Can someone tell me what the point of neutral is? I mean, if you’re in neutral, you're coasting. If you wear neutral, it’s to blend. To avoid standing out. OR to make some other feature stand out. To create contrast. But do you really want to be the plain friend on the dance floor while the pretty one gets all the attention?
We sometimes have to deal with issues of tone in our work. It often centres around what might be “work-appropriate”. In our business, when you’re trying to make something stand out, to rise above the crowd, to be anything BUT neutral, it’s depressing when we apply rules and standards that we would laugh at in our personal lives. At work, apparently, a scene cannot be violent – even in the pursuit of comedy. It cannot suggest someone is (God forbid) attractive. It has to have ethnic diversity (at the severe cost of talent choices).
Politically correct. Inclusive. Safe.
Why?
Why can’t we make (for once) something that provokes a bold, positive response in most of the target audience? By making people experience a visceral moment (burst out laughing, shock, whatever..) we immediately connect with them. And for those few who take it the wrong way, or apply a Presbyterian assessment standard (and it’s always a tiny minority) we can say “That’s not how we meant it. Thanks for the feedback though.”
Just once?
I want to find to the link to that video but I can't seem to find it. It's a Louis CK stand up show. The short of what he said during it was "Since when did it become not OK to offend people."
ReplyDeleteWe live in a society of different people. We have now been made so, so fearful of offending anyone. I believe when you have to get a message across, some people will get offended. That shouldn't put one off. The need to be PC all the time is hammered into us right from the primary school days.
If people are offended, that's a opportunity to engage with them and make them understand your point and understand their point. When you offend someone, it gives birth to an opportunity; an opportunity to discuss your ideas.
PS: Being a racist/jerk type offensive is not the type of offensive I mean here.