Ode to the Fragile

I'm starting to get offended about just how easily some people are offended.

Two of my colleagues have hit the news over Twitter postings they made during the Logies, one losing her column-writing job in the process. The point I need to make immediately is that if you don't like someone's work, avoiding their Tweets is marginally more difficult than breathing.... that is, up until they "become news". Then, apparently, they become thrust in front of decent folk everywhere, causing these people to voice (or at least type) their outrage, else their restless indignation wander the Earth, unable to find peace, and needing to go bump in the night.

The pivotal Tweet from Catherine Deveney, that apparently was too much for her employers at The Age to bear, was a reaction to a certain child's appearance;

"I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid"

To take this as an actual endorsement, or even excusing, of paedophilia (which some of the respondents to various news articles have done) is a mixture of oversensitivity and hysteria. In fact, the line uses the natural revulsion to such activities to make its point - not that I would ever speak for any of my colleagues, especially one as forthright as Catherine. It is a gag that is not to everyone's tastes, nor is it meant to be - it was for the followers of Catherine's Twitter page. However, its subject matter is someone who, somewhat ironically, appears to have become a protected species... another comic, Fiona O'Loughlin, also courted controversy by making a couple of televised jokes at Bindi's expense.

The thing that concerns me is that there seem to be a few itchy trigger fingers, waiting to open fire on any perceived wrongdoing by comedians, ever since a certain sketch on The Chaser's War On Everything. The sketch, which created the Make A Reasonable Wish Foundation, caused consternation all the way up to the Prime Minister - which was ridiculous. For foreign readers, or those who don't remember, the sketch involved sick kids being given worthless gifts, on the basis that they were going to die anyway. Again, the League of the Easily Outraged was heard from, taking this as a mockery of sick children. This is, point blank, incorrect... in the same way that Geoff Brooks and Steve Blackburn's huckster creations The Dodgy Brothers weren't about mocking victims of con artists, the Make A Reasonable Wish sketch didn't poke fun at the kids themselves. The risk in any dark comedy is that it needs to be funny enough to overcome people's squeamishness, and the crime committed in this case was that the sketch wasn't funny (but then the Chaser team were always far less skilled at set comedic pieces than they were at audacious stunts).

And just to switch my mood from concerned to annoyed, CNN inserts another page in the Failure To Take A Joke file. Much has been made of the rise in the US of the Tea Party movement, a name chosen to add a domestic, homey feel to a far-right organisation. Apparently, President Obama has referred to their members as "Teabaggers". This, frankly, is funny. However, not only has it set the Palin Pack's teeth on edge, one response has been to declare that calling these neocons "Teabaggers" is the equivalent of using the n-word.

Pause while that sinks in.

Here's a message from one middle-class white person to this particular coven of upper- and middle-class white people. We have no equivalent of the n-word. We don't get one. Look at the scales here - one is a term of abuse and hatred used over hundreds of years, the other is a point of mockery that is a few months old. They are not equivalent. If I knock on your door and run away, that is not the equivalent of you burning down my house.

I think that it's time that the easily offended started taking responsibility for the protection of their own quivering hearts. I take a large dislike to the work of Andrew Bolt and Sam Newman... so I avoid it. It isn't hard. If your sense of personal calm is that fragile, whack on a Wiggles DVD, and leave the risky chat to the grown-ups.

ADDENDUM - just as I was getting ready to post, I read how Ellen DeGeneres has apologised to Apple, over a sketch involving the iPhone. If you get the chance, read a book called "Manufacturing Consent", to find out how powerful capitalism can be as a force for censorship, and keep in mind how necessary this makes organisations like the ABC in Australia, and Britain's BBC.