There used to be an amusing website called The Onion, chock-full of parody and satire about current headlines and pop culture. Used to be.
On the Sunday evening of Oscars 2013, someone at The Onion decided to send out a disgusting tweet about the youngest-ever Best Actress nominee, Quvenzhane Wallis (left), star of Beasts of the Southern Wild. You can read it for yourself here.
The Internet, especially the Twitterverse, quickly exploded in outrage, posting more than a dozen tweets per second.
The tweet was taken down within an hour of its posting, but the action was too late. (Note to self: Nothing dies on the Internet.) People were urged to unfollow @TheOnion on Twitter, send emails, contact media, and demand a public apology. By Monday morning, they got the apology they were seeking. The Onion CEO Steve Hannah issued a statement, saying in part:
On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive — not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting. No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire.”
The controversy didn’t stop there, in part because of reactions by former Onion staffers. In addition to issuing a parody of the apology itself, they declared that Mr. Hannah’s remarks showed a loss of “editorial freedom” and the first-ever retracted tweet. One ex-Onion writer said, “It wasn’t a great joke, but big deal.”
Again, seriously?
Anyone with a sense of humor understood there was an intention to make fun of an adorable child star and Hollywood’s treatment of its starlets. But, it was a joke gone horribly wrong. Some complainers even wondered if race played a role, noting that The Onion had never issued such an attack against Dakota Fanning, for example.
If you’re wondering why this story appeals to TheNotMom.com, it’s not because 9-year-old Quvenzhane doesn’t have children of her own. It’s because if people think it’s funny to call a little girl a c–-t, is it hilarious to call you one?
Try JUDEN, try riddah, try the n-word, try teabagger,, try some of the other soul killing names that people have labeled others with over the years. Words have power.
I don't recall their bad tweet every being considered a "controversy." Someone who runs the Twitter account for The Onion tweeted something very stupid, and the CEO issued an apology the next day. It was done. Time to move along.
they wont be offended, will they? I look forward to seeing your female family members at the grocery story and calling out: "hey, _____ ! how ya doing today?" Eric, the person who was called the word, was NINE. Do you think she KNEW what that word meant before the other day?
you missed it. It sailed high and wide over your head.
It had nothing to do with The Oscars allegedly being riddled with "misogynistic jokes." It was a stupid tweet by someone at The Onion. Simple as that.
― Jodi Picoult
In Totem Und Tabu, Sigmund Freud's classic two-fold definition of 'taboo' encompasses both the sacred and the profane, both religion and defilement: "The meaning of 'taboo', as we see it, diverges in two contrary directions. To us it means, on the one hand, 'sacred', 'consecrated', and on the other 'uncanny', 'dangerous', 'forbidden', 'unclean'" (1912).