QUVENZHANE

I have appreciated The Onion and its satire and I have been a subscriber and read it online. However, the now-famous Tweet from an Onion staffer regarding the nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, the youngest person ever nominated for an Academy Award, is appalling and deserves all the criticism it's received. The Tweet: "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c*nt, right?" The term is repugnant, disgusting, reprehensible, misogynist, loathsome, and the most egregious fault--it wasn't even funny! Even if it were funny, it would have still been unacceptable.

The Onion has issued an apology and retracted the Tweet, but the damage was already done. SOME things are simply over-the-line!

Kids are off limits! It doesn't matter that the little girl is a "public figure"; she is STILL a child! That staffer should never have referred to a nine-year-old girl's genitalia! I still have great enmity--and no respect--for John McCain because of the disgraceful joke he made at the expense of the THEN 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton. McCain's recent behavior has only reinforced my opinion that the man has no character. When he made that odious joke, I wrote to him and asked how he would like it if Mr. Clinton made remarks like that about his daughters. I received a form letter which did not address his detestable behavior!

I am known to appreciate raunchy humor. Although I do not use any "dirty" words myself and oftentimes cannot re-tell jokes because of it, I still laugh at "edgy" humor. I am opposed to censorship and don't think that I should be able to inflict my beliefs on others or vice versa. Unlike some, I don't think The Onion should shut down.

I detest that "C" word anytime it's used! In the 1990s, a woman at work called for me and the Union Steward to see that that offensive word had been welded into the top of her toolbox. I became so enraged that I started to kick the toolbox. (Thank goodness I was wearing steel-toed shoes.) The Steward was so shocked that he went to get my boss. I was still kicking that damned box when my boss took hold of my arm and said, "STOP! you're overreacting." Seething, I said, through clenched teeth, "Overreacting? I have had to put up with this shit all my life! You get Human Resources over here right NOW!" When the Human Resources representative--a man--arrived, he also did not seem to comprehend why the employee and I were greatly upset. The worker told him, "At least my boss cares!" as she pointed her finger at the three of them: Steward, Manager, and the HR person, and said, "It's obvious none of you care!" The worker and I both knew who had done it, but we could not prove it. However, there is more than one way to get even and get-even she did, although it took a long time (that would be another BLOG article).

In the 1970s, a man who worked for me had been accused of molesting his daughter. I was walking by a group of men when I heard one of them say, "Well, when they're showing their p***y to you, what are you supposed to do?" I was sickened and shocked into disbelief and frozen there in place, thinking how to respond. I shall never forget when another man (and he has my lifelong admiration for his response) answered, "MY daughter DOESN'T have a p***y!" He turned and walked away but it certainly had a great impact on that group of men! I didn't intrude on the conversation because the good man said it all!

Quvenzhane doesn't have a c**t and she doesn't have a p***y! She is a little girl, and at the Academy Awards, she was wearing a sweet, little, blue dress with a shawl, and carrying a puppy purse! How dare that man subject her--and the remainder of her life--to that obscene term!

CLICK HERE to read the story: Oscars 2013: The Onion issues apology to Quvenzhane Wallis
It was the Oscar night tweet heard 'round the world: While 9-year-old lead actress nominee Quvenzhane Wallis was enjoying her first Academy Award celebration, satirical website the Onion was disparaging the "Beasts of the Southern Wild" star with a tweet that generated outrage.