Snaps

“The importance of seeing yourself properly represented in games and other pop culture was something I surely thought I understood, at least academically, but it’s easy to miss the significance of someone stating “this means something to me” when you can’t feel it yourself. My conversations with my friends about my reaction to Odyssey made me realize I wasn’t a bystander when it comes to representation in media; I was a part of it. I had been missing something too, but I never put it all together in my head.

I finally understood why I was getting so cheesed at movies getting “the Greekness” all muddled up, and I couldn’t help but think of a particular cultural albatross around my neck.

Did you see My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Did you like it?

I didn’t, although I’m not upset if you enjoyed it. It was a film by a Greek writer with the best of intentions, trying to tell a story of growing up Greek in the U.S. It’s meant to be a fun, goofy exaggeration of her experiences, and I remember the Greek community here in New York being thrilled about it for the same reasons Odyssey suddenly excited me so much: representation. It was ostensibly made by Greeks, about Greeks, but it was a farce. I didn’t feel like I was seeing myself or people like me on the screen, and I know many people who felt the same.

And the problem was that the farce is now what people think is true. Windex jokes. Bundt cake. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is the Greek version of how Crocodile Dundee treated Australians.

When these stories hit the mainstream, people outside your culture don’t know which parts are genuine and which bits are fantasy, a joke, or exaggerated. We all want the best elements of our culture to be seen, but there’s nothing wrong with being critical as well. The problem was that My Big Fat Greek Wedding didn’t make fun of anything that felt real; it set up stereotypes and then laughed at them.

It’s not even that Odyssey is incredibly accurate — I don’t know enough about the time period to say for sure — it’s that it pulls off feeling authentic. The trappings of Greek culture, if not all the details, are handled well and with some measure of respect.

Γέφυρα Επισκοπής που ενώνει Αιτωλοακαρνανία και Ευρυτανία

Episkopi Bridge, connects prefectures of  Aetolia-Acarnania & Evrytania

A photo of an old man and his cat taken by an amateur photographer in Athens touched both internet users and an Italian Vogue fashion editor who together have allowed for it to go viral.

The picture shows an elderly man with white hair holding his equally white cat in his hands. The impressive thing is that both look at the camera the same way with almost the same expression.

The snapshot was taken by Victoria Alex, an amateur photographer and writer, in the center of Athens in the early morning hours and has reached the online version of the Italian Vogue.

In her post on Facebook she describes the encounter in a poetic way that adds more sentiment to the already touching picture.

A photo of an old man and his cat taken by an amateur photographer in Athens touched both internet users and an Italian Vogue fashion editor who together have allowed for it to go viral.

The picture shows an elderly man with white hair holding his equally white cat in his hands. The impressive thing is that both look at the camera the same way with almost the same expression.

The snapshot was taken by Victoria Alex, an amateur photographer and writer, in the center of Athens in the early morning hours and has reached the online version of the Italian Vogue.

In her post on Facebook she describes the encounter in a poetic way that adds more sentiment to the already touching picture.