Southpark’s controversial “The F Word”
What do you think of it?
Glaad says this:
“Though this seems to represent a well-intentioned effort by the creators of South Park to delegitimize a vulgar anti-gay slur, the fact is that the word is and remains a hateful slur that is often part of the harassment, bullying and violence that gay people, and gay youth in particular, experience on a daily basis in this country. It is an epithet that has real consequences for real people’s lives. Just this year, an 11-year-old Massachusetts student named Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, unable to endure the unrelenting anti-gay bullying and name-calling he experienced at school, committed suicide.
The creators of South Park are right on one important point: more and more people are using the F-word as an all-purpose insult. However, it is irresponsible and wrong to suggest that it is a benign insult or that promoting its use has no consequences for those who are the targets of anti-gay bullying and violence. This is a slur whose meaning remains rooted in homophobia. And while many South Park viewers will understand the sophisticated satire and critique in last night’s episode, others won’t – and if even a small number of those take from this a message that using the “F-word” is OK, it worsens the hostile climate that many in our community continue to face.”
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2 Comments
Comments
I just finished watching this episode and although i like the message they’re trying to get across, i dont really see this making much of a positive impact to anyone other than South Park’s main demographic (under 30′s).
I know I’ve noticed a shift in the use of the word “fag” away from a homosexual based insult to a more generic insult (particularly among high-school students and young adults).
I work in the video game industry, an industry who’s audience is big on the use of the words ‘fag’ and ‘gay’ as insults towards other gamers (not necessarily in a homophobic way).
Most if not all of the people i know who use these terms AREN’T homophobic. In fact there’s quite a healthy gay population of gamers out there – some of whom i’m sure use the word ‘fag’ in a similar fashion.
In general the gaming audience is very accepting of homosexuals.
The Industry itself is also quite supportive of homosexuals and there has been an increase in homosexual characters and themes in the market for quite some time (probably inline with TV).
For evidence of this just see RockStar’s Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony:
I’m all for changing the dictionary meaning to, “An extremely annoying, inconsiderate person.”
Dropping the Harley reference because i’m bikecurious.
Ugh. This was a bad show. I agree with GLAAD. That word still carries negative weight, and it’s still not appropriate.
www.southparkstudios.com
When will people realize that South Park Studios writes story lines based on the controversy it will bring. They probably even begin brainstorming by making a list of special interest groups they can get a rise from. It’s marketing. If this were the only offensive show they’ve done in the entire series it would be worth considering as truly offensive. This as it is now is another thing…..satire.
They did an episode with basically the same concept on the N word.
So you think we should just sit around and say nothing? What’s the best response to take here?
http://www.southparkstudios.com/fans/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=41913
One thing i found amusing is how the South Park forums censor the word “fag” to “homosexual”
That’s weird.