Calling a Kid the "C" Word

[Mikeyfell]

Considering I don't, but I understand how society works it doesn't.
That you on the other hand backpedal to try to make this about me speaks volumes about you.

I... I didn't backpedal...
My original comment was condemning MovieBob's use of the term "The C word" instead of just using "****"

And when I "Made it about" (I assume you're talking about when I called you a boob) it was because you called me an idiot, then a member of "the online manly brigade" and then an "inbred douchebag, drugged up 'bro'"
And I specifically chose "boob" because you seem to have such a low opinion of female body parts.

I use "****" the same way I use "Fuck"
Fuck means to hit. if you take it back to it's roots, colloquially it means to have sex with, ('Cause "I'd hit that" and all) But when you call someone "A dumb fuck" you're not calling them "A dumb to have sex with" or when you say "that was fucking hard" you're not saying "That was having sex with difficult" You're just saying "fuck"
And to me **** is the same. When I call some twat a **** I'm not calling them a vagina. I'm just saying ****.
If when you call someone a **** you're calling them a vagina because vaginas are bad that's pretty damn sexist.

If I misunderstood your comment (Which I find hard to believe because it was sort of strait forward) I'm sorry.
But I still think you're an asshole because of all those things you called me, But hey, you're Anonymous it was a god damned compliment, right?

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!

Remember that? Sorry, somehow I don't think you give a shit about equality, you do give a shit about being allowed to be an ass though. So yeah, sorry if I don't give you the benefit of a doubt anymore, but you've removed my doubts about you being part of the Bro Brigade. But do lets see how you'll put the "Well, the horrible sexist here is you!" into the topic again. (Here's a hit, knowing about the problem does not make me a supporter of said problem.)[/quote]

And for a third time I reiterate.

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.

If you're unable or unwilling to catch satire veiled that thinly, you probably shouldn't follow Tho Onion on Twitter.
That's the problem with text communication, there's no tone, and when you disagree with a jumble of letters on a screen it's easy to think that THEY'RE SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS AND THEIR CAPS LOCK KEY IS BROKEN!!!! When all too often that's not the case.
It's also not an instant form of communication, regardless of how fast you turn comments around you always have time to compose your thoughts before you type them, and believe it or not I put a lot of effort into trying to inlay meaning and character into these walls-o-text. Because the thing I dread is coming off like some opinion-less fact checking machine, or some hate filled wind-up-toy, or a dog who accidentally sat on the keyboard. And the best way I know how to do that is to be clever, but I'm on the internet, and my wit will go straight over the head of anyone who thinks they would have an easier time criticizing me if I was just the hate filled wind-up-toy they know how to deal with.

What does this tangent have to do with this chain of conversation?
Here's the Cliff-notes for my first comment.

I thought the Onion's comment was funny and to the point, and I'm fine with Bob or you or anybody not feeling that way, the thing I wasn't fine with was their retraction and apology they shouldn't have had to do that. It's a group who specialize in brutal satire delivering a piece of brutal satire. But you don't apologize for satire if people don't understand it, that's not your problem.

The rest of my comment was my disdain for the amount of times Bob used the term "The C word" instead of just saying ****.
Because he or anyone else would never say "The D word" instead of dickhead, and it's the same shit.
The only reason you think it's not the same shit is because of the female association you put with it.
And all of a sudden here we are again giving women special treatment because their women. and treating someone positively because of their gender is just as detrimental to equality as treating someone negatively because of their gender.
(I would say in my opinion, but it's math.)


I'd stop there but I feel like if I leave it unsaid you'll assume the worst and call me a member of the "bro brigade" again.
I'm not sexist.
SO un-sexist in fact that I will not respect a woman, simply because she has lady parts.
Just like any other person if she wants my respect she has to earn it.
(Did you see the episode of South Park when they tried to change the flag and Stan and Kyle said: "It's just some guy dying I don't see the problem." It's like that.)
When ever it comes to light that my view of gender equality is "Yay individuals" and not "Yay women for no good reason" I get accused of being in the "Bro brigade" when it's not the case at all, hell the majority of my friends are women, and you'll probably ask for their names and addresses and a copy of their birth certificates and yatta yatta and... What were we talking about.

Oh! right The Onion.
So after like 6 pages of comments did anyone actually break down and explain what the intent of the joke was?
The way I read it is, people say terrible things about celebrities. You know a few, Mel Gibson is an antisemitism! So and so is a slut, so and so is an airhead, blah blah blah, and everybody laughs because they're celebrities! It's okay! They only exist for our amusement!
So the Oscars happened. The next day there'll be the mandatory who was pretty, who was ugly, who was this, who was that bullshit they always do.
But there was a 9 year old there, what are they going to say about her? Only positive things because...Because she's 9? That's their line? Fuck their line.
The Onion tore them a new line, or at least they tried to, not enough people got it.

I liked the sentiment and the delivery.
All the talk about "****" and sexism and the bro brigade was unrelated to the Onion.

 

[UberNoodle]

Twitter is the issue here. It is contrary to the goals of communication and why people use it for anything other than describing what they had for lunch, baffles me. It is not the place to argue politics, debate religion, campaign against sexism OR CALL SOMEONE A C**T. Simple as that.

Sure it was a joke, but it was poor and it lacked the support which most of the Onion's other satire has, ie articles and videos etc. Regardless, while you may GET the joke, does that mean it couldn't be offensive or upsetting for a little girl who is the target. Think on that. She is now at the centre of a shitstorm about the use of a word and all that it may mean. Does she deserve that? Quite the rude awakening, I imagine, if only because now all the adults around her are in a tizzy and she doesn't know wtf is their problem.

