[Media] So it's okay for House to make jokes about being a pedophile now?

[moonvoice]

I just watched the latest House episode.


In it, two jokes were made on two separate occasions by the titular character, concerning pedophilia. I am going to list both, the first:

House to his team in response to the question - 'where are you?';

1. 'Playground! Great place to meet chicks... their Moms too!'

The reaction from the team: Nothing. They continue on like it's fine for House to imply that he is a pedophile. The explicit meaning of the joke? The playground is a great place to meet chicks kids! Oh, their Moms can be okay too. Awesome.

House to Taub in reaction to the question - 'what are you doing?';

2. 'Maybe you don't care if children chew on your caterpillar, but I think it's wrong...'

The reaction: Nothing. They continue on (four characters) like it's fine for House to imply that Taub is a pedophile who likes 'children to chew on his caterpillar.' Not a single outraged, affronted or negative response.

*

So not only is it now okay for one of the most popular shows on mainstream television to start joking about people being pedophiles without showing any sign of outrage on behalf of the characters; it's okay to do it more than once.

This show would have been seen - in its varying stages - by editors, sound-mixers, producers, exective producers, actors, cameramen, DPs, and so on. And at each stage, each one of those people let this happen. They said; 'okay, we're going to allow this, and this is going to be okay. It's now okay for us to joke about these things, despite the fact that child sexual abuse victims are among the most silenced members of our society.'

And we are going to have white, educated, middle/upper class, able-bodied men make these jokes. Hahaha. That's hilarious. Please note if you can't tell from the subtext, I am being tremendously cynical and sarcastic when I say that.

Not only is this an episode that has jokes about pedophilia, but it is an episode that does focus on the themes of child grooming (House literally clicker trains Cuddy's child to get into a place for more intelligent children, he also implies that he's going to use aversion therapy and discourage the child from eating toys by putting tabasco sauce on them - something which has been indicated as a form of child abuse). It is also an episode that shows a drill sargeant at a boot camp who has been known to put his charges - juvenile offenders - into places like solitary confinement. The one he torments the most - a black child - is his son. The reason he abuses his son at bootcamp? Because he doesn't know how to 'show his love.'

Awesome. More child abuse.

I don't know how to feel about all of this (outside of outrage, of course), because it's not so much that people write jokes like this, or themes like this; it's that the censors didn't pick up on it and say 'STOP IT.' It's that the executive producers, normally so ban-happy on taboo subjects, didn't go 'HEY, NO.' It's that the scriptwriters and the script-editors didn't go 'hmm...' It's that the actors, all of them that were involved in these scenes, didn't go; 'hey, okay, look, this is excessive and we don't agree with it.'

I know that House frequently pushes people's buttons with House's bad behaviour; racism, sexism, everything-ism, and maybe I'm just feeling very outraged because I am a child sexual abuse survivor and I know how jokes are used to belittle, silence and invisibilise the victims, who are ultimately not given any voice. And maybe I'm even more outraged because at least for a while, people of colour, women, disabled people, have all been given a chance to express their outrage at House (whether effectively or not); but children have not. In fact, in this episode they show a child crawling into House's lap at the very end and snuggling into him.

No. It's safe to say children aren't given a voice of outrage against this sort of thing. It's safe to say that even the adults aren't given that voice.

Do I keep watching the show? The answer seems obvious, but the problem is greater than the show. Do I boycott the entire network? I will certainly be drafting letters to the studio, and to the producers.

I am not by a longshot the most eloquent person to be expressing my outrage about this, and I hope others do too. This is not some niche program (though that would still be problematic!), this is a show that reaches millions of people every week that it is airs, and it's a show that indicates acceptable standards of behaviour based on whether people approve or disprove of House's behaviour (whether or not he still gets away with it, you generally know that certain 'jokes' are wrong when characters shoot him down for them, express disgust or anger at him for them); in this, the show has basically implied that pedophilia jokes are not only okay to air, they are completely and utterly fine. Say them! People won't even protest! Intelligent people with medical degrees won't even protest! Why should they? It's fine!

I can't even convey how I feel about this expression of a symptom that's growing in our culture. I do know that it's much easier to create a world of child sexual assault victims in a culture that is happy to joke and make light of pedophilia, while silencing those who experience such child sexual assault. I do know that if the rest of similar media follows suit, we're going to see a culture that becomes more accepting of these heinous and tragic crimes overall.

We already live in a rape culture, an abuse culture; sadly, there are signs that it is getting worse all the time. Never did I expect to see such explicit signs in mainstream media that it is now a 'child sexual abuse culture' as well.

