Everything is offensive to someone

[Dirty Hipsters]

Considering we're all on the internet I'm sure we've all seen people overreact about something we thought was completely innocent. I've found that no matter what, anything can be seen as offensive to a particular individual or group if looked at in a certain light with the right amount of over-thinking and a high degree of paranoia.

So I've decided to try a little thought experiment: I want people to post a famous piece of media that most people have seen/read/played and to deconstruct that piece of media to make it seem racist, sexist, fatist, homophobic, etc. I also want to challenge people to find me a piece of media that is completely unassailable on the grounds of offensiveness.

I'll start with some examples:

1. The movie "Alien," is it an innocent piece of science fiction horror? No, it's a part of the racist agenda against blacks. The director, Ridley Scott is a white man, and the Alien in the movie represents his views on African Americans. The entire spaceship crew in this movie is comprised of white people who are attacked, hunted, and viciously killed by a black alien (who is played by a black actor, Bolaji Badejo). The Alien in the movie is supposed to represent African Americans, and the movie shows the alien to be animalistic in nature, and stronger and more powerful than the white crew, easily overpowering them despite being outnumbered. This show's Ridley Scotts fear of African Americans, and his fear that they will take over the United States despite the fact that they're an outnumbered minority. Then there's the phallic shaped head of the alien and the fact that it is a well known myth that all black men are well endowed. The phallic black alien spends the entire movie hunting a white female crew member, and this is clearly supposed to be a projection of Ridley Scott's feelings that black men want to rape white women. This movie is offensive to black people.

2. The Teletubbies are fatist. The Teletubbies are not innocent children's entertainment, but are rather a ploy used to undermine fat people and make them into jokes. The Teletubbies show features a number of overweight characters acting silly and stupid in an attempt to make young children laugh. This is clearly a way to make children's minds connect fat people with laughter and stupidity, and to therefore make all fat people look like jokes to children who were born in the late 90s. The show is an affront to fat people and one of the primary reasons for the anti-fat movements that have become more and more prevalent in the 2000s as it took away the dignity and respect of fat people. Even the name of the show, "Teletubbies" has the word "tubby" in it, a derogatory term for fat people.

Now I don't want people posting pieces of media that they actually believe to be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. I want people to take media that they think to be innocent and to summarize it in a way as to make it sound racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.

I believe that whether or not something is offensive depends entirely on the mind of the individual who was offended. I don't believe "it's offensive" to be a valid criticism of any form of art or media because it assumes that everyone sees and interprets the media in question the same way. This is a thought experiment to that effect. This thread is not meant to offend people but rather to show that anything can be offensive if viewed with a mindset looking to find offense.

 

[tippy2k2]

Woohoo! Another chance to spread the truth about the military hating movie Battleship!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.400271-Battleship-Popcorn-flick-or-brilliant-satire

(Note: There are videos in my old thread that auto-play so I will post my post here)

Also in Spoiler Tag since there are "technically" spoilers. I can't imagine it'll be heartbreaking for someone to know how the movie goes but you never know...

Spoiler

The scene: Mankind is happy and living out it's life. We decide to send out a message to Planet G because, fuck it, we gotta use all that funding on SOMETHING right?

Unbeknownst to mankind...something hears us. The alien life of Planet G responds, sending five ships to try to broker contact between humans and G's (which is what I'm going to refer to the aliens from now on). Unfortunately, the G's didn't see the communication satellite on their way in and crash into it. They've now lost communication with their home world.

So now, the G's are in the ocean, trying to figure out what to do. They decide since they can't communicate with anyone, they put up a large shield to protect themselves as well as the humans. However, three boats are within the shield. These men attempt to board the G's ship. Unhappy with humans jumping on their ship, they send a little zap to the man to get off.

The humans do the obvious comeback and shoot at the G's! Now it is a warning shot but how are the G's supposed to know that? They take one shot back, hitting the human ship. The little humans in the boat then open fire, shooting at the G's. The G's are then fired upon by the large ships and have no choice but to return fire.

Finally rid of the humans, the aliens attempt to sneak aboard the human ship to take out the engines so that the little buggers will just stop shooting at them. They do their best to prevent loss of life but are forced to retreat when the humans start attacking them. The aliens, now afraid for their lives, start destroying mechanical equipment that looks like a threat (they don't realize that these are civilians in cars and people in the helicopters).

