I've seen that "lighten up" article posted no less than 4 times in this comment thread, except the unasked elephant in the room appears to be this:
At what point precisely does someone's, or a group of someone's comfort factor with a given topic begin to influence whether that topic should be discussed, parodied, subverted, etc?
On the left side of that point is where "lighten up" is an acceptable response to someone who is indeed being oversensitive or prudish.
This has to be an acceptable response somewhere along this continuum, because the alternative is to censor every single bit of humor ever, because I'm pretty sure I could dig up some person somewhere who is offended by a "why did the chicken cross the road" joke, let alone a reference to sex in any way.
On the right side of that point is obvious, where something is clearly and obviously inappropriate and probably damaging. Racial slurs, overtly sexist remarks, etc.
So. Where do we draw the line? The fact that this comment thread even exists would tell me that we don't have that nailed down.
At what point precisely does someone's, or a group of someone's comfort factor with a given topic begin to influence whether that topic should be discussed, parodied, subverted, etc?
On the left side of that point is where "lighten up" is an acceptable response to someone who is indeed being oversensitive or prudish.
This has to be an acceptable response somewhere along this continuum, because the alternative is to censor every single bit of humor ever, because I'm pretty sure I could dig up some person somewhere who is offended by a "why did the chicken cross the road" joke, let alone a reference to sex in any way.
On the right side of that point is obvious, where something is clearly and obviously inappropriate and probably damaging. Racial slurs, overtly sexist remarks, etc.
So. Where do we draw the line? The fact that this comment thread even exists would tell me that we don't have that nailed down.