Comments

[silverjackal]

This was very interesting for me to read. The minute you explained the set-up (necessary, because while I've seen House I haven't seen this current episode) I understood what you meant. I could also anticipate the response it would draw from certain quarters: "That's not how it was meant, lighten up." and cringed at the prospect. You know, because it doesn't offend *them* they don't see why anyone would have grounds to object. They'd also whine that House is an equal opportunity bigot, and is offensive to everyone. That still doesn't make it O.K., particularly on a sensitive subject where victims are routinely belittled and silenced. I'm pleased to hear that you'll be writing to the producers. They deserve to hear about it from people with a true understanding of the subject, because I suspect why matters like this slide by is precisely because victims have been so silenced that people without experience in the area don't understand it's unacceptable.

Edited to ask: is this filter public? And if it is, would it be acceptable for me to link others here? (Not to produce wank or an argument, let me add, more to just point out differences in perspective.)

[moonvoice]

Yeah, this post is public (for a change) so feel free to link to it, if you wish, it made me (and Glen) quite angry. We can put up with a lot, but this repeatedly crossed the line for us. :/

As for people disagreeing; I expect that some will disagree, for a variety of reasons, but that's just the way of interpreting media, I think. In this though, I think a Bachelor's in Media Studies will go a little way to helping me back up my arguments; otherwise, I'm just letting my university down.

[cherrydaiquiri]

I would also like to link to this, if you don't mind; I think people interested in media should read it and be aware of this problem.

[moonvoice]

Sure, feel free! I kind of feel sad that I'm the only one who's written about it; I am certain others could do a better job of writing about this.

[cherrydaiquiri]

I think you've made your point well and generated a good discussion, though I wish there were more public media critics hopping on board with this kind of stuff. But if they can't even pick up on misogyny in Glee, then -- there's not much hope.

I think starstrider made a good point/clarified you well in saying that normally House gets a reaction from the team to inappropriate things like this, and reinforces the badness of what he's saying in the end, so that it's usually clear that all the characters object to the morally unsound/-ism things he jokes about. That being missing here is really -- terrifying. Sends the message, "Child abuse is not something we need to object to!"

[moonvoice]

There weren't even single shots of say... shocked faces. Nothing at all. :/ That is very concerning, more than the jokes themselves. The tone of how an audience is expected to react to dialogue is set by the context of the setting and the reaction of the characters to that dialogue. So even quite harmful dialogue can be made to be subversive through character reaction.

That there is no outrage or character reaction to both jokes suggests just how deeply the team at House accept these sorts of jokes/humour.

Sends the message, "Child abuse is not something we need to object to!"

Exactly. :/

[eosin]

I'm sorry you had to deal with triggering things like this. With this latest from Hollyweird, I can't really say that I'm surprised. The ones who make shows like this have been living in a moral cesspool for many years, promoting forms of racism, sexism, religious discrimination, drug use, teen sex, and now pedophilia. They think that throwing out all moral boundaries makes them hip, cool, and tolerant, so that only fundamentalist Christians (a favorite punching bag of theirs) would object to it. Sadly and nauseatingly, this is what they really mean when the word 'tolerance' is thrown around, with the expectation that everything needs to be tolerated, no matter how vile.

I think it makes the point that not all societal deviances are worthy of celebration simply for being deviant. And more disturbingly, this way of thinking isn't an accident; the educational system has been teaching it for many years, by sexualising children in more and more ways and complaining about any boundaries. The writers are sick, spoiled children in adult bodies. There is nothing wrong with calling them out on it, and I would say the same for the producers, directors, supervisors, internal censors, etc. It's to the point that some execs at MTV may now be facing criminal charges for child pornograhy for producing and airing it in their latest and greatest show.

I agree with writing a letter, for at the very least it's cathartic. But I would also tell many others about it, and encourage more to similarly complain. The guilty writers may simply hit the 'delete' button, but a loud chorus of outrage to many media and government outlets can help make a difference. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as they saying goes.

[starstrider]

I thought they were definitely distasteful, to put it mildly, and even uncharacteristically distasteful for the show. Yes, House pushes pretty much everything, but there are *always* reactions from the morally more-stable team to alert the audience that the main behavior is not only wrong and offensive, but to bring it back so that the audience is also reminded that House, if it came down to a serious situation, would not condone that behavior. And because there was no reaction to either of those comments, that part didn't happen at all. I was especially surprised that the new girl didn't have an extreme reaction, since she has extreme reactions to *everything,* whether it's warranted to not. That's kind of the point of her character, actually.

