Caporegime
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Do you want to stop university students dressing up as miners for a joke?
Can someone explain...
- Thread starter FoxEye
- Start date
Do you want to stop university students dressing up as miners for a joke?
Probably the one who allowed the winter of discontent
No, and I’ve not said so. I have said it’s very crass, and I absolutely understand why it might offend ex miners in Durham, which was very much damaged by the loss of mining.
Permabanned
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This thread is the pits.
Parody of the Nazis has been done by many mainstream comedians, and you would not expect much/any outrage these days for making light-hearted Nazi jokes.
But you would expect outrage if the fancy dress theme was Nazis vs Jews, with some dressing as each. So quite clearly time is not the only factor either. Perhaps we're just innately hypocritical in that something is not offensive if its sufficiently funny. I suspect that might be the case.
I personally can't draw too many parallels between the extermination of the Jews and the miner's strike, but as you say, it's up to each person to draw the line, even if just subconsciously.
Soldato
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I started the same thread tonight which got closed because the thread already existed. Therefore I think this existing thread needs to be re-named to include the relevant keywords because I missed it. Anyway Dons, feel free to delete my thread.
I'll re-post here what I wrote because of related questions like:
Is it offensive to hold a Western themed night?
If you ban something, what else do you ban?
How far does it go?
Where do you cross the line?
Then my question about FB/Twitter is that celebs are being done because of something that they posted 10 years as a minor... yes minor not miner
The crux of this is:
1. Offence is taken, not given.
2. Everything is offensive if you try hard enough.
I'll re-post here what I wrote because of related questions like:
Is it offensive to hold a Western themed night?
If you ban something, what else do you ban?
How far does it go?
Where do you cross the line?
Then my question about FB/Twitter is that celebs are being done because of something that they posted 10 years as a minor... yes minor not miner
The crux of this is:
1. Offence is taken, not given.
2. Everything is offensive if you try hard enough.
Pawnless Endgame said:
This. There had already been complaints from local residents. It’s bad PR. The rugby club will go back their old favourites like MPs and Dominatrix or something
Durham uni already has a somewhat tense relationship with the locals. The population doubles during term time, and you’re talking about a lot of well educated oxbridge rejects with wealthy professional parents descending on, guess what, a fairly impoverished northern ex mining area. It’s not a huge surprise that this wouldn’t go over well locally.
Disclaimer: I went to Durham as a well educated oxbridge reject with wealthy professional parents.
Disclaimer: I went to Durham as a well educated oxbridge reject with wealthy professional parents.
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Apt choice of words. The most surprising part of this for me was that it was a hill college. My money was on one of the Bailey colleges... one in particular.
You might want to re-read your history literature, “relatively minor” is well off the mark. Watch videos of Orgreave and try and imagine it happening today. MI5 tapping Union leaders phones, massive civil unrest, divided families and communities.
People don’t appreciate today how powerful unions and union figures were then. Rightly or wrongly, they dominated the political landscape. The Miners Strike was seismic, particularly to those directly involved.
Man of Honour
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I come from a mining City where families & friends were torn apart by the strike and grudges still go on to this day.
It wasn't a very nice time to be in around here and I was constantly passing food parcels.
In Stoke 1000s upon 1000s lost their jobs and all the mines were shut down.
Yes it is very distasteful from somebody who lived through it.
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I come from an ex mining town/village, people still remember the guys who were scabs during the strikes. It's a really big deal to a lot of people and the area has never recovered.
With that said I don't know where you draw the line at offending people and what should be allowed and what shouldn't
With that said I don't know where you draw the line at offending people and what should be allowed and what shouldn't
No.
The students wanted to do a miners' strike themed night out.
The locals didn't like it.
The University banned them from doing it.
So actually, cry baby locals/ex-miners and their friends/relatives/neighbors, who (rightly or wrongly), still haven't got over the events of 30 years ago.
Maybe try dropping the agenda and reading more than just the headlines?
seems a bit ridiculous, even with the potential for angry locals etc... people are getting way too sensitive re: taking offence etc..
when it crosses the line on the grounds of say race i.e. black face then sure but in this case the objection is regarding purely political sensitivities which is frankly ridiculous as politics has always been fair target for mockery
also it is clearly the lefty/miners thing that is causing the butthurt, if they'd just dressed up to mock thatcher and tories without anything to do with the miners strike then I'd wager there wouldn't be any issue as universities are overwhelmingly run by lefties
I remember back when I was at uni there was some controversy over a vicars and tarts themed event party supposedly being "sexist" - it didn't get cancelled though, instead it was pointed out to the angry feminist/socialist worker types that both men and women can be vicars and that quite a few men were planning to dress as tarts too
frankly with stuff like this, if you don't like it then don't attend the event
edit - spelling
when it crosses the line on the grounds of say race i.e. black face then sure but in this case the objection is regarding purely political sensitivities which is frankly ridiculous as politics has always been fair target for mockery
also it is clearly the lefty/miners thing that is causing the butthurt, if they'd just dressed up to mock thatcher and tories without anything to do with the miners strike then I'd wager there wouldn't be any issue as universities are overwhelmingly run by lefties
I remember back when I was at uni there was some controversy over a vicars and tarts themed event party supposedly being "sexist" - it didn't get cancelled though, instead it was pointed out to the angry feminist/socialist worker types that both men and women can be vicars and that quite a few men were planning to dress as tarts too
frankly with stuff like this, if you don't like it then don't attend the event
edit - spelling
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Soldato
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I'm offended by rugby lads on nights out so this actually works out quite nicely.
It’s the former miners who weren’t happy with it. Hardly the most PC of groups and definitely not soft.
I think some people on here could do with a history lesson. The bitterness at what happened remains today.
Why do some people need a history lesson? What happened, happened. They need to get over it mate and get a life ....