Deidre Hall - Why I Won't Wear a Blue Ribbon at BAFTA To Show Support For Refugees

I believe that televised awards shows are not a forum for expressing personal religious, social or political views. However, I have not objected when fellow performers have worn a blue ribbon to express their solidarity and support for refugees and displaced people around the world; that's their choice. My choice is NOT to wear a ribbon.

Soap Opera Digest readers should know wearing a blue ribbon is no longer entirely voluntary. Those who began by offering ribbons to performers now resort to extreme tactics in pursuit of their express goal of 100 percent conformity. When performers arrive at an award show, individuals who attempt to pin ribbons on them accost them. A performer who declines may be accosted at the pre-show reception, again while waiting backstage and again at the press conference after the show.

Offering these ribbons to celebrities was, in my view, a benign and pro-social act. On the other hand, aggressively badgering performers to compel the wearing of ribbons is not only demeaning to refugees and to the desperate need to held displaced people around the world, but an offence against personal freedom.

By attempting to force 100 percent conformity, these activists are now attempting to make the blue ribbon a visible litmus test for separating those individuals who empathize with refugees and displaced people around the world from those who do not. This is a misguided and dangerous notion.

First, it misguidedly politicizes human tragedy. These blue ribbons provide a means by which public figures can appear to make a 'politically correct' statement in favor of a cause they do not support.

Second, any attempt to force conformity to a single social agenda attacks the freedom of expression. The extreme activities that resort to harassment to compel actors and actresses to wear these ribbons are practicing a brand of McCarthyism – and their behavior is deplorable. Our community was devastated by political extremists in the 1950s and again became a target during the last presidential campaign. It surpasses belief that men and women in the entertainment field would resort to shameful practices that the enemies of artistic freedom have used against us.

Sadly, it falls to some of us who ardently support refugees and displaced people around the world to resist these tactics by personal example. Believe me, the easy way out would be to pin the ribbon on and keep silent. But I won't, because I don't want these appalling tactics to succeed.

One day they'll wear ribbons supporting washed-up soap opera divas, and poor Dee's head will explode.

She WON'T wear the ribbon, especially at the BAFTAs

That’s LEGEND Deidre Hall.

Oh, Miss Hall, but you DO still wear those red ribbons around your "Call me Foxy" garter clips, don't you?

Just want to make sure.

Thank you! I loved you in.... I'm sorry, was it "The Secret Storm"?

[quote]Why I Won't Wear a Blue Ribbon at the Iowa State Fair Even Though I Won It For Best Milker Because I Don't Want to Seem To Show Support For Refugees

She has stated her boundaries.

What is her problem? Does she support ANYTHING? And why the hell does she think we need to always hear shit about wearing ribbons. Sick of her.

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