When I was at work today, I couldn't help noticing how the CBC was playing this very small story.
Over and over again. As if it was the biggest story in the world, and faggot wasn't an "offensive word."
And they weren't the only ones.
The decision nabbed international headlines (with Fox News and TV Guide among the U.S. websites to pick up on the story) and prompted furious debate on Twitter, where "Dire Straits" and "CBSC" were both trending topics in Canada.
So you can imagine how I felt when I came home and discovered that even on Progressive Bloggers, it was a feverish gang bang.
Gawd. Some old straight guys just don't get it.
So for the record..."Money For Nothing" is NOT banned in Canada. Radio stations are only being asked to play the newer version, which the band has included on at least three albums.
Nothing stops anyone from buying the original version, playing it at home, and shouting faggot all they like. If that's what turns them on.
But let's not pretend that replacing the word "faggot" with "mother" changes the context.
One sanitized version of Money For nothing replaces "faggot" with mother, another bleeps the epithet entirely, so that "See the little faggot with the earrings and the makeup," becomes "See the little (bleep) in the earrings and makeup." Seems to me that the context is still there. We know the character is deriding those 80s rockers with the big hair for their apparently feminine ways.
Or that the so-called satire wasn't an epic fail, as Mark Knopfler, who is no Mark Twain, reluctantly seems to recognize.
Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.
And the original version shouldn't be played on the public airwaves because gay people don't like to hear the faggot word. They hear it enough.
And it's KILLING gay kids...
"I think it's extremely important to take these words out of lyrics in popular culture," said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, an organization that promotes equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified people.
Oh boy. What can you say when not ONE of all the MSM stories and blog posts I read today saw fit to mention the plight of bullied gay kids?
What can you say about this feverish gang bang over the "right" to use the word faggot? Even in the so-called progressive blogosphere. Even if it hurts gay people.
What can you say about all those old straight guys who still don't get it?
Except, I hate BULLIES.
Like a kidney stone, or a stubborn stool, everything PASSES.
And of course, for all those fighting so hysterically for the "right" to
The last acceptable slur in the world.
This song is for YOU...
Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.
18 comments:
Thanks for posting this. I agree 100% with everything you say here.
You would think given the events in Arizona earlier in the week that people would have clued into the fact that words do indeed have consequences. No such luck, I guess.
As Knopfler and the cute MTV cartoon described, the song is about some asshole movers who are making fun of musicians, they are watching on TV, while taking a break. Which in real life or so I have read were real movers who saw MJ on TV and blurted the line.
It never struck me that the use of faggot in this song referred to being Gay and as an OLD straight guy, I am really trying to keep up here with the semantics and not be ignorantly, offensive.
But the verbiage keeps changing. Queer was offensive when I wasn't so OLD. Now in TV interviews with Gay activists it apparently is no longer so.
Sorry, this is really fucked up if the use of Faggot in a 25 year old song can somehow be related to bullying in high schools today by kids who have no idea of Dire Straits, or the Arizona shootings.
Treat the song like history, the way we were, "Jump down turn around pick a bail of cotton" Don't rewrite our fucking history or mess around with art.
But I'm just an OLD straight HIPPIE.
In my opinion, I do see this situation as similar to the Huckerberry Finn controversy. As a Black woman, do I like reading the word nigger in a piece of literature? Absolutely not. However it serves as a testimony to how ignorant people were in those days...and some people in our day still are. I just think the song shouldnt be played on the radio is all. Replacing the word "faggot" by "mother" doesn't negate the original intent of the song. If people want to listen to the song in the privacy of their homes, read Conrad's Heart of Darkness and revel as Africans are compared to savage beasts that's their prerogative. As for me, I have no interest in listening to the song at all.
Hey I'm now into 4 scotches, anfd I'll respond again.
Retromus-ik
Are you somehow comparing "Money for Noting" to Huck Finn or DS to Mark Twain. That is a bit of stretch.
And Jim the former n'word, now apparently "Slave" was one of the good guys if not the best adult in that book.Wasn't that the point that Sam Clements & Huck were trying to make.
And you are willing to accept the n word but agrree that the F word in an 80's song, a decade which produced crap musically is offensive.
Give me a b word for break.
I apologize Retromus-ik, if I have offended.
It could be the scotch or as Simon says (which is kinda cool when you think of it), I am a OLD straight WHITE guy.
Cheers
Just a thought, and you can assume that I'm old white and straight if you like but...
So, we talked about this a while back, the use of fat, chubby and porker in respect to the PM. At the time I pointed out that those words were not particularly nice to use all the time as insults. Or that insults in general were effective at getting your point accross. (thanks for reducing their use, btw.)
So, should we remove those words too, from your writing and from pretty much every comedian/sitcom? They are certainly a LOT more common than "faggot". I seldom see gay bashing anymore as part of the main stream media compared to fat jokes. I more often see someone called "fat" as an insult than "gay".
