Flash! No One Offended!
28 August 2007 - 15 אלול 5767 by Huw
The point of this odd story in the New York Times seems to be that it’s newsworthy that no one is offended.
The sign on the side of Congregation Beth Israel-West Side Jewish Center advertises the latest installment of an apocalyptic, zombie-filled movie series based on the “Resident Evil” video games. It was installed by OTR Media, which manages the sign space. And it has apparently offended no one in the Orthodox congregation, said the congregation’s rabbi, Jason Herman.
The Times seems to have gone looking… and was surprised when no one cared.
Meanwhile, over at Salon, a different story is brewing:
At least 25 of the newspapers that normally print the comic strip, Opus… have declined these two (25 August and 2 September), at least partly out of fear that Lola Granola’s latest spiritual journey — dabbling in Islam and adopting its conservative dress code for women — could be offensive to Muslims. Sadly, one of the papers that isn’t printing the strip is the Washington Post, though the Post’s syndication service, Washington Post Writers Group, distributes Opus.
They are claiming that Steve’s comment about “not getting” (sex) is part of the problem. Sex jokes, say the papers, are offensive. That’s a hoot: as far as I remember the current strip has been filled with comments about marital infidelity, homosexuality and “snuggle bunnies”. Perhaps the Washington Post has printed none of these strips… but I doubt it.
The strip’s author has, historically, made fun of religious sorts. The recent story line documenting Lola Granola’s ’spiritual journey’ seems to be part of this theme, although now Berkeley seems to have taken on American faddish religiosity, plus our tendency to go overboard.
During the 80s Bloom County - by the same author - was filled with references to the religious right. In most cases Bloom County got a slide, whereas Doonsbury tended to get shunted to the editorial page when it took a drift into social commentary. Other strips to have such problems are Mallard Filmore and For Better or For Worse offended everyone on the right by having a positive portrayal of a gay character back in the 90s. Her strips just got totally pulled. (Sadly, I note that Lynn Johnston is retiring…)
The problem this time around seems to be the world-wide protests sparked by the Dutch comics that portrayed Mohammed. In other words the papers are skipping out because of terrorism - thus the terrorists have won another battle.
As a relevant point, in our unscientific way, 100% of the Muslims we polled here at Sarx were not offended. I wonder if the Washington Post bothered to ask anyone at all. Or if, maybe, they did the same, unscientific sort of thing Sarx has done.
Props for this story go to BoingBoing and to an anonymous tipster here at Sarx.
Technorati Tags:
muslims, comics, opus, berkeley breathed, boing boing, salon, washington post, new york times, jews, religion, offense
I have mentioned to you in a separate e-mail that the strip immediately prior poked fun at Jerry Falwell. It ran and no newspaper felt duty bound to pull it. But that’s OK, those are only conservative Christians and we are allowed to offend them.
As I mentioned in reply… I don’t see that strip being “about” Christianity in the way that this is “about” Islam.
I’ll go a step further today. This strip wasn’t pulled because it might offend “Muslims” but a specific sort of party. The previous strip - which was the set-up for this one, btw, and so part of the same story arc - was only about one Christian in particular.
This isn’t about bias: it’s about letting terrorists win.