The Fearless Blogger

Jonathan Mann has written a song a day for 1500+ days.

Today’s song is about Gary, a walrus with ADD. It’s quite catchy.

image credit: david goehring

Among satire site The Onion's Oscars-related tweets last night was one that seems to have missed its target. Somewhat ironically, the intended target inferred a different intent of the joke, resulting in a frenzy of online outrage.

For those who may not have seen it, this is the offending tweet:

I think it's reasonable to find a tweet about a nine year old being considered a cunt unnecessarily offensive. Most people would agree that it was, minimally, crude and in poor taste.

Still, based on people's reactions, I'm getting the impression that a majority of those vilifying The Onion don't understand the joke or even understand that it was a joke.

More to the point, The Onion was not calling a nine year old (or anyone) a cunt.

Personally, I think it was a meh joke made with a poor choice of words and poorer choice of “target” (using quotes because the actual target(s) were those not mentioned in the tweet).

The Onion's target is not Quvenzhané Wallis. We are the intended target. The target is those responsible all the catty tweets and snarky comments aimed towards actresses.

If The Onion had used a less-loaded word than “cunt” and/or had named a celebrity who is not a child who happens to also be a person of color, or a celebrity with household name recognition who is known for their unfailing geniality, it probably would have gone relatively unnoticed.

The way I read it, the intent was something akin to saying: “Betty White is a slutty bitch”.

Not Really a slutty bitch

Since we all know Betty White is The Best and a national treasure, and not at all a slutty bitch, it would be obvious that was meant as a joke.

Since Quvenzhané Wallis is not only a nine year old, but also a newcomer to the whole Hollywood/celebrity universe, there's not as strong a frame of reference to realize exactly how ludicrous the description is, making it a somewhat less obvious joke.

Then again, I also love Seth MacFarlane's humor and think anyone taking it seriously just validates the point of his jokes. I'm not looking at the tweet through the same lens as those who considered his George Clooney joke to be “sexualizing” a nine year old. (I also thought his Lincoln joke was pretty funny.)

Not really my legs.

I don't consider myself a feminist (the only statement my hairy legs and armpits are making is that I keep forgetting to buy new razor blades). Even so, in the context of all the complaints about last night's rampant overt misogyny, The Onion's statement strikes me as a satirical message that actually leans towards a feminist point of view.

MaryAnn Johanson, whose self-described hairy legs (not sure about her armpits) do reflect her feminist point of view, has written a blog post that articulates what I'm getting out much better than I could (or at least better than I would, because my focus is waning and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to wrap this up) so I'm going to point you towards her article for more explanation: a feminist film critic defends the Onion’s Quvenzhané Wallis tweet

You can also read a former The Onion writer's take on the tweet here: Comedian (And Former 'The Onion' Writer) Baratunde Thurston Responds to Wallis Insult Controversy

[update] Another post that does a better job of explaining what I'm getting at here: Why The Onion’s C-Word Tweet Was Well-Intentioned — But Wrong (wired.com)

As (almost) always, I'd love to hear your thoughts – so please share in the comments below!

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Yesterday's massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, is so vile and heartbreaking; I honestly can't find words to …. I just don't know what to say.

I haven't let my mind go even close to thinking fully about the living nightmare that the students, parents, faculty, families and first-responders are suffering through.

My imagination stretches to some extremely dark and morbid places, yet even letting my mind travel to those furthest corners is merely a vantage point from where I might see a glimpse of the reality that is their lives.

And I just can't bring myself to even look that far.

Tethered though my mind may be, my heart is filled beyond its fullest expanse with love, compassion, sympathy and prayers for everyone whose lives were so unfairly changed by yesterday's tragedy.

To Everyone Else:
Hug your loved ones a little tighter, say “I love you” an extra time, spoil your kids a little bit extra during the holidays (and every other chance you get).

We can't protect the people we care about from everything out there. But we can take every opportunity there is to help them feel safe, loved and secure.

xo

thank you to @ChristianMesser for sharing the Santa picture with me

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Who among us hasn't wished to see sky-diving cats spell out our name in the sky while R Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly' plays in the background?

For a woman named Eva, this wish came true [via Orange]:

A Swedish insurance company has made an ad featuring sky-diving cats after asking its customers for ideas.

As a co-operartive, Folksam is owned by its customers so asked them how best to advertise its services.

And the first idea it followed up was by a woman called Eva who has her pet cat insured with the firm.

She wanted to see sky-diving cats spell out her name in the sky while R Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly' played in the background.

No doubt to her surprise, Folksam, Sweden's oldest insurance company, liked the idea and commissioned the ad.

Since everything we see on the internet is real (rolls eyes), naturally animal-loving netizens have their collective panties all in a bunch over the heartless cruelty of dressing cats up in tiny flight suits, teaching them how to pull the ripcord for their tiny parachutes and then launching them out of a plane to free-fall in formation before high-fiving each other with their little kitty paws and plummeting towards the ground, fervently hoping their parachutes work.

In other news, people* are idiots and the video is fake, no doubt because its producers read this PSA from the Seattle Humane Society, so knew better.

*except for us, of course

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