LGBT News Sony pictures boss asks Hollywood to eliminate gay slurs from movies.

The comments on that article are disgusting. You don't take a charity and call it privileged. Depicting LGBT stereotypes is no different than those horrid puppet shoes they did in the 1900s with the stereotyped black puppet.

In a few decades these people will realize that they are no different than the racists that martin luther king jr encountered.

 

pretty much this. not to mention it'd be about as "unnatural" as not allowing the use of other swear words.

 

As long as they can be used for a specific, "good" purpose, then ban them for anything else. If you're going to make a movie about, say, an important gay person, then you will probably have to include slurs. Let's face it - all of us have probably had one thrown at us, or at least seen it happen to someone else.
However, it is good that she takes a stand. We just don't want to get to a place where we can't show what has happened to us.

 

Should I quote the first 20 comments that made me cringe?

 

For my sanity, no. Don't do it.

 

context is everything.

we shouldnt ban the word 'fuck' because some people find it impolite.

 

I don't see anything wrong with what she's suggesting. It's not like it's a law. She's encouraging a voluntary ethical standard. You could make a movie where one of the main characters, whose supposed to be likable, is a huge racist that drops the N-word constantly. That doesn't necessarily mean you should.

It's one thing to have a character who is a racist drop the N-word. That's appropriate. Similarly, it's appropriate for a character who is an anti-gay bigot to drop the F-word. This is what you'd expect of such characters. It's another thing entirely to have characters who are supposed to be likable do it.

To use a specific instance that bothered me was in Hangover, Bradly Cooper's character - Phil - yelled out (from the car), "Paging Dr. Faggot! ... Dr. Faggot!" Why do that? The entire purpose of the scene is to paint Melissa (played by Rachael Harris) the girlfriend of Stu (played by Ed Helms) as a mega uptight bitch. You're supposed to want Stu to leave his girlfriend Melissa and leave with his buddies to go to the bachelor party in Vegas. The moment I heard "Paging Dr. Faggot" - it jarred me out of the movie. I don't want Stu to go with Phil - I think Phil is an asshole anti-gay bigot. A large part of me even wanted to stop watching the movie right then and there. There were any number of things Phil could have yelled that would have painted him as immature, so why use an anti-gay slur? We're not supposed to think of the character as an anti-gay bigot, and we're even supposed to like him...

 

Why don't we outlaw the N word as well? They already took it out of Huckleberry Finn. Let's take away our freedom of speech to make sure we all don't have "potty" mouths

 

As much as I hate and flinch when I hear slurs, I really don't agree with this. Sometimes the use of these words are used to make a point, or to accurately depict a horrific event in order to show its true severity. To ban would limit artistic creativity.
As stripe said, it's like taking out the N-word out of huckleberry finn, which makes me angry. For god's sake, the book is speaking out against racism! Plus, its part of historical context.
(Also, freedom of speech and all that...)

 

Freedom of Speech only applies to the government attempting to censor speech. Amy Pascal is not advocating for a new law. Sony Pictures and other Hollywood film production and distribution companies are private businesses. They have a right (also due to Freedom of Speech) to refuse to produce or distribute films that they find objectionable.

This would be the same right that EC would have to ban people who came here to bash the LGBT Community. EC is not entitled to guarantee anyone's right to free speech, they set the terms as to what is and is not acceptable speech here.

Likewise, Sony Pictures can set the terms as to what is and is not acceptable speech in the films that they produce and distribute. Similarly, stores can choose not to stock certain things that they find objectionable.

 

This seems like a good idea, at least in some contexts. If a word is being used in the context of 'thats so gay' or as the type of insult that doesn't really matter whether you're gay or not, then I would certainly value hollywood setting an example and not using the words. I wouldn't support a full 'ban' on them, as they can also be used to demonstrate a point.

 

She's only making a suggestion, no need to attack her for "taking away free speech". No one has to listen to her.

However, hearing egregious slurs in movies really turn me off. I support this.