"Fine, we'll phone home and get out of here" says one alien. Avoiding killing humans as much as possible (including the one that snuck in to steal something), they try to make a phone call. This process is then stopped by the humans ramming them with vehicles and then carpet bombing the entire island to make sure the G's have no chance to survive.

Battleship is obviously a racist anti-military movie dressed up as a fun summer blockbuster to try to brainwash our children into hate!!!

EDIT: Am I missing something? I thought this was a fun and happy thread where we make up being offended at stuff but everyone is yelling at everyone. I don't like it when you guys fight

 

[Vault101]

I believe that whether or not something is offensive depends entirely on the mind of the individual who was offended. I don't believe "it's offensive" to be a valid criticism of any form of art or media because it assumes that everyone sees and interprets the media in question the same way. This is a thought experiment to that effect. This thread is not meant to offend people but rather to show that anything can be offensive if viewed with a mindset looking to find offense.

I can't say I agree with this sentiment

by "interpreting" "anything" as being offensive your basically dismissing ANY criticism which might actually be valid

YES there is subjectivity in tease kinds of things, but they don't exist in a vaccumn

NO ONE honestly thinks the teletubbies is facist because its a fucking kids show, its very easy for adults to read too much into it...its an amusing thought experiment at best

offensive media is a tricky one, personally if something Is actually funny and doesn't come from a mean spirited place I'm willing to give it more of a free pass (see: a lot of works by Garth Ennis) and even then its [b/]not my place to tell people theyre wrong for being offended[/b] we can both explain why we might find it offensive (or not offensive) but to be dismissive is quite frankly overly defensive and stupid

want to know something I found ACTUALLY offensive?

well the other day Adam Sandlers movie "anger management" was on TV, like a lot of sandler movies I watched it as a kid, laughed once or twice and didn't give it a second thought

then I saw a scene...

[spoiler/][/spoiler]

its not just the fact that the joke is "ughhh ughhh guy dressed as dude groooooosss!!" or it plays into every negative sterotype of transgender people there is, including the "vomiting" thing

what got me was afterwards Nicholson's character said "you've now learned the difference between unhealthy anger and righteous anger"

[I/]righteous anger[/I]?

the violence against trans-women fuled by some macho anger and insecurity...that can get people killed, and is often justified, yeah ok he was forcefully put in an uncomfortable position but to call it "righteous" is just...not funny, not when IRL its a serious issue

now I'm sure this would get a giggle out of some people and I'm sure Sandler would probably tell us all he doesn't dislike transgender people (except in a lot of his movies gender/bender people seem to be a running joke)

but depictions that are not only devoid of any actual humour and wit but perpetuate negative sterotypes I think deserve to be called it

its why we don't have THIS shit anymore:

[spoiler/][/spoiler]

[b/]TL;DR I disagree with you saying any and all criticism of a work is null and void just because someone can pull some logical gymnastics to say the teletubbies is facist (you know that's bullshit as much as I do) again what did Jim say? criticism is good, critsicsm is not to be feard and as I've said a million friggen times you can enjoy something even if elements are less that great[/b]

 

[Panda Pandemic]

I suppose you could over think things to make make weird points. And tbh that's really fun for me. But I don't think it proves much of anything. When someone says something is offensive it is perfectly possible to try and assess if their reasons for it seem reasonable. I don't think anyone expects you to take all claims of offensiveness as fact without considering whether a good reason exists to view it that way. And over thinking on purpose is not really a good reason

 

[senordesol]

Umm...No.

Not all media is created equally, and while an interpretation of media can be subjective; certain interpretations can be more valid than others.

I mean if you read Atlas Shrugged or the Fountainhead without appreciating that they were objectivist manifestos; then you probably didn't read them carefully.

Here's a clue. Just having a 'thing' in a movie doesn't really tend to make it an 'ist' work; but if it's hitting you over the head with a point (i.e.: the protagonist vehemently espouses a certain viewpoint and is proven correct despite all adversity/evidence to the contrary), the author just might be sending you a message.

Using your example, if Ellen Ripley supported the idea that anything 'dark' was bad as a natural course, and was proven 'correct' by being menaced by the xenomorph; you might have a case that the work was racist. (But given the facehugger was milky white anyway...maybe not)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The entire spaceship crew in this movie is comprised of white people who are attacked, hunted, and viciously killed by a black alien (who is played by a black actor, Bolaji Badejo).

The analogy, even if facetious, is broken. One of the crew members is black (Parker).

