These are commonly thought to be exceptional and gifted people. Nobody thought someone would be offended by this? This is actually too foolish to even be taken seriously.
I'm not saying everyone should be offended by it. Personally, I very much am, but realize everyone's sensitivity to certain issues varies. But how, in the name of God, Does an entire group of people produce and distribute something so gloriously obnoxious and it never occurs to ANY OF THEM that this item, commonly displayed in public and social situations, has a fairly high chance of offending a wide variety of people. What goes on in our education system? How is a whole group of people not smarter than that?
This is what the school had to say about it.
It should be noted that it wasn't the department/Faculty that designed/ approved/distributed the mug - it's 100% the student society. MUN has nothing to do with D-Day.
ReplyDeleteAlso important to note is the fact that these D-Day mugs aren't just merch that the society tries to sell to the public, they are intended for one-day use and as a souvenir for ENGR students only.
ALSO of note is the fact that D-Day is a long standing tradition and the little doodle that goes on the mugs is something of an event with all sorts of entries coming in from the student body. These things are supposed to be funny and stupid, not some sort of statement of values.
So with that in mind I personally had no issue with the mug. Its not particulaly funny and not at all clever - one of the lamer D-Day mugs I've seen for sure - but come on. It's Jessica Rabbit pointing her ass in the air, the whole thing is completely foolish on its face. How anybody thought it was more than a stupid pun is byond me.
That said - I think that the society showed some TERRIBLE judgment at all phases of this "scandal" - they should have definitely realized that anything so overtly sexual (even something so clearly stupid as a doodle on a mug) would have a high chance of offending people - particular given the similar (and much more serious) issues at other Canadian ENGR departments recently. Even worse, when confronted by the DEAN of the department and on national news coverage they essentially stood by their choice and told everyone they stood by the design. It's one thing to stand by your choices and to fight censorship, bust sweet jesus people you could get kick out of school for something like that (which was being floated around as a possible punishment for the heads of the society). As much as I agree that this was blown WAY out of proportion and as foolish as I think it is to get offended by a sexy cartoon and thinly veiled sex pun - the very second the Dean got involved everyone should have folded up like a lawn chair. "Yes sir, sorry sir, it won;t happen again sir" should have been the only things anybody had to say.
I hate that we live in a world where you can't make stupid puns or sexualize anything really (Sex is great - we all like to do it, but for apparently joking about it is the worse thing a person can do). But we DO live in that world and these jokers got a real life lesson in using your freekin' brain.
My first on all of this was how embarrassed you must be for your former school. I know a lot of people who were so frustrated by this and how it makes the faculty look.
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