Calling a Kid the "C" Word

[SirCreedence]

It's an ironic joke.
They shouldn't have to apologize for a joke that didn't have the intent of hurting the kid.
This is being blown WAY out of proportion, just because someone ironically called her a c*nt and some people don't understand the concept of either irony, jokes or fun.

 

[LadyRhian]

Every time I see "C word" I die a little inside.
because dick and dickhead are perfectly acceptable and they are exactly the same thing.

The extent of the hateful things you're allowed to say about women is held down by a Glass Ceiling. A Glass Ceiling that we'll have to break through if we ever want to see any true gender equality!

Why doesn't the burden of proof ever lie with the audience (Not necessarily to "get the joke" but) to at least differentiate between a joke and a statement made with real malice.


Apologizing for a joke also caries the unfortunate implication of suggesting there was something there worth apologizing for.

That's because you're an idiot
Dickhead and dick are first of all not very powerful curse words. Hell, judging from a lot of the Manly Online Brigade of Ha Ha I'm Anonymous it's a god damned compliment.
**** however, isn't. It's just making the connection that the person is a sexual organ that's to be filled by manly cock, so it calms down.(Origin of the word hysteria could be useful for you here.)
Also: It's a 9-year old?! How much of an inbred douchebag, drugged up "bro" do you need to be to not see the flaw in bullying someone that hasn't matured mentally yet?

This is exactly the thing I'm talking about.
Sometimes the burden of proof should be left up to the audience to understand the difference between a statment intended as a joke and one intended to carry malice.

But what if you actually believe what you said is true, what are those implications? That suggesting a whole person is reduced to female genitalia is worse than saying a whole person is reduced to male genitalia.
You're saying that the vagina is just worse than the penis? Period. No further explanation required.
That's sexism.

And calling me an inbred drugged up douche bag idiot is also perfectly acceptable but a comparison to a female body part isn't? You're a boob if you think that.

I'm surprised that so many commenters here don't get it. 1) Calling someone a **** is worse than calling them a dick because women are less (in the eyes of many men) than men are. Calling someone a woman (especially if they are male) is an insult- or intended to be insulting. Same with "womanly". The only time "mannish" is an insult is to a woman, implying that she can't even be a *good* man. Likewise, "douche" is something a woman uses to clean out their uterus, which is why it's also used as an insult. "Manly", on the other hand, is something to aspire to be. "Act like a man", "Be a man"... a man is something to aspire to be, something good to be. That's why female gendered insults are worse than male-gendered insults.

2) "freedom of speech" isn't the right to be an idiot and say whatever you want, no matter how insulting it is, and be free of the consequences. It just means the government can't stop you from saying it. It does not give you the right to scream or yell, "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre and escape prosecution, nor does it mean that someone cannot sue you, punch you in the face, or allow you to get off scot-free from saying anything that crosses your mind. It's being free of government oppression of speech (barring the "fire in a crowded theatre" types of expression).

3) saying "******" is worse because it has a longer history of being bad is also wrong, as even in the Bible, it comes down on women. Women were held responsible for original sin, being duped by the serpent and so on. Considering the Bible is at least 2000 years old (as more or less currently written- the Hebrew Scriptures are far, far older), I doubt that "******" is a worse insult because of age than being a woman is considered to be.

 

[Mithcha]

Think my view on this can be summed up as "meh". It's the Onion, if I took what they said seriously, ever, my blood pressure would go through the roof.

Far as **** being used in the UK casually, agree with others that it definitely depends on where you are. Where I live, South London, **** is used frequently, it's just another word where the reaction to it depends entirely on the context in which it was used. It's certainly not a default "oh my god I shouldn't have said that" word.

 

[csoloist]

Oh wow, article and whole lotta posts about nothing important.

Someone at The Onion writes something in poor taste... Big whoop - nobody should really be giving a fuck about this.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

I agree with Bob on one point, the joke was poorly told. If you have to explain a joke, it failed.

I don't think the joke was poorly told. It was painfully obvious to me.

This raises raises more problems than solutions, too. The thing is, if your audience is big enough, there will always be people who won't 'get' it. People who are too sensitive, or too thick, and will react to their emotions immediately. This means that practically every joke has to be explained to someone, somewhere. Should we just not tell jokes then? Or is there a threshold where there are few enough people that it doesn't matter if it has to be explained to them? Where's the line? How was it drawn? On what authority was it drawn?

This line of questioning is both unanswerable and meaningless. The obvious solution is to just do whatever, and if people don't like it, they don't have to listen. Really easy, really effective.

 

[Verlander]

There are a lot of Brits here denying the word ****, but I'd disagree. Maybe it's the area I live in or something, but **** is relatively common.

The REAL difference is that swearing in the UK isn't as much of a societal taboo as it is in America. Oh sure, you don't want to go around swearing at grannies, but even in the most professional areas of the UK, swearing is pretty much standard. Also, we try and be a bit more creative with our insults. Yahtzee isn't alone there

 

[NortherWolf]

Every time I see "C word" I die a little inside.
because dick and dickhead are perfectly acceptable and they are exactly the same thing.

The extent of the hateful things you're allowed to say about women is held down by a Glass Ceiling. A Glass Ceiling that we'll have to break through if we ever want to see any true gender equality!

Why doesn't the burden of proof ever lie with the audience (Not necessarily to "get the joke" but) to at least differentiate between a joke and a statement made with real malice.


Apologizing for a joke also caries the unfortunate implication of suggesting there was something there worth apologizing for.

That's because you're an idiot
Dickhead and dick are first of all not very powerful curse words. Hell, judging from a lot of the Manly Online Brigade of Ha Ha I'm Anonymous it's a god damned compliment.
**** however, isn't. It's just making the connection that the person is a sexual organ that's to be filled by manly cock, so it calms down.(Origin of the word hysteria could be useful for you here.)
Also: It's a 9-year old?! How much of an inbred douchebag, drugged up "bro" do you need to be to not see the flaw in bullying someone that hasn't matured mentally yet?

