In the 90s, ‘Political Correctness’ was sweeping through the western world, and was big news in the public consciousness. And that brought along some strong sentiments.
At that time, ‘Political Correctness’ was seen by many as nothing more than “a list of things you shouldn’t say in polite company” - that is to say, purely performative rather than something that would actually change behaviours or meaningfully improve anyone’s lives in the way we see inclusive behaviours to be now. It was nothing more than lip gloss for public speakers and TV presenters, and people thought it pointless, and stifling of free expression.
In other words, Political Correctness felt to many like a top-down push to enforce change, spearheaded by people it didn’t actually affect. Very unlike modern inclusion where change originates from within communities who are themselves affected.
It created an environment where being offensive and “non-PC” was therefore a counter-culture challenge to authority, and especially among young people there was nothing cooler than challenging authority.
Given the young demographic of gaming magazines this created the ideal conditions for these wild ads. A lot of them were extremely ableist and mysogynistic, but a lot were also extreme simply by featuring violence and sex and drug use. Being extreme in any way was the whole point, because the purpose was to say “You want me to be ‘PC’? Well fuck you,” and throw up the middle finger.
Of course, there’s a tremendous amount of irony in advertisers jumping on this sentiment of anti-conformity to sell products… but that’s another point entirely.
No rebellious kids were talking about “political correctness”, it was always a bunch of 40+ year old gammons wanting to keep using slurs and treating people like shit.
EDIT: Maybe that was true in the 90s. Definitely wasn’t a few years later in the 00s.
No. Wrong. Don’t make me get the spray bottle. Fuck off with that rose tinted bullshit.
My lived experiences completely contradict that.
I went through highschool in the 00s. The term political correctness wasn’t used, but there were massive swaths of teenage assholes running around.
“Saying gay is offensive? That’s fucking gay.”
Day where a bunch of kids are silent to protest the use of retarded as slang? “Can’t you talk? What are you, retarded?”
“I’m a lesbian trapped in a man’s body.” Not meant as some statement about trans-ness, gender, or identity. Dead straight kid meaning they liked looking at girls feel each other up (which was an unfortunate thing that some did for male attention at the time).
The one and only neo-nazi skinhead I ever had the misfortune of meeting was a student at my highschool.
Kids, particularly teenagers, can be exceedingly repulsive assholes. Racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc are not the exclusive realm of ebil adults.
I think the thing we’re getting hung up on here is the language. Are these teenage edgelords really rebellious? Regrettably, I was one of those kids in high school, and so were most of my friends. I guess you could argue that we rebelling against the school and societies authority, but the reality was we were the biggest bunch of loser bullies in the school.
Unfortunately, few of them grew out of this phase, and now they’re just the lamest group of adult men sharing edgy memes on discord.
I’m not saying kids didn’t use shitty language, I’m saying they said it as general stupid shit they always say.
I’m saying kids didn’t blame it on “politics” or “political correctness gone mad” just the same way they didn’t avoid wearing protective gear because they thought it was “lame” not “elf and safety gone mad”
In the 90s, ‘Political Correctness’ was sweeping through the western world, and was big news in the public consciousness. And that brought along some strong sentiments.
At that time, ‘Political Correctness’ was seen by many as nothing more than “a list of things you shouldn’t say in polite company” - that is to say, purely performative rather than something that would actually change behaviours or meaningfully improve anyone’s lives in the way we see inclusive behaviours to be now. It was nothing more than lip gloss for public speakers and TV presenters, and people thought it pointless, and stifling of free expression.
In other words, Political Correctness felt to many like a top-down push to enforce change, spearheaded by people it didn’t actually affect. Very unlike modern inclusion where change originates from within communities who are themselves affected.
It created an environment where being offensive and “non-PC” was therefore a counter-culture challenge to authority, and especially among young people there was nothing cooler than challenging authority.
Given the young demographic of gaming magazines this created the ideal conditions for these wild ads. A lot of them were extremely ableist and mysogynistic, but a lot were also extreme simply by featuring violence and sex and drug use. Being extreme in any way was the whole point, because the purpose was to say “You want me to be ‘PC’? Well fuck you,” and throw up the middle finger.
Of course, there’s a tremendous amount of irony in advertisers jumping on this sentiment of anti-conformity to sell products… but that’s another point entirely.
It was a wierd time.
No.
No rebellious kids were talking about “political correctness”, it was always a bunch of 40+ year old gammons wanting to keep using slurs and treating people like shit.
EDIT: Maybe that was true in the 90s. Definitely wasn’t a few years later in the 00s.
No. Wrong. Don’t make me get the spray bottle. Fuck off with that rose tinted bullshit.
My lived experiences completely contradict that.
I went through highschool in the 00s. The term political correctness wasn’t used, but there were massive swaths of teenage assholes running around.
“Saying gay is offensive? That’s fucking gay.”
Day where a bunch of kids are silent to protest the use of retarded as slang? “Can’t you talk? What are you, retarded?”
“I’m a lesbian trapped in a man’s body.” Not meant as some statement about trans-ness, gender, or identity. Dead straight kid meaning they liked looking at girls feel each other up (which was an unfortunate thing that some did for male attention at the time).
The one and only neo-nazi skinhead I ever had the misfortune of meeting was a student at my highschool.
Kids, particularly teenagers, can be exceedingly repulsive assholes. Racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc are not the exclusive realm of ebil adults.
I think the thing we’re getting hung up on here is the language. Are these teenage edgelords really rebellious? Regrettably, I was one of those kids in high school, and so were most of my friends. I guess you could argue that we rebelling against the school and societies authority, but the reality was we were the biggest bunch of loser bullies in the school.
Unfortunately, few of them grew out of this phase, and now they’re just the lamest group of adult men sharing edgy memes on discord.
I’m not saying kids didn’t use shitty language, I’m saying they said it as general stupid shit they always say.
I’m saying kids didn’t blame it on “politics” or “political correctness gone mad” just the same way they didn’t avoid wearing protective gear because they thought it was “lame” not “elf and safety gone mad”