Look Beyond the Offensive Parts

Everybody has different tastes, so saying that something is offensive is subjective. However, most people do have a line or a subject that, when brought up, really bothers them. When that happens, people rarely notice anything but how offended they are. While I totally understand that reaction, I believe it is important to be able to look beyond the offensive parts.

I don't particularly hate profane words, but I do have a limit of how much I can take before it becomes too much. Normally, that would mean that I would never care for the stand-up comedy of Chris Rock. That man swears every third word. That's way too much for me. And yet, I love Chris Rock. I think he's funny as hell. And more importantly, he has important things to say. Chris Rock talks about race and race relations. He talks about marriage and about being a father. If you can get past his language, he actually is a very smart and powerful speaker.

The same can be said for nudity. If the naked body offends your eyes, don't bother watching pornography; there's nothing you will enjoy there. However, not all nudity is useless. In the movie Daybreakers, there is a repeating scene where humans are held captive, immobile, attached to a device that is slowly harvesting their blood. These humans are completely naked. Their genitals are covered, but there are still a number of close-ups, including the breasts of a pregnant woman. Though this might be offensive to some, there is a point to it. It is a visual representation of how humans are treated. They aren't human; they're animals, mere resources to be harvested. The lack of clothes shows how they have been stripped of their humanity.

Sometimes, offensive things simply exist for shock value. Those can be safely ignored (unless you are down for the metaphilosophy of offensive material itself). Sometimes offensive things exist to illustrate a meaningful point. And sometimes, offensive things merely coexist with a meaningful point. In the latter two examples, you will never get a meaningful point unless you can look beyond the offensive parts.