University of South Carolina Libraries
EDITORIAL Anti-rC MTV show leads assault on political correctness f?1 V/'ou can't escape. X Everywhere you turn, you can't avoid hearing the infectious, "Huh huh . huh...cool." A The chortles and antisocial behavior of MTV's stupid anti-heroes, Beavis and Butt-head, have captured the hearts of Generation X. Their antics have included sawing a praying mantis' "tweeter" off, washing a poodle in a laundromat, frying a dead mouse and feeding it to a customer, and shooting down a jetliner while skeet shooting. After completing a destructive act, they chant Deep Purple guitar riffs and utter, 'That was cool. Let's go blow up something." As they watch music videos, they make derogatory comments about the singers, often calling them "wusses." To qualify as cool, a video must have three critical elements: "chicks, chains, and fire." While the humor is far-fetched and ludicrous, it hints at the darker underpinnings holding our generation together. The common threads of sex ism and violence that dominate any action taken by Beavis or Butt-head is not funny. They revel at any politically incorrect action. After years of PC, our generation has had enough of it and is beginning to revolt against it. Beavis and Butt-head's popularity is the opening shot in the revolution against PC. Rather than unite our generation, PC has only caused further fragmentation. The root of PC, the hyphenization of every ethnic, racial and religious group, has only caused more confusion about what to call each group. We have become so worried about what to call each other that there has been a total breakdown in the communication process. Instead of uniting under one banner of "America," we've become segmented and polarized into competing factions. If one person is offended, then that person's rights have been violated. As a result of PC, Jeffersonian democracy has come full circle. In today's society, the rights of these individual groups far outweigh the rights of the state. The rights of the offended minority are placed above the rights of the unoffended majority, bringing democracy to a standstill. If democracy is to progress, as history has shown it can, then some people will be left behind. No one man or group can, or should, die tate the government's agenda. It should be a constructed compromise, agreeable to both the majority and minority. While to some Beavis and Butt-head represent the antithesis of Western civilization-, they are actually filling a need within our generation to combat political correctness. As a release valve for our anger, Beavis and Butt-head serve as a medium of protest that allows the majority and minority to begin the difficult procedure of compromise. ^5 Straight white mi There's a new breeze in social con sciousness blowing through the 9Us. Forget gay liberation, African-American power, Hispanic language rights and women's issues. The new "oppressed minority" in this decade may be that old standard, used-tohaving-their-own-way class of people: the straight, white male. SWM's are steadily becoming the most popularly bashed group in the country and most of them still don't have a clue about how to respond to the "degradation." Sit in on any single women's Saturday night-and-I-don't- have-a-date food-eating contest and it doesn't take long to understand why SWM's may soon become an endangered species in this nation. Between mouthfuls, any woman will tell you that SWM's are stupid, jerky and haven't expressed a feeling since their mother pulled the last Superman Band-Aid off their hairy skinned knee during adolescence. African-Americans sometimes still use thai nld '70s wnrrt "hnnkv" as rhav snirker while the SWM drives his convertible nervously through the "wrong" neighborhood. Hispanics just utter degradations in Spanish, knowing most SWM's haven't even mastered the English language yet. We already know that straight white men can't jump. But different classes of Americans can tell you they can't take out the garbage, communicate in a complete sentence or talk to a stranger unless they are traveling in a gang of other SWM's. They also can't spell. A straight white DM mwm it ishir gridlock.. mw5p neither 0f1hw PRNEVBflWHJU g en becoming 'end; Kevin t j IVI e n k e n I nlmi ' tJr %. rAlaHMtHict ?m J x VVINIIIIU91 / male who wanted to trash a gay person recently wrote in a residence hall elevator "Fagget." Underneath was scribbled, "Breeder can't spell." For the SWM, the world is getting increasingly hostile. The "old boy" network is more often referred to as the "tired, old boy" network, and the next generation of straight white men are left with the task of paying for the social sins of their forefathers. Although the time hasn't arrived yet when women take a measuring tape through a crowded bar to save them dating time, a growing number of females are more interested in their ability to attract a mate who can move furniture at will and respond to basic obedience commands. And most SWM's still haven't seen the locker room of a gym. "I've never understood why they insist on watching sports on television they are too out of shape to participate in," said one divorced woman, who swears she keeps her fingernail polish and a stack of the latest magazines on her nightstand in case she has a gentleman caller. . J , . ? - -?/ ^ ^ angered species' "And I've never figured out how they could take apart an automobile engine, but can't comprehend the challenge of replacing an old battery in the television remote control," she continued. While these statements haven't sent large numbers of SWM's running into the safety net of the priesthood, there is a growing danger they may be losing their hegemonic grip on opportunity. Although some SWM's have tried to learn how to wash dishes, do the laundry and become more sensitive to the world of diversity around them, they are more often left in a bewildered silence when faced ~ I-1 1 - r .1 ? wiui uic uiainc aiiu gum or omer minoniy groups. Instead, they are confronted with growing numbers of gay people wearing tee shirts that read: "That's Mr. Faggot to you," and "2QT2BSTR8." Women and minority groups are already plotting how to convert golf courses into shopping centers and are checking out some old plantations as homesteads. For the SWM. this signifies the hecin ? e> ? ning of a change in social image and status; an alteration bound to affect his basic self esteem and how he looks at the world. But as yet there are no picket signs, no demonstrations and no demands to be granted equal status on the social playing field of the next century. Perhaps they're still working on how to handle the garbage detail. Kevin Menken is a columnist for The Gamecock.