So my friend showed me this calendar, and we had an argument:
http://www.zazzle.com/kittens_of_conscience_calendars-158624410840354647
It’s a 2014 wall calendar with pictures of cats. Except the cats are all saying vaguely liberal slogans like:
“We are the 99%”
“If you are not outraged, then you are not paying attention”
“I don’t have to fit in you gender binary.”
Is this silly, offensive, or lame?
It’s cute & silly.
Are you arguing the models’ views have been misrepresented ?
Lame, if it actually says “I don’t have to fit in you gender binary.” Or at least grammatically-challenged.
Can’t it be a little of each?
Not since that trip to the vet’s.
My bad, it actually says
“I don’t have to conform to your gender binary.”
<snerk>
That’s what I said. My friend actually says it’s mean spirited. Oh well.
I’m not cat person, but it seems to me that it’s impossible for any calendar featuring cute kittens in traditional harmless poses to be mean-spirited.
Wait to you see next year’s “Ku Klux Kitties” calendar.
If the idea is to pair these quotes with cute kittens, fine. If the idea is to mock people for actually believing in the existence of income inequality or genderqueer people, offensive and silly.
With no particular knowledge of the intent behind it, I’m voting for lame–but I tend to think that these kind of slogans are lame anyway. So at least this calendar has cats on it, which improves things marginally.
I’m voting for lame based on the fact that’s got to be the stupidest web design ever.
I am not getting why anyone would find it “mean spirited” even if they object to the sentiments, but it is certainly lame. Not only is the whole conception lame (whether intended seriously or as satire), but the choice of ‘slogans’ is puzzling and inept. A couple of the slogans seem to be so general that anyone from anywhere on the political spectrum could happily endorse them. (E.g., “If you are not outraged, then you are not paying attention”. Outraged about what? Economic inequality? Taxes and Obama? The fact that gays are, or are not, allowed to marry?) Most of them seem to be things that a militant feminist or LGBTQ activist might say (or feel they ought to say) in particular circumstances, perhaps if certain “politically incorrect” things were said to them. These make little sense as stand-alone slogans or “thoughts for the month”, and are not likely to appeal to liberals or progressives across the board. Few if any of the slogans have much to do with general liberalism or progressivism. Apart from “We are the 99%,” i saw nothing that even hints at economic or class issues.
What does “No, we don’t all know each other” mean? I’ve never heard of that slogan.
Isn’t that a sentiment that’s often been lobbed at black people? Sort of akin to “But they all look alike!”
And I agree with this, but I’m betting it’s the former.
I’m assuming it’s from the stereotype that all people of the same ethnicity know each other. For example, there are two African-Americans at your work and you assume they know each other simply because they’re both African-American.
I must be Going To Hell; I would actually consider buying such a thing.
I know someone who would probably appreciate it, though I’m not getting her that.
But is that not the point, that people will appreciate it and pay for it, this way people can make money off of ideals they may not necessarily share but find OK to profit from.
So it is ultimately a knock against capitalism IMHO.