Use of the “C” word and boobs

I had another post I was going to put up, but considering what happened last night, I felt I needed an outlet to voice my disgust for some shenanigans at last night’s Oscars.

To be blunt, I don’t really give a shit about the Oscars.  Never have and I doubt I ever will.

The Oinion posted this tweet during last night’s Oscars, and completely forgetting that the Internet is forever, deleted the tweet an hour later.

But last night there was a wonderful girl up for an award, I believe it was best actress.  Quvenzhané Wallis, who starred in the film Beasts of the Southern Wild.  When the film was made, she was only six years old.  She’s nine now, and seems to be doing well in Tinsel Town, and has even captured the lead Role in an adaptation of Annie!.  Sadly, Quvenzhané did not win in her category, she lost to Jennifer Lawrence.

Whether she won or lost is not the issue.  The issue is some of the disrespectful things said, in particular by one satirical news agency, called the Onion.  The Onion, or at least a staffer, went onto the twitterverse last night with a tweet calling Quvenzhané a ‘cunt’.  To repeat, she is a nine year old girl.  She starred in a serious drama, and was six years old at the time of filming.  And the Onion calls her a cunt.

Let’s go back a few years, and the movie Kick Ass is just released.  People lose their shit when Chloë Grace Moretz says something along the lines of “let’s go, cunts” and proceeds to kill a bunch of adults.  Last night, the satirical news agency the Onion calls a nine year old black girl a cunt, and people lose their shit trying to defend the Onion.

Here’s the problem with this.  Kick Ass is a fictitious movie.  Quvenzhané is a real person.  Let’s face it, Hit Girl saying “cunt” wasn’t the most problematic thing in that movie, considering how much blood, torture, violence and language there was (and fortunately we’re spared a rape scene for Kick Ass 2).  But there is a bigger issue here.  And it can be determined easily just by looking at Chloe and Quvenzhané.  Aside from age, as Chloe is a little older, the difference is skin colour.  Quvenzhané is black.  Which seems to always be the case in situations like these.

• white person says bad word in movie, public is offended
• white person says bad word in a news related feature, directed at person, public defends it as edgy

Which is bullshit, because it’s not edgy.  It’s anything but edgy.  It’s disrespectful.  Which is no different than Seth MacFarlane’s cringe worthy song “We Saw Your Boobs” and then going on to list a number of actresses who have been nude on screen.  The only problem, those scenes MacFarlane references happen to all have been rape scenes.

I often wonder if people ever think, really stop to think, when they’re about to post these really problematic things that maybe, just maybe it might come across as not edgy, but really offensive.  The Onion was a tweet, and you’ve got time before hitting the tweet button.  MacFarlane’s piece was a staged act.  You’d think someone at the Oscar’s would have taken Seth aside and said “ya know, maybe this song isn’t what we’re looking for, considering how problematic it is”.  And to make matters worse, the song along with MacFarlane received a lot of defense.  Which neither one should have.  I wonder if MacFarlane realizes that four of the actresses in four of the movies he mentioned were all scenes that were the most violent against women.  That all four were rape scenes but they were all showing bare breasts, so that makes it all okay.

If you missed my sarcasm, I’m sorry.

When no one laughs in a theatre, or if you tell a joke to someone and they don’t laugh at all, then there’s a problem with the joke you told.  The smallest problem is that it isn’t funny.  But people, like that staffer with the Onion or Seth MacFarlane, really don’t think about things like that because hey, black people and women aren’t human after all.

Again, sarcasm.

UPDATE:  The Onion CEO Steve Hannah went to Facebook posting this apology.

This is what an apology should look like.  No excuses, speaks to the one who was offended, and promises to try better in the future.