o/t - is this t-shirt offensive

[V 8]

£185 m8. I'll still have it when you're ready

[Gez]

I reckon they threatened to arrest him for nicking it from Fred West not for what it said

I find that offensive. I was killed by fred west.

[LordB]

Stones and glass houses..........

Pot, kettle, black.........

Nanny state and overly pc........

Tell me non of you have ever used that sort of language in an in-appropriate manner

I'll get me coat (and no it hasnt got anything written on the back)

Nanny State

[Asterix]

Exactly. Besdies, have any of you been anywhere near a school or a bus stop when the kids are around? They swear more than I do, and swear a f****n' lot...

but they start doing that sensing that it's "naughty", outside the bounds of reasonable behaviour.

When adults do it within earshot of the kids, the kids do it to justify their behaviour to themselves.

[Blatman]

QUOTE

When adults do it within earshot of the kids

They're ignorant...

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

When adults do it within earshot of the kids

They're ignorant...

That's right and is pretty well the basis of my contention that the shirt is offensive. It is in the public domain and my daughter, for one, was able to read before she went to school (she's a bit older now) and I would not have wanted to explain to her what the principal offending word meant. When she was two we were on holiday in Bournemouth and I got a tiny bit sunburned. Getting into the bath at the end of the day I uttered the involuntary "ordure" (not exactly that word but this is a family forum) as the hot water bathed my skin. My sweet and innocent little girl, on hearing this, ran around the hotel room shouting "excrement" or a word of that general meaning, at the top of her voice. The more I tried to undo the damage my injudicious profanity had done, the more she loved it!  

[V 8]

The more I tried to undo the damage my injudicious profanity had done, the more she loved it!  

Spare the rod, spoil the child

[Jezta]

I don't find the t-shirt offensive, nor do I find becoming de-sensitized to particularly "strong swear words" a bad thing. Afterall, it seems like we're becoming offended by the bizarrest of things these days anyway, so why not just knock swear words off the list?  

Seems like lots of folk here used the "I have to explain this to my kids" argument (which is a contentious issue between folk, at best, and based very much on personal preference - to each their own, I say   ), however... I'd rather teach my kids about the meaning of "humour" (be it good or bad) than explain to them why there's some way-too-graphic footage of people in less fortunate places than us being killed, on the 6 o'clock BBC news.  

Bottom line for me; I have enough stuff to be offended about, without worrying about a "word" written down (or spoken), and raising kids with a rounded understanding of what it means to be decent, honest, and a good friend to those you know (and those you don't), has little to do with the bluer words you choose to use or write.

Be Well,

Jezta

PS : That's quite a shocking mullet  

[Carl]

QUOTE

Besdies, have any of you been anywhere near a school or a bus stop when the kids are around? They swear more than I do

But I suspect that's only because of the lowering of standards by adults

[Sir Greg]

My 14 year old daughter and I had a slight falling out just the other day as she wanted me to buy her a "Make love, not war" t-shirt and I refused.

They were part of a range in a very prominent kids/teens fashion store and the smaller sizes would fit maybe 8-10 year olds.

I don't find the slogan offensive in any way, I just didn't want her to have "make love" emblazoned on her chest.

Don't even get me started on eight year olds branded to the hilt with Playboy products!  

[Blatman]

Besdies, have any of you been anywhere near a school or a bus stop when the kids are around? They swear more than I do

But I suspect that's only because of the lowering of standards by adults

Yeah I think ignorant parents choosing to ignore decency in the pursuit of "the quiet life" have a lot to answer for.

And I wasn't having a go yesterday with the "ingorant" comment. We've all put our foot in our mouths at one time or another. That's excusable. Not teaching "the rules" regarding swearing, context etc to children is not. In the case of the shirt being seen by a minor, then it should be explained as best as you can, rather than adopting the ostrich stance and hoping it will go away. Remove the mystery/chortle factor and make it seem like an English lesson and the kids will be bored in to not swearing

[Jezta]

Remove the mystery/chortle factor and make it seem like an English lesson and the kids will be bored in to not swearing

.....My sentiments exactly!  

[Asterix]

On an associated note, I live in the stix, with no neighbours and generally things are quiet. Last night about 9pm, sustained commotion was heard, kids shouting and screaming.

When I looked through the front window, a *big* little boy (about 10 or 11yo) was mucking around with my front gates. I threw open the window and shouted at him (had to, the front window's a good 20m away from the gate), "Oi, what do you think you're doing?"

Any cockiness drained from his face as he tried to implicate his big pushchair pushing sister in whatever he was doing (no parents in attendance). I then asked him more quietly to "just leave the gates alone and go away".

All through this my wife is having a go at me for being so aggressive. So then we schedule an argument, you know, normal sort, mild umbrage, divorce mark 3 for 30 mins, garnished with a descent into alcoholic anaestesia and an indifference to whatever milk was spilt.

This AM, I find the 99p "Open/Close" sign we hang on the gate broken. Not worried about that whether it had broke and he was fixing it or he broke it (whether by design or in panic at this middle aged man shouting at him).

Am caught between feeling sorry for the poor little muppet/ feeling like a right NIMBY OR celebrating my reinforcement of good old Victorian values.

Discuss/ flame/ etc...

[Tubs]

There seems to me to be two sides to this thread, either freedom of speech or censorship. Which of these two have increased over the years in line with increasing thuggish behaviour?

The society that we inherited had far fewer laws in existence then than it has now, so it may be considered that our freedoms have been reduced and yet bad behaviour seems to be on the increase. So is it the reduction in censorship? How many remember the banning of the Life of Brian?

It used to be that people acted with due consideration to the feelings of others and guidance for this was good manners.

I suspect not too many would not find the T shirt offensive if the language included those taboo words of F**K & nunney. When I was young people were arrested and punished for using this sort language and any member of the general public would have made their feelings known and probably have reported the blackguard.

There is also the attitude that this slogan represents, which is, if you annoy him, he's going to kill you. We know it's a joke, but such displays of aggression has no place in today's world. For those who do not agree with this, where would you draw the line, would he need to have a baseball bat or maybe a knife? If you say that this comment is just silly, the wearing of that T Shirt would have been similarly considered not too many years ago.

Human rights and the death of common sense has brought us to a situation where members of the public  can expect to be assaulted and even murdered if they in any way question or challenge the behaviour of these rather unpleasant creatures.

There have been comments on here to the effect that some people will find anything offensive, and for this reason it's not worth doing anything.

It won't be until the members of today's society challenges this point of view and starts to reassert the requirement that individual behaviour shows the respect due to the rest, 'cause it aint going to come from the government and police. They don't have the resources.

Well that's my opinion. So there.  

Tubs

[Blatman]

Which of these two have increased over the years in line with increasing thuggish behaviour?

I'll take this in isolation, if I may, as it's an interesting side issue.

I think that "we" increasingly feel our liberties and our freedoms are being eroded by the nanny state a little too much, so we rebel by being rather more forthright and strident than we might otherwise be if we perceived that such "freedoms" weren't under pressure from an entity that it is almost impossible to directly rebel against.