In a piece published in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the co-directors of the ASUA Pride Alliance offer their thoughts on that now-infamous cartoon.
As we move forward from this point, Pride Alliance asks a few things. Similar to what many have been saying and what has been posted by the Wildcat, we ask for more rational editing. While we do not believe in limiting free speech and hope this becomes a dialogue, we also see no reason why a person should find it appropriate to put death threats against gay people in writing. We also invite the Daily Wildcat staff — and the rest of the campus community — to partake in diversity training. … It would be one step The Daily Wildcat could take to show its commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive campus community after we’ve received this sort of hurt.
Read the piece in its entirety here.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2012.
Dear ASUA Pride Alliance,
There was no indication of violence against any of the gay community. No where in the strip did it say ‘we should all go out and hurt the gay community and make them into fruit roll ups’, nor did it say, all gays should be ‘shot in the face’.
It was simply a fictional fathers view, telling his fictional son, what he would do if the son batted for the other team. In light of this horrible truth of a possible fate, the child made a joke probably based on what he heard his father calls gays, which is ‘fruit’. Then with child like innocence, he made the reference to a childhood snack staple, “fruit roll-ups”.
I am bi-sexual and showed it to my gay friends and we had a laugh because we are not so closed minded and hurt over every little thing. If the writer/cartoonist feels a certain way and expresses his thoughts via a comic, then it is their AMERICAN RIGHT, to express themselves. Last time I checked, freedom of speech and press is covered by the first amendment. Or did that change thanks to people like you who whine and ask for special treatment just because we are a bit different?
Fact of the matter is this, this comic was just a comic. Get over yourselves and work towards making sure more urgent matters are dealt with. Like bullying on and off campus.
There are things that should not be joked about – try saying the word “bomb” on an airliner.
By placing violence against gays on a page miscategorized as “humor”, the subliminal message is placed that violence against gays is somehow OK.
I agree that bullying is a serious issue, so I’m surprised that you don’t recognize that bullying begins when bullies think it’s somehow OK.
By the way, you should look up the actual First Amendment and give it a li’l read before blithering about “free speech”. (Hint: it only covers the government.)
@Hurri, you are a textbook example of what ails this country, because you came to the conclusion somewhere along the way that nobody should ever have to be offended about anything, ever, which is nonsense. (Hint: It’s not in the Constitution.)
Personally, I think anything is open for humor. Remember, rape is no laughing matter…unless you’re raping a clown. Now go grow some extra skin and a sense of humor while you’re at it, whether you get the joke or not.
I’m not complaining about being offended – I’m used to that. (I’m offended every day I read comments in the Star.) I’m talking about acts with real consequences.
My complaint is about trivializing bullying, rape, or any other assault. The sooner we take these off the “humor” table, the better we can, as a culture, communicate that these behaviors are absolutely not OK.
What do we have to lose? Why not do what we can to make things better?
And just how do you think real human beings deal with acts with real consequences? Some crawl into a catatonic state or swim to the bottom of a bottle, some lucky creatures pick themselves up and keep on going with their lives and plenty more crack sick jokes about it. And some, such as yourself, decide to start meaningless crusades that do exactly nothing to address those acts other than bitch about them and work themselves into towering, self-righteous frenzies when others decide to indulge in dark humor. The whole point of the humor is to point out the aberrations in human behavior in the first place-disapprobation through a skewed lens.
What do we have to lose? Freedom, of course. If you think shutting down others’ senses of humor will “make things better”, you need to go join your ideological compatriots in the Taliban or Focus On The Family. My suggestion is to point out what you think is wrong with the viewpoint espoused, pull the stick out of your ass and go on about your day.
I do not believe the cartoonist has any hate in his heart. That is important to me. Silly cartoon. Lesson learned, good teaching point, move on to confront the real haters who are loose in the community.
Stop citing the 1st amendment; stop telling people not to be offended.
The 1st amendment says that government shouldn’t be allowed to limit free speech. Yes. But that doesn’t mean that ordinary citizens shouldn’t be allowed to stand up and tell an dumb jerk that he’s being a dumb jerk, that his cartoon, in addition to being just really lame and overall not a good joke, is also hurtful because it trivializes a serious problem.
Get this through your head: free speech means PEOPLE GET TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S FREE SPEECH. That, too, is and AMERICAN RIGHT. As long as we’re not calling for legal limitations, as long as we’re not saying the guy should be thrown in jail, then we’re not calling for some kind of police-state censorship; we’re not shredding the first amendment. We’re exercising our own first amendment rights.
We’re just pointing out what an incredibly bad piece of cartooning it was. It wasn’t in any way nuanced or clever (which is how really good cartoons, such as South Park, get away with it — they are actually intelligently offensive), it was a cheap shot. As consumers of the Wildcat’s product, we have every right to let them know when the material that they produce is subpar and not worthy of publication. We have every right to do this. The guy didn’t do his job as cartoonist. That is grounds for being fired. Don’t defend him.
It’s not a meaningless crusade. Words matter; they affect how we see the world. It is entirely appropriate for people to be pissed right now.
To all: free speech is protected unless you are in the military and then you are under a different set of rules, UCMJ. To some extent, I agree with almost everything written here. Too many folks are looking for a reason to be insulted and call it bullying, defamation or whatever other term trips their trigger. I remember as a child being told that words can’t hurt. My parents were wrong. Words are hurtful and when I hear politicians calling others names I try to find another candidate. When I see hurtful speech or comments, I try to figure out why. But it is only an exercise in futility.