Not In My Name: Don't Ban The Sopranos A Commentary On The Controversial Television Program By Emily Monroy The Sopranos are after me. Or so it seems, because everywhere I turn they're there. My neighborhood in Toronto, Canada is literally plastered with posters announcing the fourth season of the wildly popular TV series with a picture of a bound figure wrapped in a red and white checkered tablecloth. An ad in the elevator of my apartment building shows Tony Soprano (played by actor James Gandolfini) standing between his wife and his female psychiatrist. Beside them is the message "The Sopranos are coming to pay you a visit. Don't turn your back." On September 15, when the season began, thousands of Canadians were perched in front of their TV sets watching The Sopranos. But not everyone is so rapturously happy about the show's reappearance. Some Italian Canadians are less than enthusiastic about it, saying it portrays Italians in a bad light and contributes to stereotypes of them as gangsters. The editor of an Italian-language newspaper in Ottawa even wrote to the CEO of the Canadian television network that broadcasts The Sopranos asking him to pull the plug on the show on the grounds that it would hurt the Italian community's reputation. ______________________ The series is after all merely the last in a long string of films and TV shows on the Mafia, from The Godfather to Married to the Mob to Goodfellas. ______________________ I'm part Italian myself. My family is from Sicily, and I've been teased mercilessly about being a mafiosa (OK, I'll admit I wasn't all that offended). So in some ways I understand the Italian community's indignation about The Sopranos. However, I'd stop short of calling for a ban on it. I suppose I could go into the usual spiel about free expression and the argument that if we pulled the plug on everything that might offend a certain group, there wouldn't be much left to watch (for example, the English could complain about the less than savory depiction of their countrymen in the movie Rob Roy). But there are other reasons to question a ban on The Sopranos. First of all, it seems somewhat late to start getting uptight about The Sopranos and its effects on the Italian community. The series is after all merely the last in a long string of films and TV shows on the Mafia, from The Godfather to Married to the Mob to Goodfellas. If all these have really harmed Italians as much as some claim, surely The Sopranos couldn't do any more damage. Furthermore, it's hard to believe the series is some kind of anti-Italian conspiracy when practically all the actors in it are Italian American. So is director David Chase, whose WASPish-sounding surname is actually an Anglicization of the very Italian "DiCesare." As an Anglo friend of mine remarked, The Sopranos has provided employment to a lot of people of Italian descent. Lead actor James Gandolfini explains why. In an interview with Lesley White of The Sunday Times, he says, "There are plenty of films about nice Italian Americans, but do they make $100 million at the box office?" It should be noted that not all Italian Canadians oppose The Sopranos. My aunt, for instance, became enraged when I told her about the editor who tried to get the show cancelled. "But I want to see The Sopranos!" she protested. I'll second her. And perhaps in twenty years or so all the Italian Canadians now screaming about The Sopranos will be glued to their TV sets watching a show about the Russian Mafia. Emily Monroy is a professional translator and is of Irish, Italian and Norwegian descent. Born in Windsor, Ontario, she now resides in Toronto. Her articles have appeared in several publications, including Interracial Voice, Cats Canada, and Urban Mozaik. She welcomes feedback on her articles.You can contact Emily at emonroy@interlog.com This website: Copyright © 2002 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in Urban Mozaik Magazine are not necessarily those of Urban Mozaik Magazine and the publisher cannot be held responsible for them. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.