Stop Getting Your Panties In A Twist!

This piece is yet another poke at the growing problem facing society right now known as "political correctness". In the simplest terms, FUCK POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!! Political correctness is just tyranny with a smile. These days people are WAY too hypersensitive. People have forgotten how to take a joke, and take everything so damn seriously. Lighten the fuck up people, and don't think so highly of yourselves! To answer that old question, "Isn't anything sacred anymore?" No! Because nothing ever was sacred. Nothing is beyond criticism. Nothing is flawless; least of all anything involving human nature. Humankind is quite possibly the most flawed animal on this damn planet, and ergo every aspect of humanity from appearance to social norms and ideals to religious beliefs and philosophies is subject to mockery and satire.

To quote Stephen Fry, "It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I'm offended by that.' Well, so fucking what."

Many of the things people call themselves getting offended about these days are meaningless and trivial things that have no true effect on them save perhaps bruising their all too easily-bruised egos. This is especially true of forms of media like cartoons, TV shows, and movies. People seem to forget that what is depicted on TV and theatrical films are often times fictitious and not meant to have any basis on reality; which means you're allowing yourself to get worked up over a fictional, often highly exaggerated representation that isn't real. When people do this with cartoons it REALLY pisses me off, because as both a cartoon enthusiast and cartoonist/animator it is really annoying when butt-hurt idiots seem to lose track of fantasy and reality and call themselves getting pissy over a comical stereotype that is obviously a light-hearted exaggeration. Stereotypes are exaggerated generalizations that are very well-known to have little basis on reality; making it very silly when people start accepting them as serious representations.

There is also a fine difference between something which is legitmately racist or offensive and a stereotype. There's no such thing as an "offensive stereotype", because stereotypes are not real or accurate representations, and I feel sorry for those people who don't understand that. When something is legitmately racist or offensive, it is intended to be so by the presenter of the material. If a word, a phrase, or an artistic depiction is presented with obvious malice and ill-will then and only then is it truly racist or offensive, because that was the intent. Remember that context gives meaning. If you walk up to a black man and call him the N-word, or if you call a white guy from the South a "dumb hick" and you do so with a spiteful intonation and obvious aggression then that is both racist and offensive. If you create a drawing or animation depicting Jews or gay people being killed or assaulted in a violent manner and add a caption saying something like "Fuck Jews" or "God Hates Fags" then THAT is actually offensive. However simply drawing a cartoon featuring a Mexican wearing a sombrero or a middle-eastern guy with a turban riding on a magic flying carpet isn't racist, it's stereotypical. Those are stereotypical representations which are fictional and not intended to be taken seriously, and even though it's true that people can still become offended by light-hearted stereotypes that are not presented with malicious connotations I would say that is more the result of their own personal insecurity; for it is a very insecure person who allows trivial things like that to bother them when no true ill-will is meant by them. The saying goes, "It's not what they call you, it's what you answer to." If you allow yourself to become offended by simple words, jokes, silly stereotypes, and fictional characters it is you who has the problem not the presenters of that material.

I am an African-American male and I actually find shows like "The Boondocks" fuckin' hilarious. Not only that, but I also laughed my ass off at that movie, "Tropic Thunder" when Robert Downey Jr. was in black-face, and I also crack up at those old depictions of Blacks in classic cartoons from the 1930's and 40's. I loved Walt Disney's "Song of the South" and the crows from "Dumbo" were very amusing to me. To me none of these were racist or offensive. They were stereotypical without a doubt (in some cases VERY stereotypical), but I laugh at stereotypes because they are silly and inaccurate. Even if the people who made those old cartoons back in the 30's and 40's thought those were accurate depictions of Blacks, I STILL laugh, because now I'm laughing at their ignorance and see the stereotypical cartoons they created as being a satire of their ignorance. I laugh at their bias view of Blacks the same way you would laugh at the silly things a child says because they are ignorant of how the world works. I'm also gay, yet I greatly enjoy satires about homosexuals and the LGBT community, and I will be the first one to point out the major flaws I see in the LGBT community. I'm a Pagan Witch as well, but I still find pleasure in watching films like "The Wizard of Oz", horror films, and fantasy movies where witches and the Craft are horribly misrepresented by people who obviously never took the time to do any real research on Paganism. I don't get offended by these things, because I know they're not real or accurate, and by keeping that in mind they lose any power to psychologically bother me. I don't even care about bias shit that ignorant people say on TV or in real life. When Phil Robertson made his remark about gay people not getting into Heaven, I didn't care. That is his opinion and he has the right to express his opinion. I don't respect or agree with his opinion, but I do respect his right to have and express his opinion. Besides its HIS show and he can say whatever he wants on HIS show. What the fuck do I care either way? I don't watch that fuckin' shit. A show about a bunch of bearded red-necks who make duck decoys? Is that what's supposedly passing for entertainment these days. If I wanted to watch a show about red-necks I'd go watch "The Beverly Hills Hillbillies" at least that show was actually funny.

Context gives meaning. If something is not presented as being intentionally mean-spirited or spiteful than don't accepted it as such, and even if it is you still can choose whether you're going to let yourself be offended or not. A person who is secure and happy with themselves does not care what others think or say about them. As Dr. Seuss once said, "Be who you are, because those that matter don't mind and those that mind don't matter." If you are happy with yourself who cares what others say and think. Let them say and think what they may, and just continue being content in yourself and who you are. Don't let the world dictate how you feel and think. Hold your head up high and be proud of yourself, believe in your abilities, and use good judgement. I honestly fail to see what's so hard about that.