I've noticed in particular that Fox has been stepping over the line a lot. Family Guy, which I no longer watch (I only did for a while because they're short episodes that were perfect for watching with breakfast or lunch), has been so far past the line this season that I don't know *how* it hasn't been pulled or Green handed his ass. And shows like Fringe get pushed into the Death Slot for no reason. Many of their other shows have been out of bounds lately, too, like that new one Raising Hope or whatever it's called, which I didn't see myself but heard about. If it weren't for the fact that I like House (still), Fringe, and Bones, I probably would refuse to watch anything.

House - the New PedoBear

[perzephone]

I dunno, it's weird. There are some things that, unless you are directly affected by it, just seem grossly funny. Necrophilia, beastiality & cannibalism are seen as so taboo that the only time they receive any serious media attention at all is when someone like Ed Gein shows up in the news. Other than that, they are subjects of gross-out humor or horror movies.

I think in a way the media's constant focus on child abduction, child abuse & pedophilia (think Chris Hansen and the omnipresent PedoBear) has done as much damage to the subject as it has to raise any kind of real awareness. Unless you're a victim or a perpetrator, you live in a 'it could never happen to me/my kids/my kids' friends/my minor relatives' world - so to a certain part of that population, it becomes another social taboo that is ripe for poking fun at. I'm not saying that it's good, or that it's right, but a constant t.v. viewer is probably going to be seeing more & more child abuse humor pop up as shows try to appeal to the lowest common denominator in their audiences (and poop & farts & homosexuality just aren't that funny anymore, damnit).

Re: House - the New PedoBear

[donnalotus]

Well I'm not really a sexual child abuse survivor, but I still fail to see any humour at all in the child abuse "humour" shown being discussed here. Actually the more I see humour like that portrayed in the media, the more I spend my days wondering how I'm ever going to protect my child (I'm currently pregnant) from it all, it's actually pretty scary! I think these kind of "cutting edge" shows are also reason I don't watch much TV either, I find pretty much everything on either boring or offensive these days... and I'm not even on a Christianity High-Horse!

[finch]

I assume the explanation would be the same as it is every time House makes an offensive comment, that he's not a nice person and so putting that on tv is okay.

Pedophile jokes are pretty common in the culture, though - any relationship with a significant age gap gets them, and so people are normalized to it already.

[birgitriddle]

Well, that kinda decides for me if I should even bother getting around to watching House. I've seen a few episodes, but I tend to want to watch TV series from the start so I can follow the plotlines going on in the background.

[white_rabbit]

It's not the first time that kind of thing has happened on House either, though it sounds like it's the first time it's happened with someone so young (aside from that time Chase kissed the very young cancer patient, Cameron was the only one that looked appropriately shocked, but I had to make an angry face when they suggested the girl manipulated Chase into it). There was the episode where there was the 15-year-old model who was sexually abused by her father (again, only Cameron seemed offended at the jokes House was making) and again they made it seem like it was the 15-year-old's choice and idea and nothing got done.

It's like, yeah, I get that House is a jerk who says -ist things a lot, but in the beginning there was a lot more outrage over him saying these things, a lot more desire to show and prove that he was wrong. But it's no longer an "Archie Bunker" scenario where he says all the ignorant and hateful stuff, but it's very, very apparent that he's an IDIOT and the only people who really find it funny are the racist hateful people anyways. House is not an idiot, misanthropic, but he's smart enough to KNOW he's being offensive and is obviously doing it on purpose. It's not set up in a way that highlights or points out that what they are saying and/or doing is wrong anymore. It's very much a modicum for society now in that people don't really react or get outraged when they really should. :/ And more than that, the ones that do speak up are ridiculed for being over-emotional (IE - Cameron, back in the day).

So even if they are trying to set it up as a reflection of society, no one's going to get it, and it's part of the problem of those -ist attitudes being 'normalized', giving lots of people ammo to say 'well lots of people say it so that makes it okay' but it's NOT OKAY. It's especially not okay because it's basically people who have NOT been abused who are telling people who ARE how to feel.

I hope your letter has an impact. If we can't listen to the people who are truly affected by these offensive jokes, then there is a serious, serious problem.

[scatteredshells]

That 15-year-old model episode was disgusting on many other levels as well. Especially when it's discovered that she is actually genetically intersexual, so they start flipping to constant male pronouns & emphasizing that despite being female-assigned at birth, appearing VERY feminine/female, and growing up in that societal role... yeah, she's totally a guy, of course. And it's this horribly traumatizing thing for her father too of course & it also plays on transphobia, basically turning her into the stereotypical trans woman -- a 'man in a dress,' or in this case, a 'man in woman's skin.' RAGE.

