If you can't take a spoof, perhaps politics is not your arena

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15:

Dear Sir,

I read with interest the article in today’s Bermuda Sun (Friday, August 10, 2012) entitled ‘Apologies as spoof of OBA draws fire’.

What stands out to me is that the Bermuda Sun sees this as newsworthy and worthy of space in the newspaper but has not seen the use of an image of Chris Furbert, President of the BIU, being used as spoof in the Non-Mariner’s race as being offensive, nor has it seen the number of spoofs of Premier Paula Cox as being offensive to females or others.

There are a couple of ways to see Makai Dickenson’s cartoon and each person will, I guess, see it from their respective political positions (1) it can be viewed as highlighting the fact that the ladies depicted in the cartoon are present at many OBA candidate rollouts but they say absolutely nothing, they just stand in the background, or (2) it can be viewed as being offensive because it is depicting female politicians standing around saying nothing.

Why was Makai’s cartoon depicting OBA leader, Craig Cannonier, without a mouth not also viewed as offensive? Have we reached a point where it is fine and dandy to politically spoof male politicians without fear of being offensive but it is in bad taste or offensive to do the same with female politicians?

Are we accepting of male politicians being criticised but criticising female politicians is off limits... well... criticising OBA female politicians, as there are a number of spoofs of Premier Paula Cox circulating on Facebook for which your newspaper has not created an article labelling them as offensive against females. Where is the consistency in all of this?

With regard to Chris Furbert being spoofed during the Non-Mariner’s race, please explain why this did not get your attention as being offensive?

Chris Furbert is NOT a political figure, contrary to what some may wish to present. Some may hold the view that because Mr Furbert is regularly in the news that he is fair game but his position as President of the BIU is not a political position so why is it okay for him to be spoofed without your newspaper seeing it as offensive?

When addressing this on the Bermuda Elections 2012 Facebook page, one poster stated that Mr Furbert called for an Island-wide boycott of KFC  so he is fair game but it should be noted that Mr Furbert does not dictate to the union, nor its members and he would not have called for this boycott as an individual but as the elected President (representative) of the BIU.

Therefore, a more appropriate spoof would have been to use the BIU as an organisation, not the President.

My point in this is: Have we become so politically divided as a country that we are prepared to throw equity and fairness out the window and allow things about the party we oppose to slide but take strong offence to those things that focus negative attention on the party we support?

Where do we draw the line? Are female OBA politicians off limits for political satire but depicting the female leader of the country satirically is acceptable?

Politics is not an arena for the faint of heart and if you are going to take offence to satire then maybe politics is not the place for you to participate.

Go back and take a look at how President Obama has been attacked based on his race, his name, his ears and look at the ongoing questions over his place of birth. The fact is, he has had to endure more scrutiny than any other President in the history of the U.S.

Had he not had thick skin and was determined to succeed he could easily have stood up and shouted that he was offended, that these attacks are based on his race and he could have demanded apologies but his position was essentially: “This is part and parcel with political involvement and all of this was anticipated and is expected.”

Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr
Nassau, Bahamas