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The entire spaceship crew in this movie is comprised of white people who are attacked, hunted, and viciously killed by a black alien (who is played by a black actor, Bolaji Badejo).

The analogy, even if facetious, is broken. One of the crew members is black (Parker).

Then the movie is perpetuating black on black violence since the black alien kills him. That makes the movie even more racist.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Umm...No.

Not all media is created equally, and while an interpretation of media can be subjective; certain interpretations can be more valid than others.

I mean if you read Atlas Shrugged or the Fountainhead without appreciating that they were objectivist manifestos; then you probably didn't read them carefully.

Here's a clue. Just having a 'thing' in a movie doesn't really tend to make it an 'ist' work; but if it's hitting you over the head with a point (i.e.: the protagonist vehemently espouses a certain viewpoint and is proven correct despite all adversity/evidence to the contrary), the author just might be sending you a message.

Using your example, if Ellen Ripley supported the idea that anything 'dark' was bad as a natural course, and was proven 'correct' by being menaced by the xenomorph; you might have a case that the work was racist. (But given the facehugger was milky white anyway...maybe not)

The milky white facehugger represents the xenomorph's ejaculate. Black people have white sperm, and the facehugger forces people to birth black xenomorphs. It furthers Ridley Scott's rape metaphor.

(Wow, I didn't even have to think very hard to pull that out of my ass.)

 

[Erttheking]

Umm...No.

Not all media is created equally, and while an interpretation of media can be subjective; certain interpretations can be more valid than others.

I mean if you read Atlas Shrugged or the Fountainhead without appreciating that they were objectivist manifestos; then you probably didn't read them carefully.

Here's a clue. Just having a 'thing' in a movie doesn't really tend to make it an 'ist' work; but if it's hitting you over the head with a point (i.e.: the protagonist vehemently espouses a certain viewpoint and is proven correct despite all adversity/evidence to the contrary), the author just might be sending you a message.

Using your example, if Ellen Ripley supported the idea that anything 'dark' was bad as a natural course, and was proven 'correct' by being menaced by the xenomorph; you might have a case that the work was racist. (But given the facehugger was milky white anyway...maybe not)

The milky white facehugger represents the xenomorph's ejaculate. Black people have white sperm, and the facehugger forces people to birth black xenomorphs. It furthers Ridley Scott's rape metaphor.

(Wow, I didn't even have to think very hard to pull that out of my ass.)

Black people have white sperm? I don't know if you didn't know this, but most human beings tend to have white sperm.

 

[totheendofsin]

So your conclusion is people who are looking for reasons to be offended at something will tend to find them? Welcome to the internet, I recommend you stay away from Tumblr

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So your conclusion is people who are looking for reasons to be offended at something will tend to find them? Welcome to the internet, I recommend you stay away from Tumblr

It's less that people who are looking for reasons will find them and more that it's impossible to keep from offending people who are looking to be offended because they can point at literally anything and claim to be offended by it. If you look too deeply into anything one can find offense there, regardless of whether it is real or imagined, intended or unintended.

 

[Vault101]

It's less that people who are looking for reasons will find them and more that it's impossible to keep from offending people who are looking to be offended because they can point at literally anything and claim to be offended by it. If you look too deeply into anything one can find offense there, regardless of whether it is real or imagined, intended or unintended.

anyone can [I/]decide[/I] that Ellie from TLOU is annoying

or that Borderlands 2 isn't funny

or that Mass Effect 3 was all over the place in terms of writing

or that XCOM's gameplay was unbalanced and terrible

or that the shooting in Bioshock was so mediocre it would be better as an interactive narrative

or that Nathan Drake is in fact an insufferable douche bag

or that Civilisation is boring

or that the legion in Fallout:NV were entirely justified

or that Deus Ex was not as smart as it wants us to believe

anyone can feel a certain way, so why do we accept one kind of criticism and reject another?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

It's less that people who are looking for reasons will find them and more that it's impossible to keep from offending people who are looking to be offended because they can point at literally anything and claim to be offended by it. If you look too deeply into anything one can find offense there, regardless of whether it is real or imagined, intended or unintended.

anyone can [I/]decide[/I] that Ellie from TLOU is annoying

or that Borderlands 2 isn't funny

or that Mass Effect 3 was all over the place in terms of writing

or that XCOM's gameplay was unbalanced and terrible

or that the shooting in Bioshock was so mediocre it would be better as an interactive narrative

or that Nathan Drake is in fact an insufferable douche bag

or that Civilisation is boring

or that the legion in Fallout:NV were entirely justified

or that Deus Ex was not as smart as it wants us to believe

anyone can feel a certain way, so why do we accept one kind of criticism and reject another?

