Willow Palin and her peers totally failed to shock the world with their homophobia. Their poor grammar, on the other hand—that’s a whole different story.
Willow Palin became the newest member of the Palin clan to make headlines today when news of her Facebook comments surfaced from Sunday night, as friends discussed her mom’s new show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” on TLC.
Palin used homosexual lingo in an offensive, pejorative context, calling friends who insulted her mom’s show “so gay” and “such a faggot.” Which is to say, she showed herself to be an average, run-of-the mill 16 year-old.
Did Willow Palin miss the memo on the whole “It Gets Better” campaign? Willow Palin and her friends are the reason the campaign exists. “It Gets Better” is about teenage anti-gay bullying. Are we supposed to be shocked to find that teenagers are using offensive, homophobic language? If we are, then this whole “It Gets Better” campaign has clearly been less effective than I thought.
Should we let teens know that this is inappropriate? Of course. Should “It Gets Better” campaigns bash into their thick skulls that resorting to “so gay” as an insult is just as unacceptable as “so black,” “so Jewish,” or insulting any other pocket of culture that proudly carries a distinct self-identity? Absolutely.
But to be shocked by teens’ ignorance in this department is to be simply blind to the obvious. After all, as Cindy McCain said (and then retracted) if “our government treats gay people like second-class citizens, why shouldn’t they?”
But the ignorance we can be shocked by is these kids’ stunningly poor grammar. Willow Palin and her friends’ offensive anti-gay language is terrible, but to be expected. Their inability to communicate with cogent sentences and the sheer volume of grammatical errors, however, reveal a basic unease with the English language that truly makes me fear for future generations. And I’m not even old.
Homophobia is grounds for outrage, sure. But young adults approaching voting age who are the children of a United States governor unable to speak fluently in their native tongue—now that is shocking.
Take a look below. Images via Huffington Post.
November 18, 2010 at 1:16 am, David said:
Whoever put those screenshots in line failed, hard.
February 09, 2011 at 7:20 pm, Anonymous Coward said:
They’re seen pretty well aligned to me. How would you improve the layout?
November 19, 2010 at 12:47 am, Saphina said:
Why would anyone be surprised that the Palin kids can't construct a decent sentence – have you listened to the mother speak? She's a twit!
December 07, 2010 at 7:43 pm, Democracy_Docrtor said:
“…..Average, run-of-the mill 16 year-old…..” Excuse me, Moore?! I was 16 once, and neither I, NOR my friends talked like that. Another STUPID thing we didn't do: argue about silly things like BAD TV shows. But of course, that was almost 30 years ago, and the intelligence “bar” has continued to fall rapidly! So perhaps I will concede your point? But, I suppose the “fruit” doesn't fall far from the tree. And our parents didn't name us after trees or airplanes, either…..
January 23, 2011 at 3:31 am, Moe said:
Her biggest error is the constant use of your when she means you’re. But honestly, most adults have trouble with that concept. And it’s a Facebook post, not a college essay. People tend to be very lax about grammar on Internet message boards, even children of US governors.
May 01, 2011 at 8:34 am, Reverend Flash said:
This is most kids and most young adults, too. There was a time when young people did most of their writing in school. Teachers were there with their red pens to point out all the errors in hopes of getting through to the half-wits. Now, most writing is done on computers and cell phones where it goes unchecked. The battle is lost. Full-grown adults type like monkeys. What were once grammatical mistakes are now ‘lingo’. The English language is doomed, and the Western world is doomed right along with it.