[scatteredshells]

Also, NOBODY corrects ANY of what I just wrote. It's left at the end of the episode, shocked looks are presumably from those who were once attracted to her but now view her as a 'man in a dress' and of course are repulsed (because she's not a real woman.)

[white_rabbit]

That too. :( I was going to mention it, but didn't want to go too far off topic. Especially where House continues to call the, 'he/she' for the rest of the episode.

[xmetanoiax]

I think this is a very serious issue too; not because of the jokes (like you said), but because of the lack of controversy.

I've personally always been the kind of person who is mostly against censoring. I believe in warnings, disclaimers, and sensitivity to others, but overall that there is a right to display any subject in a fictional, rhetorical, or conversational setting (so long as no real harm is coming to actual people on purpose).

I am also actually against humor censoring, I'm sorry to say. I don't think it's right to laugh at people, but I believe everyone has the right to laugh at subjects and situations, even if they're uncomfortable ones. I personally make a lot of jokes about things that have hurt me- my intention isn't to harm anyone, it actually helps me deal, and I think that's true for many people; many comedians are extremely damaged.

However, there is a -huge- difference between making a joke about something and presenting it as acceptable. HUGE. I am kind of disappointed because originally house was the kind of guy who seemingly said really crass things to offend people because he wanted to make them think, react, provoke controversy. It used to raise important subjects people had trouble dealing with, and we got to see the characters all deal with it differently. To me, if there's a lack of reaction, then the entire point of his character falls flat on its face.

I think it's also true that child abuse victims really haven't gotten much of a voice in the media, especially mainstream media. While insensitive humor can actually even do a lot to benefit a cause (if only through demonstrating a point through the use of hyperbole), that only works if there's a well known and accepted cultural counter-argument.

I'll have to look into this more to really decide what I think- I don't think I can hold it against the actors too much, but I definitely think this needs to be brought to the network's attention.

[donnalotus]

I am kind of disappointed because originally house was the kind of guy who seemingly said really crass things to offend people because he wanted to make them think, react, provoke controversy. It used to raise important subjects people had trouble dealing with, and we got to see the characters all deal with it differently. To me, if there's a lack of reaction, then the entire point of his character falls flat on its face.

I have to agree with that, there were many things he got me thinking about in the earlier seasons (1-3) through his inappropriate humour, but when there isn't any actual "thinking" or reactions shown to encourage that exploration of the subject, then the whole thing takes on a different perspective.

[xmetanoiax]

*Nod*, exactly. Also, we were often shown a house that spoke brashly, but behind the scenes was more conflicted by the topic than he let on to his team. We're shown he's a disturbed man who's been hurt and uses crassness and cold objectivity to get him to the answers he needs to find. That element seems to be fading more and more, leaving him as just "That funny, blunt smart guy who's oh so shocking".

[gone_fishing]

I live in a cave and don't have TV :P but sometimes I like to check out shows that are new-to-me through DVD or Hulu or whatever. This will definitely be going on my list of "shows I'm not going to be watching". I don't even have... words... for this, other than "omgwtf". I'm just... wow. Ugh. Ew. Urk. :/

[goddess_incarnate]

It's almost no surprise that it would be on House. But, when you think about it, South Park has been making child rape jokes for some time. Like in this one particular episode where Cartman basically said he gave a man a blowjob to get semen (he said he sucked it out a long tube). Butters has inferred that he's been molested by a male relative, and there's an episode where they show and state out right that Mr. Mackey was sexually assaulted by an adult during a school field trip as a child (which eventually led to him hoarding). And South Park is in its 15th season. And that last example is from an episode that's really recent - this season I think.

That's not to justify child rape or sexual trauma as acceptable, but South Park gets A LOT of attention for saying "Fuck you!" to boundaries and will pretty much air anything and everything they can get their hands on. Adults go crazy over the cursing and other sexually suggestive things: but making outright child rape jokes goes unnoticed. This is because, and I think someone mentioned it earlier, that people are in denial because child abuse is so prevalent. The rape statistic in the US is 1 in 3 women, and I'm sure that wouldn't be far off from child molestation numbers either. It's something that happens to so many people that it's overwhelming and it's really fucking frightening. People are scared but fear is the perfect breeding ground for silence. If a mother has been molested, the chances of her defending her child from it are very small. So it creates a system of sexual child abuse. And, despite (at least the US') obsession with "protecting" children, they're the most hyper-sexualized demographic. You won't show images of sex or nudity to small kids, but you'll let them walk and act like women at the age of 10. It's a culture of sexual power (for women) that's being passed down to children and adults are running around and wondering "why?" though they're the one who are perpetrating it. Child abuse hasn't done what racism and sexism has done: punched people in the face. People haven't learned to be pissed off at child abuse jokes, and children are the easiest of victims, and they lack the knowledge to understand what's happening to them. People, in general, are also afraid to fight what can be happening right under their noses. It's easy to have an outside enemy, but it's not so easy when your beloved family member/friend/colleague is a child molester and you have to make a choice. People crave a sense of "that would never have to me" even in the face of everything being the opposite.

