This week, there was some discussion about the cover of The Discipline #1 and it’s depiction of a scene that could be read in more than one way. For my money, it’s a legitimate concern, but some voices are being raised saying that, once again, readers are far too sensitive blah blah blah, etc. When it comes to being offended, we’re sometimes at the mercy of our meaty people brains, as seen when a story threatens a defenseless child and my inner cobra psychically rises up to bite everything in sight, leading to today’s controversial query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has to admit, that cover is (seemingly intentionally) disturbing and suggestive, and I felt a little trepidation about it, asking: What’s the last truly disturbing and/or offensive thing you’ve discovered in pop-culture?
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I do not get offended by content in pop culture, or any other form of entertainment or art. I can choose not to support certain things I don’t like, but pictures and words are just what they are, they cannot hurt anyone. Of course, I’m talking in an adult point of view and no, you don’t get to play “what about the children” card, that’s what we have parents and ratings for.
I have opinion that nothing should be censored and creative freedom should be absolute. That said, once you do something that could be seen offensive, you open yourself to criticism and have to accept that it can happen.
In general, people should loosen up a little, its like nowadays everyone is just looking for next controversy to be offended and shocked by. For the most part, its just because they can then go shout out their opinions, because it makes them feel important.
To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot that offends me. I might be uncomfortable, but I can understand using a questionable topic to explore the dark side of humanity or to show why a character became who or what they are now. The only things that really trigger my rage are child molestation and extremely overblown bigotry. It is one thing to have a racist character or two, quite another for the whole story to say “All homosexuals need to be fixed” or “All people of X race are Y stereotype”.
That isn’t to say I’m not offended by anything, it just means I’m usually not as quick to find something offensive. All depends on the context and other factors.
With that said, the most recent thing that disturbed me was probably the dead baby on “Trainspotting”. I only saw the movie a few short years ago, but it still makes me sick just thinking about the movie. I never did finish the movie after I turned it off at that point and I have no plans to ever do so.