I don't know, it just seems strange to me to censor thoughts or expressions other than your own. That song was a parody of the "blue collar worker" who doesn't know and didn't understand. Dire Straights were calling THEMSELVES faggots, weren't they?
Also, to those who mentioned it, why does the quality of music have anything to do with it? You have your own little favourite music tastes, go listen to them.
Anyhow Simon, keep writing, peace, and out!
Off-ish topic.. Happy 10th anniversary of the world's first gay marriage. :)
And, um, on topic- too bad more people of the eighties didn't grow up with kids in the hall... ;)
You make some good points here, buuttt...
(Oh, and yeah - I am one of those bloggers who ranted against this decisions AND I am an older straight white guy AND I am bald).
I dislike decisions like these because:
a) They legitimise a revisionist's view of history.
b) They give credibility to what really should be a maraginal issue (c'mon - the song in over 2 decades old! Yet it is only now that someone has formally complained and has been successful in having it edited or taken off the air?)
c) It plays right into the hands of the far right who just LOVE to point at stuff like this and say: "See! We on the right would NEVER allow something like this!"
Yes. Words have consequences and bullying for any reason should not be tolerated. But I think there are bigger issues than this out there. Do any of you have a teen in the house? Have you ever listened to their music? Man... not for the sensitive ears!
Anyhoo - nice to comment on an insightful post for a change... better than the crap over on the Blogging Tories site...
Now I must go and haraass Ezra Levant some more - bye for now!
hi Paul...You're welcome. I can understand how people can be attached to songs, and not want them changed. But since nobody was pointing out the wider social context, I thought I had to, for the sake of those who endure the F-word daily...
hi Omar...yeah, as I told Paul I can understand an attachment to a song. And I'm not accusing progressives of being homophobic. But having so many people pile on demanding the right to use the F-word struck me as bizarre, and offended my sense of justice. Some guy even posted another song with the F-word in it because we can't hear the word faggot enough eh?
Gawd. I don't want to sound like a gay fundamentalist but REALLY... :)
hi WILLY...I am aware of Knopfler's intentions, and I'm not accusing him of being homophobic. But he DID change the song long ago, and what I am objecting to is playing the original version on the radio.
As I said, the word faggot is the last permissible slur, and it is used as weapon against gay children who continue to be bullied in this country, sometimes with tragic consequences.
So all I'm asking is that people remember that as well.
I'm not trying to steal your history, just trying to make life better for those children.
I probably shouldn't have used the words "old straight guys" but at the time I wroten the post my ears were humming with all the screams of protest so I admit to being needlessly provocative. ;)
hi Retromus-ik...needless to say I hate the N-word as much as I hate the F-word. I don't even like it when my black friends use the word among themselves, just like some gay people use the F-word when they talk to each other. But at least they are just trying to take the sting out of the slur. What I do find bizarre is when white straight people get into a lather demanding that both words be used.
Easy for them to say. As for me, I'll be glad when both words are history, because words do have consequences, and I want a better world for EVERYONE...
hi Peter...I owe you a lot for cautioning me about calling people like Jason Kenney a fat whatever. And I'm glad you've noticed that I don't do that anymore.
But I really don't see the world "old" as a pejorative. I work with a lot of seniors and I love them. I meant it as a generational thing. However, as I told Willy, I was probably needlessly provocative. I just care a lot about the plight of the bullied, and when I see people piling on, I am offended. There are a lot of things to get outraged about, but substituting the word mother for faggot ain't one of them.
Especially since the context of the song wasn't changed one bit, and Dire Straits censored.
themselves a long time ago.
I would much rather have written a post about our ghastly Con government, but under the circumstances I felt I had no choice...
hi Prin...thanks for the Kids in the Hall clip. I thought it was hilarious, because it's obvious it is satire. The problem with the Dire Straits use of the word is that it isn't that clear, as even Knopfler has acknowledged by singing and recording another version.
And thanks for reminding me about the anniversary of gay marriage. What are you trying to do? Make me feel guilty for not getting hitched? :)
hi John ...thanks for you comment, and I want to assure you that some of my best friends are older straight white guys. And anyone who likes to bother Ezra Levant is my best buddy. ;)
However, I disagree with you about the revisionist aspect. The fact is
people did complain when the song first came out, and because of that Knopfler changed the lyrics.
So why the outrage now? I agree with you that it isn't the biggest story in the world, but that's what annoyed me. So many people were treating it as if it was.
As for modern music, I partially agree with you. Apart from some distinguished exceptions (many of them Canadian) boomer music is DEFINITELY better.... :)
Here's your joke:::
Military pilot who had sex with an 11 year old boy when he was 17!!!
A JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL WHO HAD SEX WITH AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT!!! He needs to be on a sexual preditor list.
How long did he masterbate and think about having sex with boys? In boot camp? Into his flight training? 20, 25 YEARS OLD??? OLDER???
"Creepy rotten grape attached to an otherwise normal bunch." And he hurt property values too.
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