This is exactly the thing I'm talking about.
Sometimes the burden of proof should be left up to the audience to understand the difference between a statment intended as a joke and one intended to carry malice.

But what if you actually believe what you said is true, what are those implications? That suggesting a whole person is reduced to female genitalia is worse than saying a whole person is reduced to male genitalia.
You're saying that the vagina is just worse than the penis? Period. No further explanation required.
That's sexism.

And calling me an inbred drugged up douche bag idiot is also perfectly acceptable but a comparison to a female body part isn't? You're a boob if you think that.

If the shoe fits. But I actually didn't mean you in particular. Rather the Bro Brigade that come out in force and tell us how absolutely ok and vital to Freedom of Speech it to call a 9-year old a ****.
If that's what Freedom of Speech has been reduced to, a bunch of bro's to pt each other on the back while shouting bullshit then screw freedom of speech.
Also, in our society the female sex is receiving, thus weaker. So when calling someone a ****, you're pretty much stating. "You're weak and 'worthless'"
For example, in Swedish to call a guy "fitta" (****) insinuates they're a weak sub-male. The use of **** in English strikes me as similar.
Dude, you're ok with calling a kid a ****. I'm not the sexist one here. Brat would have done just fine in this joke.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

It's an ironic joke.
They shouldn't have to apologize for a joke that didn't have the intent of hurting the kid.
This is being blown WAY out of proportion, just because someone ironically called her a c*nt and some people don't understand the concept of either irony, jokes or fun.

How? How is the joke ironic? Please, I'd really like to know. Yes, they were kidding; however, the joke consisted of straight up calling a 9 year old girl a ****. Doesn't that strike you as a tad innapropriate?

She's an adorable, well-behaved little kid. There's nothing cuntlike about her whatsoever.

Ironing
Noun
The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Appropriateness doesn't appear to be a prerequisite for irony.

How is that NOT irony?

 

[Hazy]

Carlin did say it best, 'You can joke about anything.'

However, if the joke isn't funny, it becomes insulting instead, and without context or structure on their twitter post, that's exactly what happened.

But it did have content and structure, it just wasn't readily visible.

The joke is that the girl is sweet, innocent, and adorable - she isn't a stuck-up diva, like most of Hollywood's thespians. The joke works because she isn't a ****.

 

[sageoftruth]

Honestly, I didn't even know that we Americans use the word "****". Somehow for me, using that word feels kind of like calling someone "Pendejo", or if we're sticking to UK terms, "Wanker". It just feels out of character as an American citizen, so I've never thought to use it unless I'm impersonating someone from the UK.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

There's a reason you're an ass if you 'jokingly insult' a mentally challenged person, a physically challenged person, or anyone like that.

Because it's in poor taste. Oh, you might be able to do that if you're a friend of theirs and they accept it, but the key thing is that they accept it. That they will draw no ire from your comments. That's actually the thing that makes a joke a real joke. That the recipient of the joke (not the audience) can understand it's humor and feel no ill will about it. If you make a 'joke' and only the audience gets it but the recipient feels bad, it's bullying. Apologies if that means your personal sense of humor might paint you in a different light than you might want to see yourself, but it is what it is.

If the target of your joke can not understand even the word 'satire', has not been in the world long enough to realize that not everyone is laughing at him or her when a 'joke' happens (hell, most people on this planet has not been on Earth long enough to realize that), or is freaking young enough that if she repeats the joke, she could be sent to her room because she said a 'bad word'... you aimed way too low.

If their skin was any thinner, they would be transparent.

And whose skin are we talking about? the 9 year old girl who hasn't developed enough sense of self that she can understand not just who she is, but what she is and be able to make light of it?

 

[sageoftruth]

It's an ironic joke.
They shouldn't have to apologize for a joke that didn't have the intent of hurting the kid.
This is being blown WAY out of proportion, just because someone ironically called her a c*nt and some people don't understand the concept of either irony, jokes or fun.

How? How is the joke ironic? Please, I'd really like to know. Yes, they were kidding; however, the joke consisted of straight up calling a 9 year old girl a ****. Doesn't that strike you as a tad innapropriate?

She's an adorable, well-behaved little kid. There's nothing cuntlike about her whatsoever.

Ironing
Noun
The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Appropriateness doesn't appear to be a prerequisite for irony.

How is that NOT irony?

Agreed. That definitely sounds like irony to me.

 

[The Tibballs]

Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.

Pretty much what I was thinking, so I'll drink to that.

 

[walruss]

People shouldn't have to apologize for humor, no matter the subject matter. The problem is that this was not humor.

 

[Reeve]

They should have just added "AMIRITEGUYS?!" to the end of the tweet. Then the satire would have worked.

 

[cikame]

I found it funny, but i hate children so...

There are some celebrities who i would say bad things about, whether it be because of whatever their job is or the way they talk, whatever it is you shouldn't over react to what i say because i'm just a dude with opinions.
I respect other individuals abilities to have opinions also, i don't even know who she is, maybe she is a c***.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

Fair enough, but that doesn't mean the joke was any less in bad taste.

True, but I'm okay with bad taste. Persecuting people for exercising it sets a bad precedent and makes the world a boring place, and besides it's inherently harmless; the only power it has is what the listener affords it. That's on the audience, not the speaker.

And your avatar scares the shit out of me by the way. What's it from?

The Dancing Pig!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2tP9s8y2Ic

 

[Lieju]

I can see how the joke could have worked, but it was just delivered poorly.

You should be able to take criticism. If your joke fails like that, people can point it out to you.