Well ladies, it’s been fun. You know, the whole “getting mad over absolutely nothing” thing. Getting pissed off over bullshit. Waking up each and every day trying to be offended by something. It’s honestly pretty easy nowadays. With television, the internet, and social media, finding something to be upset about is a piece of cake. Except talking about cake might be offensive if you’re gluten free, so I’m sorry. But boy, do you get upset! And you’re not alone. Raise you’re hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by the world.
It’s literally all of us. I mean, just this morning I got upset because my boyfriend said he didn’t want to go to the grocery store with me. THE GROCERY STORE. Who the fuck am I, and what the hell happened to the strong, sassy, “zero fucks” girl that I used to be? What happened to all of us? It feels like one day we decided that life isn’t meant to be laughed at. It’s meant to be fair. Uniform. Politically correct. And it sucks.
When a boy doesn’t like us. When a friend disagrees with us. When someone posts something on the internet that rubs us the wrong way, we get shocked. We get mad. We are astounded that anyone could be that insensitive. So we demand apologies. We complain until they take back what they said, say they didn’t mean it, and nurse our bruised egos back to (inflated) health. But do you know what the truth is? No one cares that you got offended. Because guess what? It’s your problem, not theirs.
Did that piss you off? It’s okay if it did. Did you feel the blood rush to your face, and your heart rate increase? Did you consider scrolling down to the comments section and leaving me a heated message? Again, it’s fine if you did. In fact, it’s become totally normal in our society.
If we don’t like something, we instantly play the victim. Now that’s not to say that their aren’t times when we really ARE the victim. Sometimes there truly are hate crimes. Sometimes actual sexist remarks take place. Sometimes people are racist. People can be cruel, evil, and go too far with no regard to other people. So yes, sometimes we really are the victim – but not always. Not even most of the time.
And personally, I think it’s time we stop. Not because we shouldn’t fight for equality, and not because we shouldn’t fight for beauty standards. Not because we should accept oppression and not because it’s okay to be racist or anti-feminist, or pro-this or anti-that. But because we’re individuals. We’re unique and we’re alive and we only get to be on this Earth once. We shouldn’t waste that time being miserable offended, assholes.
Because, honestly? It’s okay to laugh. It’s okay to smile and brush things off. It’s okay to giggle when a comedian makes a lewd joke, or chuckle when you read something that pushes the boundaries. And most of all, it’s okay to fight for the good of humanity and not act like a victim any chance we get. It’s time we stop caring so much if everything is offensive.
Like this clip by Amy Schumer.
You could have watched it one of two ways:
1) You instantly got offended. How could she joke about race and perpetuate stereotypes? It’s not only disgusting and in poor taste, but it offends you completely.
2) You realize that it’s a touchy topic, but honestly? It’s funny. So you smile, laugh, and stop caring so much.
Because you know she doesn’t mean it badly, you know it’s in good fun, and you know that it’s really not hurting anyone. Most of all it’s not hurting you, especially if you don’t let it.
Why don’t we get this giant “I’m going to be offended by everything” stick out of our asses, and start enjoying life again? We need to stop cowering in the corner feeling like the victim just because someone called us “skinny” or “bitchy” or “crazy.” We need to own it. We need to love it. Not because we’re giving up, but because we’re better than this. We’re better than this constant witch hunt that we’re on. We’re better than living a life of reaction, as opposed to action. Because at the end of the day, we need to look at life for what it is: really fucking short.
So do we want to spend our dwindling days hearing what we think we should hear? Taking everything so literally and finding something to be upset about each and every day? Or should we stop forcing the laugh down our throats? Stop clamping a hand over our mouths when something “touchy” makes us giggle? Stop deciding to be hurt every time someone says something that could be considered offensive?
As for me? I think I’ll take the second route. Life is meant to be lived and loud and felt so fully that you can’t help but laugh at the most tragically beautiful things. We’re not living this life to be the “offended generation.” We’re living this life to be happy, laughing, and completely fabulous. Isn’t it time we start acting like it?.
Nice Move681
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Rachel Varina
(yeahokaywhat) Aspiring to be the next Tina Fey, Rachel spends her free time doing nothing to reach that goal. While judging people based on how they use "they're" vs. "there" on social media, she likes eating buffalo chicken dip, watching other people's Netflix, and wearing sweatpants way more than is socially acceptable.
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