I get the arguments about free speech. I get the arguments against thin skins. I don't subscribe to the assertion that all opinions against the joke can be written off as 'white knights' and 'feminazis' etc. In the end, Twitter is a very poor medium for communicating anything. Joke or not, clever or not, the joke was mishandled.

 

[UberNoodle]

Twitter is the issue here. It is contrary to the goals of communication and why people use it for anything other than describing what they had for lunch, baffles me. It is not the place to argue politics, debate religion, campaign against sexism OR CALL SOMEONE A C**T. Simple as that.

One of the main reasons I use twitter (other than the ability to talk to minor celebrities), is the live tweeting bit.

Basically when you're watching the Oscars or some other big event that's broadcast on TV, there will be people who are tweeting while watching and cracking jokes or making comments. Some of them are funny. Incidentally this is what the Onion was doing when they made that comment.

Unfortunately, it looks little different to regular tweets when that 'live' period is over.

I am not out to demonise the Onion. I am on their side, but not to the extent like so many 'zero-sum' defenders are being, ie "damn the offended; the Onion were right!". The joke fell on its face rather spectacularly, and for a comedy site, that's a great concern. We can't blame the audience, and while we can explain that no offense was intended, we can't blame people for being offended. Just as we can't demonise people for thinking it funny.

Anyway, these are just my musings. Not directed at you.

Capcha: "Good Riddance"

 

[PhiMed]

The joke was fine, the wording was fine. The unfortunate fact is that the people who might've been enlightened by realizing what an idiotic content source they're viewing wouldn't see it, because they've got an entire damn television network that produces nothing but that shit. (E!, if you're wondering).

Anyone who can watch five minutes of E! without seriously considering the extermination of the human species as a fun and interesting side project has much more empathy for their fellow man than I do, and I've chosen to spend my entire life healing the sick... in a nation with a government that is actively trying to make medicine an completely unprofitable business.

I mean, seriously, people are getting on the Onion for a joke, when E! produces some of the things it does with stone-faced sincerity? Fuck this planet.

 

[Estranged180]

I can't possibly be the only US resident that finds the whole thing amusing to a fault. It's been mentioned that

Do you make it an habit to go around insulting 9-year-olds?

while as a matter of fact, I do, but only if that 9 year old is playing the part. The one thing that people seem to be forgetting to do about the whole situation is to consider the source. It's the Onion for f*cks sake, why does it even matter?

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Is there a difference in the US calling a woman a c**t or a man? I think the only obscenity used over here which targets a particular gender is "bi**h". Everything else can be used equally.

I wouldn't call it casually used here, it's still vulgar, but only one step further perhaps than f**k and the like. However people could use it in a passing comment in the same context as "Stop being such a d**k" or the like. So I guess maybe it has entered casual usage.

Given the original context and knowing the Onion for what the site is, I think it was amusing.

 

[geizr]

You want to know what's so bad about nerds on the Internet today? It's the fact they simply can't seem to tell appropriate from inappropriate behavior, good taste from poor taste. They think they can just do or say whatever and, as long as they can find some intellectual rationalization for it, then it's an okay thing to do. It's a total and complete disconnect from reality and an inability to comprehend how one's actions affect others. They only see their own ends and fuck-all about other people.

The joke was in VERY POOR TASTE, no matter what you try to rationalize about it and should not have been uttered. It's not a question of what you are or are not allowed to say; it's that it simply was an inappropriate thing to say in the context in which it was said.

 

[Auron225]

I think the only possible way The Onion could save itself from this mess would be to publish the name of that writer in a short and simple article declaring his immediation resignation - the article itself should be how he finds out.

By posting such a thing on the INTERNET of all things - they may has well have walked up to her on the red carpet and openly said it to her face for all to see. There is absolutely no excuse for it. The fact that she is nine years old - she shouldn't have to worry about trying to please everyone right now. Its disgraceful.

 

[Durgiun]

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/5600000/Richie-and-Eddie-bottom-5675796-396-222.jpg

Eddie: Hey, Richie...
Richie: What is it Eddie?
Eddie: Can we say ''****''?
...
Richie: Very much not.
Eddie: Right you are... *ahem* CUUUUUUUUUNT!

And that, my friends, is how we deal when someone says we cannot say the word ''****''. Cunting fuck.

 

[petef201]

For my international readers, in the U.S. "the C word" (which I understand to be common to the point of casual use in the UK) is for whatever reason considered to be just about the worst anti-female insult one can utter.

Wait, what?
Maybe I'm not representative of the U.K. but I'm pretty sure it's treated as the worst swear word over here too. I'm not sure where Bob got this impression...

...oh yeah, I forgot about Jim and Yahtzee. They undermine my point somewhat.

Yeah that's what I thought too. I stay in Scotland, we swear like pros up here but even then it's rare to hear the C word.

 

[josh4president]

In the words of upstanding emigrant of the British Isles, Benjamin 'Yahtzee' Croshaw when he addressed an anonymous forum poster in his Quantum Conundrum review:

"You're a ****. You're a ****, yes you are. You live in a cunty cottage and you drive a cunty car."

The joke by the Onion was an abysmal failure but the outrage over a simple word, regardless of how offensive some find it, comes across as just silly.

 

[GamerFromJump]

Modern problem: There is no longer a social mandate to evolve beyond high school in one's behavior or attitudes.