The Most Disgusting Moment Of the 2013 Oscars Was a Tweet Attacking a 9-Year-Old Girl

Culture

Update: The Onion has issued an apology.

Shortly after the Oscars wrapped, The Onion, a publication known for its abundance of satire and wit, quickly learned there’s a line even they are not permitted to cross.

At 11:42 p.m. EST, the following tweet (offensive term redacted) went out:

Immediately, the offensive tweet was met with a pushback that something of such an offensive nature deserves.  

For starters, the tweet is disgusting. It’s demeaning, violent, sexist and so many other things wrong in the world; but what makes the tweet ultimately unfathomable is that the subject is a 9-year-old little girl.

I know we are a culture that is comfortable degrading and dehumanizing women, but have we really reached a point where THAT is acceptable?

Apparently not. 

An hour after the horrendous post, it was deleted from The Onion’s timeline, and certainly only because of an overwhelmingly negative response consisting of admonishing the publication and management, a mass unfollowing, reporting the tweet as spam and contacting The Onion’s main office via email and calls.

And though the tweet has been deleted, The Onion will have to do far more to prove there is sincere regret about what happened. For starters, firing the person who composed the tweet may work. Secondly, establishing a policy for how to deal with children maybe like not addressing them at all is also needed.

And then, when that’s all said and done, let’s figure out what is so outrageously wrong with a society that has a problem with a little girl who wants to be called by her given name, or a child who has a sense of pride. Why is it that we live in a world where black women (or any minority or member of a marginalized group for that matter) with healthy self-esteem are seen as a threat?

How do we kill this hateful nature of our society? I suppose standing together and saying enough is enough is a tremendous step. Let’s keep moving forward.