Weekly linkage
Just a couple this week. It feels like everyone’s quiet on the blagowubs lately.
- Giving Away, Not Selling, My Stuff – So very timely for me. I sold the desk, but clothes, stuff… I just gave it away. I, too, am lousy about getting mail out and keeping up with stuff like listings. I just want it gone, and the money was spent and gone years ago (generally).
- Vince Vaughn Responds to the Gay Joke in The Dilemma Controversy – Vaughn says, "Drawing divided lines over what we can and cannot joke about does exactly that; it divides us. Most importantly, where does it stop?" But the issue isn't what you should and shouldn't joke about. The issue is the use of the word "gay" in a derogatory fashion. The joke wasn't subverting that use.
3 Comments
guyblade
I become troubled when the desired response to disliked speech is censorship. Censorship is the worst possible response to speech.
Melissa
I think the desired response was that the movie makers understand the offensive meaning of what they put in the movie. I don’t think Vaughn or the movie company got it–apologizing for upsetting people is different than apologizing for what was actually done–but it was worth complaining about.
Gregory Weir
There’s a difference between censorship — a higher authority modifying a work to remove undesirable content — and editing — the creator deciding to leave out or change content that makes a work worse.
Bigoted speech that doesn’t serve to examine the bigotry makes just about any work worse, as well as the world as a whole. I’d defend to the death the creators’ right to put that in a movie trailer while criticizing their ignorance at actually doing it.