No offense but allow me to talk about getting offended, and why it is such a thing these days.
This year, “The Simpsons” had just become the longest-running scripted show in American primetime television history. However, this hallmark of an achievement was soured with mounting criticism of its characterization particularly with Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the heavily stereotyped Indian American of the show. In response, creator Matt Groening said, “We live in a time in our culture where people love to pretend to be offended.”
High schooler Keziah Daum was blasted on Twitter for attending prom wearing qipao, the famous and recognizable traditional Chinese dress. A user responded to her photos saying, “My culture is not your prom dress.” The dress is Asian but Keziah isn’t and this stirred quite an uproar. In response, Keziah tweeted, “I’m simply showing my appreciation to their culture.”
This year’s Met Gala theme, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” the associated exhibition of which was Vatican-approved, drew some flak nonetheless with celebrities coming to the red carpet in papal outfits, crosses as accessories, and Marian images on gowns. Some Catholics expressed dismay that religion is not a motif for cosplay. But there are those who can’t help but connect the dots between colonialism and patriarchy shared between Hollywood and Catholicism.
Two professors, Simona Sharoni and Richard Ned Lebow, were in an elevator. When Sharoni asked Lebow which floor he was going to, Lebow replied with “ladies’ lingerie,” a joke referring to the old days of elevators in department stores. Sharoni was offended and remarked that “misogyny is at play.” Lebow refused to apologize. Speaking of professors, law school professor Nancy Shurtz was fired for wearing blackface to Halloween.
The list goes on and on. Your social media feed, newspaper articles, and favorite news sites have most probably been littered with news about people getting offended about a celebrity (Kanye West, of course), a celebrity getting offended (at a restaurant, for example), or people getting offended among themselves for the off chance that someone posted or said something unbecoming.
There’s no two cents about it. Some people can get really offended and some people are also quite offensive. In this age when we all have a platform and an audience, tweeting can feel like walking on eggshells. When the internet decides to aim its pitchforks at an offender, it is remarkably convenient to join the witch hunt as well.
Getting offended by a casual remark of a colleague or a friend is part and parcel of human interaction, as is usually the case. It happens all the time. Much more so with popular culture or an issue of a political or otherwise divisive nature. Social media has turned us into one global roundtable discussion and as a result, discussions of such massive scale can sometimes go awry.
It may be safe to assume that we are an enlightened generation, a product of accessible education, minefields of information, and microwaveable food. We are at an advantage but also with the responsibility to discredit misogyny, cultural appropriation, or oppression most especially in its subtlest of forms. We ought to live in a world without those anymore.
Open forum and discussions are what the internet has afforded us, which if used appropriately can be a tool to educate others about the gray areas of what’s offensive or not. In other words, we can call out people, famous or not, whenever such need arises. As we should.
But this is where it goes wrong. The insidiousness of taking offense is in this: when we call out people not to educate them but out of spite, anger and rage. Granted, these are very provocative times, indeed. Getting offended is one thing. But taking offense is another. We can only take so much until the offenses become counterproductive.
“Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” asks Lisa Simpson. Scrawled on Apu’s framed photo are words that said, “Don’t have a cow.”
No offense taken.
michael.baylosis@gmail.com