re: #38 CuriousLurker

James, can you point to where I accused you of defending the joke or saying it was acceptable?

No?

Let’s review:

What you said, and what I highlighted and down-dinged was:

And what I replied was:

Meaning I cannot GET the HUMOR in using such a vile & overtly sexual term to describe a 9-year-old little girl under ANY circumstances, and I doubt you’d be able to either if it had been directed at a beloved child in your family. If I’m wrong and you could indeed tolerate such a thing, then we inhabit vastly different internal universes, and no amount of debate or discussion is going to make us see eye to eye.

By saying that I got what they were TRYING to do, what I was saying was that I get that the writer, when he posted the “joke” wasn’t thinking “I just called a 9 year old girl a c***,” he was thinking that the “joke” was that no one would ever think of saying anything bad about her, because according to everyone that has met her/seen her, she’s the sweetest/cutest thing in the world. That the “joke” was the absurdity of thinking anyone would ever say something bad about her, let alone something so terrible.

Like my infinitely-less offensive example of “Man, that Hugh Jackman seems like a real asshole!” The joke being the absurdity of calling him that, when everything we see of him shows him being possibly the nicest person on the planet (Did you see him running up to see if Jennifer Lawrence needed help after she tripped on the stairs? If I was a woman/gay man, I think my heart would have melted.)

I think the joke writer was going for something like that, and simply made a terrible mistake in not realizing just how offensive using that particular word, combined with this particular person, would be. A terrible mistake that certainly calls for an apology. But not one where I think we need to immediately be up in arms demanding people lose their jobs.