Yank objects to Reg cherry-popping headline

Taking both sides...

As a hostage to Time-Warner Cable service I was at first surprised to find anyone there, including subsidiary News 14 Carolina, aware of the existence of El Reg, but then I realised that it only happened because his kids stumbled upon it via that google thingie, thus preserving TWC's general cluelessness.

In fairness to Jeff, though, there probably have never been all that many *news headlines* talking about "popping cherries", or, to use the verb you quote him as using, "busting" them.

However, he really needs to decide if he wants his children learning about world news or if he wants to continue to try to protect their tender sensibilities and youthful naivete. I fear he will find these two goals mutually exclusive.

Southern newspapers paginated 1,2,4,5,6...

"If he has children #

By Dale Morgan Posted Saturday 21st November 2009 00:48 GMT

FAIL

Then he must of grown up during the days when there were topless females plastered all over the main stream newspapers."

Not in North Carolina he didn't.

(our newspapers really don't skip from page 2 to page 4 the way I understand some buildings avoid a 13th floor, but the content is not what made Rupert rich).

@Dale Morgan

"Then he must of grown up during the days when there were topless females plastered all over the main stream newspapers."

Not here in the USofA ... puritanism is a loud subset of the population, and unfortunately the people with "old money" run the place. On the other hand, there are alternatives to the mainstream press ... for example, I suspect that your "Guardian" would be horrified by "The San Francisco Bay Guardian" ;-)

www.sfbg.com

It might surprise some folks posting from Blighty, but when my parents dragged the family to England[1] in the late 60s and early 70s (roughly my teenage years), they didn't hide publications like "The Sun" and various odds & ends like seaside postcards from us four kids. Not all of the population of the United States are prudes.

On the other hand, I'm a child of the sixties ... and my parents got their degrees from Berkeley.

[1] Bude for a couple years (ending in my 11+), then back to the states, then Harrogate for me "O" and "A" levels ... followed by two years at Kings College, and a transfer to Berkeley for my first two degrees. No wonder I'm weird.

Re: Alternate Meanings

The American author Jack Vance wrote a series of Books, whose collective title I forget, involving a Human, transported to a alien world, trying to get back home...

Book 3 of this series was entitled Servants of The Wankh, & involved our hero trying to avoid, said servants, called in the book, Wankhmen...

Needless to say, when released in the U.K under this title, the author was suprised by the British response to said title.

As a result, the book had to be retitled , & later when interviewed, he remarked how dirty minded the British were...

Does everything really have to be tasteless?

One commenter notes:

"I think the sensitivity level of the audience member involved is set higher than the vernacular of the day, not to mention The Reg."

Seems to me it's the other way around. I think the sensitivity of the Reg readership, as evidenced by the comments so far, is set lower than the majority of the day. The phrase IS crude, and a lot of us are getting a little tired of the adolescent minority arguing that anyone who gets bent out of shape about crudity has a problem and needs to grow up.

It's a little difficult to figure out in the first place how a company sharing more detail about a new OS equates to the OS losing its virginity. I agree completely with the first poster who commented simply, "It is a stupid headline."

Out of curiosity, I have to ask those who defend crudity with regard to describing a woman's loss of her virginity: how many of you are parents? And if you think those who object to the phraseology are over-sensitive....say your 7 year old daughter comes to you, Dad, or you, Mom, and asks what the headline means. How are you planning to answer her? "Well, dear, all women have something known as a hymen...and when a man has intercourse with a woman, and puts his penis in her vagina...."

OK, exactly how comfortable are you now with having a discussion about sex with your 7 year old? Did you prefer to wait until she was older? Or until your 6 year old son was older? But they're asking you now.

And if you get through the explanation of what "cherry popping" means, and your child asks you, "But why does it say Google is going to pop Chrome's cherry," what is your answer?

That's exactly what I would ask the headline writer, frankly. What do you advise a parent to answer? Why choose that phrase? And how do you explain the relationship between the breaking of a girl's hymen during intercourse and a company revealing more information about its new OS? Was the OS's virginity taken? Is an announcement the same as intercourse or rape?

Sure, this is not a site that we think of as being very interesting to children. But children are interested in the darnedest things...and what Net Nanny or Big Brother software out there blocks the Reg? The Reg is not a porn site. It's for technology news.

And I have to say: even as an adult female, I find the phrase distasteful, but only partly because it's more commonly linked with porn than mainstream news. The really objectionable thing is that it implies losing one's virginity is a violent or aggressive act. For some, no doubt it is. But it shouldn't be, and it is disturbingly sad that so many commenters here fail to see how the phrase perpetuates a stereotype we need to toss out.

We need to stop reducing sex to an "act," and start teaching our children it is an expression of love. Not violence or control or damage....affection and love.

And what does this comment have to do with technology? How does it relate to IT?

Nothing at all. It doesn't. But then, neither does the headline.

So I choose to object to the extremely poor choice of words, and stand instead on the side of humanity, friendship, gentleness, and love. Maybe the Reg will, in light of those ideals, instruct the writer to show a little class (have her look up the definition of that word) in future. Someone also ought to take her aside and explain kindly that vulgar does not equal "hip" or "cool." It only equals vulgar.

Cheers,

cordwainer

Presumably Jeff hasn't got as far as reading any of the comments pages

the kind of language used hereabouts will give him a fucking coronary

@cordwainer

"So I choose to object to the extremely poor choice of words"

You can choose whatever you want. The vernacular is the vernacular. Get used to it.

"and stand instead on the side of humanity, friendship, gentleness, and love."

This is a tech site. Friendship, perhaps. Humanity, gentleness & love has nothing to do with technology. Technology is a "how it works, in real life" thing. The other three are purely emotional, and pretty much empirical, if not ethereal, and/or ephemeral.

"Maybe the Reg will, in light of those ideals, instruct the writer to show a little class (have her look up the definition of that word) in future.

I'm pretty certain you've been reading ElReg nearly as long as I have ... Why would you expect "class" in the future, when it has never been in evidence in the past? This is a fucking red-top, and from what I have seen they are proud of it! The fact that they manage to provide actual, real, technological news, usually faster than so-called "real" news services provide the same info, is just gravy.

"Someone also ought to take her aside and explain kindly that vulgar does not equal "hip" or "cool." It only equals vulgar."

Here, I agree with you! But not for the same reason, apparently. Sometimes "hospital humor" is a good idea ... for example, when the writer isn't trying to be "hip" or "cool", but rather is being vulgar with the obvious intention of being humorous, usually with the intent of pointing out that the article in question is pointing out the stupidity of whatever the article is commenting on.

And no, my daughter wasn't shielded from the reality of sexuality when she was growing up, no more than I was (we both pretty much grew up in a barn). When she had questions, we had answers. Nothing was taboo, with the exception of trying to work around the concept of "privacy". Today, she's happily married, and her own children are doing well ... and growing up in a barn.

City folks ... somehow we need to figure out how to educate city folks ...

well....

no doubt the guy never considered wiping his arse on teh bibel..................

@cordwainer

'Out of curiosity, I have to ask those who defend crudity with regard to describing a woman's loss of her virginity: how many of you are parents? And if you think those who object to the phraseology are over-sensitive....say your 7 year old daughter comes to you, Dad, or you, Mom, and asks what the headline means. How are you planning to answer her? "Well, dear, all women have something known as a hymen...and when a man has intercourse with a woman, and puts his penis in her vagina...."'

You have confirmed what I long suspected. Most people who call for sensorship of sexual (even vaguely sexual) content in the media are simply worried about their kids embarrassing them.

Wow

She went to Hacktard school? Was it closed?