrested with.

How do you respond to critiques that you — and “Orange Is the New Black” — are profiting off the struggles and stories of women of color?

The book is the book, right? I wrote the book to depict my own experience, and I think that’s a really important thing. I don’t see any problem whatsoever with me depicting my own experience and telling my own story. I’m very proud of the show, but Jenji is the show’s creator and at the end of the day, she’s the ultimate decision-maker. I remain in close contact with some women I did time with—a variety of women, some of them are white, some of them are not white. The people who have been in touch with me —both when the book came out and when the show started—are excited. The people I knew in prison, if they are not excited, have not communicated that to me.

I try to be very respectful of other people’s stories and other people’s ownership of their stories. I hope that the show opens up more and more desire and demand for stories that come out of the criminal justice system. That’s what I think is most important: for people to have more and more hunger to hear about a system very different than what has been depicted to date in the media.

View Poll Results: Who is your favorite character?
Piper	14	10.61%
Alex	37	28.03%
Crazy Eyes	48	36.36%
Red	26	19.70%
Daya	7	5.30%
Taystee	8	6.06%
Poussey	11	8.33%
Nicki	16	12.12%
Miss Claudette	11	8.33%
Pennsatucky	3	2.27%
Sophia	8	6.06%
Yoga Jones	3	2.27%
Other - mention in the comments	4	3.03%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 132. You may not vote on this poll

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Threaded Mode

09-14-2013, 03:59 PM	#8
Cin Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Butch Preferred Pronoun?: she Relationship Status: Truly Madly Deeply Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: In My Head Posts: 2,815 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 6,333 Thanked 10,401 Times in 2,477 Posts Rep Power: 21474853	Interesting interview of Piper Kerman http://www.salon.com/2013/09/06/the_...black_partner/ A couple of excerpts: Was the prison staff as homophobic as the warden in the show? I only reflect upon my own experience, so I definitely saw a lot of homophobia from the prison staff directed at prisoners and also towards each other in sort of an unfettered or unchecked way. No one is getting in trouble in prison for being homophobic, let’s put it that way. Is the character of Sister Ingalls — the nun who is a protester — close to reality? Sure, fairly close, yeah, though the show’s character of course is quite different than Sister Ardeth Platte, who gave me permission to use her real name in the book. But yeah, that’s a good example. Those folks are closely drawn. In your book, you write about encountering other political prisoners, particularly those arrested for protesting the School of Americas. There are many political prisoners in America, particularly in the federal system. That’s where they generally all go. Often, they were serving really short sentences if they were first-time offenders, like a 90-day sentence, which is sort of ridiculous on some level, but a number of those folks had short sentences, like 90 days or six months. Someone like Ardeth Platte was considered a repeat offender because she had committed many protests of conscience, so she was serving, if my memory is correct from the book, close to four years, as were the two other nuns she was arrested with. How do you respond to critiques that you — and “Orange Is the New Black” — are profiting off the struggles and stories of women of color? The book is the book, right? I wrote the book to depict my own experience, and I think that’s a really important thing. I don’t see any problem whatsoever with me depicting my own experience and telling my own story. I’m very proud of the show, but Jenji is the show’s creator and at the end of the day, she’s the ultimate decision-maker. I remain in close contact with some women I did time with—a variety of women, some of them are white, some of them are not white. The people who have been in touch with me —both when the book came out and when the show started—are excited. The people I knew in prison, if they are not excited, have not communicated that to me. I try to be very respectful of other people’s stories and other people’s ownership of their stories. I hope that the show opens up more and more desire and demand for stories that come out of the criminal justice system. That’s what I think is most important: for people to have more and more hunger to hear about a system very different than what has been depicted to date in the media.