As a mom, I have these things called "children" that whine all the time how things are "so unfair!!" Then whine about something that they get all offendy about because they didn't like how they felt about it...they act like whoever or whatever they were offended by came over & punched them in the face & stole their gift cards.
It's at this point when I tell them to stop & just throw themselves on the floor. Then I give them the option of throwing a tantrum on the floor, like a toddler trying to get attention, for a moment or two. They usually don't take me up on the offer & get mad that I even brought it up...and probably think it's unfair I even said it.
That is what society has turned into. Don't get me wrong...kids can do that...but we are in a culture that refuses to grow out of it! They are always feeling entitled...and the whole world is always against only them. I've seen it in children, teens, 20 somethings, 30 somethings, even up to 70 somethings. It's just so bratty! From politics, to handouts, to church, and on & on & on...and even to skits.
Yes! I said skits!
In the past week, I have heard more whining about different things that makes me roll my eyes. They are throwing tantrums over skits & totally taking things out of context...
This past week, a friend of mine brought something up to me to get my opinion on it. It had to do with some backlash from a group toward a skit that came from Nick Mom.
I found out that Nick Mom is programming from Nickelodeon for the moms of the Nick Jr. crowd. Brilliant! And they apparently do these mini skit vignettes in good satirical humor...like SNL for mommies!
A group of food allergy activists threw a fit over a skit where 2 moms who are putting together a bake sale for PTA are setting up crazy rules for the sale. All items must be clearly labeled...Clearly...LABLED CLEARLY! Then they were going to separate all of these items by food allergies in different areas. (i.e. - dairy free, nut free, gluten free, etc.) And it was over-the-top. And...guess what! It was funny!
There is this huge uproar about it. I think so much so that I can't even find the video now. I think Nick Mom took it down. I'm disappointed because I wanted you all to see what the hissy-fit throwing is about!
These groups are grumpy that it's making fun of kids with food allergies. It so isn't!!! People...it's throwing PTA moms & dads under the bus that work TOO hard to try make everyone happy. They go too far & that's the offensive part! It has nothing to do with food or food allergy sufferers themselves...it's about the over-the-top actions taken to try to make things more "open".
This whole thing has been taking on an effect like it did with "Married...With Children" & "The Simpsons". Parents tried to say these shows were so awful & offensive...that it actually drew more traffic to the fan-base of these shows. DUH!! So now people, like me, who were not aware of Nick Mom before...are now! And I have no shame in saying I have a wicked sense of humor...and I found it FUNNY! And it has a much different message than these groups & blogs are telling their followers what do believe it was about. It's a shame.
Grumpy, over-protective parents with absolutely no sense of humor!
In their cry of how Nick Mom is bullying their food allergic children...they stepped in & convinced their cronies to step up & be the bullies to Nick Mom. Way to teach a lesson there, kids!! *face palm*
It's, actually, very much the same as when ONE MILLION MOMS TRIED TO BULLY JC PENNEY ABOUT ELLEN DEGENERES. Don't get me wrong...JC Penney is not doing well, but it has to do with bad business decisions & absolutely nothing with choosing Ellen as their spokesperson...no matter what OMM tried to say. If you're offended by Ellen...you need to take a look at how you look at life!
Now then...with a slight shift, but still on the same track...we journey to thoughts on the Oscars & a skit. Now then, I've already said that I really enjoyed Seth MacFarlane as the host, but there is one thing that people can't seem to let go of to complain about: a portion of the opening.
Here's the whole issue: everyone seems to keep focusing on the song, "I Saw Your Boobs." The problem is...several outlets are only talking about that part. It's out of context!! The point was...he "didn't" perform the song. Remember? Captain James Tiberius Kirk came back in time to stop him from doing that song so he wouldn't be considered the worst Oscar host ever!
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| Captain Kirk talking to Seth about righting his hosting wrongs |
Let's not forget, either, that there were actresses in on the joke! DUH! And that portion of the entire bit (there was SO much more, people) was considered one of the "most awkward" moment of the awards show. REALLY?? I thought it was uncomfortable & done so well as an artistic loophole! With Seth MacFarlane...it could've been so much worse!
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| Charlize Theron & Jennifer Lawrence in on the bit |
He did feel bad for some of the jokes they were going ahead with on the teleprompter thru the show. Did you catch any of that? He was witty, edgy, and very talented...and gladly made jokes about himself! The only improvement would be for overall time management...but that wasn't all on him!
Jane Fonda's complaint about the song holds only slightly more merit in that some of the women he brought up had scenes that were rape scenes. I want to point out that it wasn't ALL of those scenes...and he actually left some out.
There are only four subjects that you had better never joke about in my presence...or ever:
SUICIDE IS NO JOKE, BULLYING WON'T BE TOLERATED, abuse isn't OK, and neither is rape.
When jokes come up about any of those, that's when I draw a line.
With that said...I enjoyed Seth as a host & hope he gets asked back. He could've been worse...I think he was very well behaved considering what his mind creates.
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| Oh...looks like Seth is shocked I'd love to see him host again... |
If we cannot laugh at ourselves, or at life in general, then how are we ever gonna get thru it? We are a society who looks to be easily offended anymore! Why is that?
There are things that are offensive. Period. However, as a society, we are hyper-sensitive to everything! We can't say or do or stand up for anything anymore without someone wanting to sue someone else because their feelings got hurt. We are a frivolous culture!
I have brought up that I FOLLOW SOME MOMMY BLOGS. I also said they are very real, some are raw, but they find the humor in everyday parenting living. We all need that. We all need to know that we aren't the only ones feeling that way, or that have felt that way...but there are the ones who get offended that someone might have read their mind & put the dirty laundry of parenting out there...and then feelings get all hurt...and the whining starts.