Because no one calls for people's heads if they decide that civilization is boring or that borderlands 2 isn't funny.

 

[Cronenberg1]

Wait I'm confused what is this thread meant to accomplish? Because we can all pull random meanings out of our asses then that means art is meaningless, that all interpretation of art is pointless and the people who have spent there lives to convey complex ideas and concepts are all just wasting their time? That the generations and generations of people consuming, discussing, creating and building off of each others stories didn't actually exist because we all don't interpret everything exactly the same way?


Also "Alien" is actually about scary dicks killing people in space, no joke. I love that movie.

 

[Skatologist]

or that the shooting in Bioshock was so mediocre it would be better as an interactive narrative

I want a remake for it just for the sake of better models and gameplay. Only remake I probably want from last gen too IMO. I don't know, don't care too much about graphics from 360 or PS3 games.

or that Nathan Drake is in fact an insufferable douche bag

I find him to be a very suffer-able douche bag thank you very much!

Also, I am always for expressing why you don't like something, in fact, I prefer offense over using vague words like "boring" or "stupid" that don't pay much thought into things.

As for Mr. DH, I'm pretty sure death threats have been made for when games/books/movies/etc. were disappoints, so why doesn't that count?

 

[Vault101]

Because no one calls for people's heads if they decide that civilization is boring or that borderlands 2 isn't funny.

they do however if someone criticises a game for some reason and use the word feminism do it...funny that...

and people get angry about all kinds of things, some of it is valid, some of it is dumb, some of it makes for discussion

BECAUSE anyone can be offended at anything a work must be a work first and foremost, but that doesn't mean critism of all kinds can't have value

somebody accuses Mass Effect of cultural appropriation? I'd probably ignore them...Far Cry 3? they might have a point

or that the shooting in Bioshock was so mediocre it would be better as an interactive narrative

I want a remake for it just for the sake of better models and gameplay. Only remake I probably want from last gen too IMO. I don't know, don't care too much about graphics from 360 or PS3 games.
[/quote]
in the original Bioshock I found the shooting to be an annoying distraction from the story

 

[Dizchu]

I think that people that openly express how outraged and "offended" they are by things are often the people that are "offended" the least.

Let me explain.

If you live in a middle-class bubble your entire life, get told that you're fantastic, are shielded from the absolute horror of many of the things that take place in the world... the most mundane things will offend you. Harsh language, mild jokes about race/sex/sexuality, portrayals of a certain demographic in a film/tv series/game that wouldn't even grab your interest in the first place. These are the kind of people that call in to TV channels or websites and demand apologies or censorship for relatively mundane things.

If you've lived your entire life battling with homophobia, transphobia, oppression, persecution, warfare, poverty, etc. or are just more AWARE of these things than the above group, you'd probably be less concerned with the small things and more concerned with the big picture. This is the category people like Stephen Fry fall into. He does not shy away from provocative jokes or subject matter and brilliantly said that offense is "taken", not "given".

There are many things in the world that offend me. Too many things to list. If I had to list them I'd probably have a mental breakdown and curl up and cry for a few hours. The way I deal with this is by compartmentalising them. Deal with things one at a time and try to distance myself emotionally from them.

That's why I don't cry "I'M OFFENDED" every 10 seconds. There's a line where things devolve into bad taste. I'm a fan of political correctness (the kind that prohibits the use of words like "******" or "******" in public) but if everyone is sheltered from negativity it'll just make them less capable of dealing with it when they inevitably have to face it.

 

[shootthebandit]

The lego movie seems to be an innocent childrens movie but its actually anti-capitalist propaganda. All the resources are pretty much controlled by one corporation and while people seem content with manufactured, artless mainstream music and TV they are actually being controlled by the capitalist media. Emphasised by the point that they are told to buy overpriced coffee by the TV "advert" and the guys who owns the media also owns the coffee shop. Did I mention the bad guy is called "lord business"

No wait that is actually one of the main points of the movie

 

[SinisterDeath]

The Shining is a film that states, that the only solution to dealing with the mentally ill, is to leave them out in the cold to freeze to death, instead of getting them the help that they deserve!

Also, racist against blacks and indians.