These moms, no matter how harsh they sound sometimes, love their children. Some days are harder than others. That goes for all of us.
And if you can't laugh at this stuff & only look for things to be negative & grumpy about...well then, just throw yourself on the floor & throw your tantrum! If that's the kind of attention you really want....
Let me laugh at you & the thing you are whining about.
OK...now that I know about Nick Mom...I'm gonna laugh at some more so-true-it's-funny videos...
Stay tuned...
God Bless, AM~Erica
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** Read my NickMom followup commentary post HERE
Erica, I agree with much of what you say. I do think food-allergy parents often take things much too seriously, and it did seem like the over-the-top reaction on the Nickmom site was also a kind of bullying.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time...I think you are missing an item on your "no joke" list: making fun of kids with a disability.
I get your point that there is a fine line (VERY fine) between making fun of the child and making fun of the parent, and if this were the only example ever in popular culture, I might agree. BUT - using food allergies as a laugh line is habitual for Hollywood. No other medical condition is so consistently fodder for the punchline. (If you don't believe me, my blog gives many other examples:
http://foodallergybitch.blogspot.com/2013/02/nickmom-bake-sales-and-food-allergy.html
http://foodallergybitch.blogspot.com/2012/01/yucking-it-up-hollywood-and-food.html
For whatever reason, people's thinking about food allergies has become polarized. People make a judgement about kids with food allergies that has nothing to do with medicine. They are "wimpy", "delicate", "overprotected". At the extreme, it gets all mixed in with conservative thinking and these allergic kids are out to remove rights from other individuals. (Remember Sarah Palin bringing protest cookies to the no-food school?)
Sadly, for (most of the) moms and kids in the middle of all this, it isn't a political fight about personal freedoms. If we make a big deal of things, we're bitches and bullies and we "can't take a joke." If we play down the seriousness of the allergies, our kids can find themselves in unsafe situations.
So what's the right choice here? Laugh along with it and hope people eventually stop targeting a medical condition? Did that work for the parents of "retards" (and I use the word only to demonstrate the issue)? How about AIDS patients? Those are two other medical conditions that underwent social polarization and where people thought the parents objecting were overreacting and oversensitive. Eventually, people's thinking changed because these communities stopped rolling over and taking it.
You say this didn't target the kids...but, of course, it does. I have a teenager. He does everything he can to hide his food allergies from others because he doesn't want to deal with the social stigma. Now he's going off to college and it's a constant fight to get him to tell people, even when telling would make him safer. THAT'S the downside of putting this type of thing on national TV. Parents and allergic children don't see the nuance that it's "making fun of the moms, not the kids." They just see that food allergies are fair game for bullying.
And isn't bullying already on your list? Your blog seems to blame the victim simply because these families took one punch back after years of Hollywood abuse. It's a false equivalency.
If you (as a parent who obviously found this funny) have suggestions for how to turn food allergies back into a *medical condition* instead of a punch line, I'd love to hear them.
Thank you for your insight. I'm not sure if you read the follow up post with my, or I'm guessing you found this blog post from the NickMom page, but there was good back & forth. It's not lightening up the food allergies. I still stick to that. I thought it was funny about how they portrayed uninformed moms in charge of a bake sale. Do I think everything should be labled for these reasons? Absolutely! But it was about them trying too hard to make everything OK...and it became offensive in that area. It was totally satirical to the over-the-top moms.
DeleteNow then...as I pointed out in the extra commentary...instead of going crazy-bollistic over this video, use it as a teaching tool. It's the "What Not To Do". There are many companies, churches, organizations, schools (name another teaching gathering here) who use satirical videos to get a point across. And used in both senses of, "well...maybe not this over-the-top," or maybe to, "is this what you want to look like?"
And I bring up the bullying, as I said in my additional commentary, that the comments that I came across while looking into this video more, were so vile & threatening. It was very riotous mobs with torches & pitchforks. Any positive or conversational feedback just wasn't there, or few & far between. I know bullying when I see it...I have dealt with it thru my own kids & myself while in school. So I was appalled at what I was reading from moms.
Now then...it's people like you (this is not going negative, I promise) who are doing good in keeping conversation going. And it's good to keep it going in a positive light. But if you bring attention to something that wasn't that known before, either you can help educate, or you can put something on a pedestal you didn't mean to. No one I know of knew what NickMom was until my friend, a mom of a child with severe food allergies, came across the protest. She was offended at first, but realized it was satirical. She asked for my opinion after watching the video. She didn't guide my thoughts on it. As it turned out, she was already agreeing with me. But in all of this, more people are now aware of NickMom.
What needs to happen is to keep up good conversation. Keep up telling folks what the sufferer goes thru. It's like the moms with depression...which I am one...and just keeping it open & talking about it. Let your kids know it's about educating. And if someone tries to make a joke about the allergy, then there is a way to educate, not belittle.
I still believe this video should be shown at PTA planning meetings when a bake sale is trying to be set up to either:
A) show them that labeling is good, but don't discriminate...or the best way you feel it should be handled
or
B) convince them of doing a different fundraiser.
And it's also good to have humor around what you do. And it's good to keep talking about it in the open. The stigma from these illnesses comes from secrecy...or what seems to be. And we can also use "those who don't get it" as educational tools & examples. Not in a bullying sense of throwing them under the bus & belittling, but instead asking if there was anything wrong or right about the example given.
So, like I said, and if you haven't already, check out the commentary I gave on it, too. There was some good conversation back & forth & included much of what I just let you know here, too.
Hope that helps.