PEOPLE ARE STUPID! D:

[ariestess]

You said this way more eloquently than I could have, and I didn't even realize the extent of the issue re: South Park.

[xmetanoiax]

Very good points. I was actually thinking about South Park earlier, too.

What I find really odd about this is that rape, something also very common, is laughed at constantly on television, but in any serious television show rape is still a big source of shock. Because of that the same people who laugh at rape jokes tend to still take rape very seriously (personal observation over the years), but bring up child molestation, and it's like people don't know how to feel- most dramas barely touch on it, and the ones I've seen focus more on what it's like to be the parent of a molested child than what it's like to be the child or an adult survivor of child abuse. This blows my mind- if you can get so aggravated over rape, how can you not show some shock over child abuse?

I don't think shock-factor shows are really trying to offend or silence anyone- they probably don't even realize how much more unfair it is with child abuse victims, those who are still children especially, because they lack loud advocate voice. They probably don't notice because they've seldom heard it. :(

[spider_fox]

I agree, and I sometimes think it's false sexual power. I don't think being able to display once-private parts of your body in public is true power, because all that's really changed is the clothing, not the attitudes.

[ariestess]

Personally, I've never seen the allure of House, particularly as I find the titular character very off-putting. But if I'd seen this particular episode you're talking about, I'd have stopped watching it because of the reason you've discussed here. It's deplorable.

[amethystfirefly]

Ugh. Don't even get me started on House. The medical side of it is fascinating, but he regularly reduces me to apoplectic flailing and urges to strangle the TV. (I only catch occasional reruns.) And, to be honest, I think the show long jumped the shark because no hospital would keep a doctor like House on payroll, regardless of how much of a "genius" he is.

Just... Ugh. I honestly don't get the appeal.

[filhotedelua]

It is the kind of thing why I hate House so much. This damn show is disturbing to me for his own nature(I have phobia of hospitals, imagine how comfortable is listening people in the table talking about the last exciting episode of House), but much more because to anyone that fights for a more humanized medicine, is a nightmare that people think "he saves people, so he could be a idiot and even an abuser". No, it is not right: he is an awful doctor that act wrong any single proposition of humanized medicine. He is propaganda for a distorted view of medicine that see the humans as mere numbered objects with no feeling or tough -specially children and people that can't defend themselves. Even if the the other characters say "House, don't act this way" they obey him and adore him, so, all the time his attitudes are justified and send as a message of "it's all right to a doctor act this way".

[donnalotus]

I think it's probably worse when you see other people (a friend my ex-h and I used to see quite a bit of) who suddenly start mimicking this behaviour because it's "edgy" and yeah ok, you might be correct, you might be clever, but you DON'T have to be an asshole to everyone around you - how does that give you a fulfilling life? I just look at people who are like House and think what lonely, miserable people they must be - and then I start removing them from my life because frankly, who WANTS to be around that?

[ansuz]

:/ I haven't caught an episode of House since a few seasons ago, I just haven't been into it. Now I've got a reason to avoid it.

[sidheblessed]

The thing that angers me most? The fact that no one said anything. Like, they just let him say it. None of the characters said something or showed any shock. None of the writers thought "Hey, this is crossing a line here." No one said "Hey, let's not buy into this culture that does nothing about child abuse and take some responsibility here."

For fuck's sake, people have got to start thinking and taking responsibility. People who write or act for popular shows like House should start using that position to present anti-child abuse ideas. At the very least, House should be made to take responsibility for his words. yes, I know the character is an insensitive, hardened, belligerent doctor. That doesn't mean he has to make jokes about paedophilia. He can be in character without making jokes about raping children. That's really not difficult to write. Really.

And the actors? They can stand up. They can express concerns. They can adlib a disapproving glare or look of shock at the very least. If they're brave, they can quit.

So many people, so many opportunities to make a stand and no one took it. :(

[elialshadowpine]

I actually watched this episode last night. It bothered me for reasons I couldn't totally put my finger on... but while House has always been "out there", it really feels like the last couple seasons have been particularly bad. The general story has gone downhill, imo, and it seems more like they're going for shock value than anything else. My husband and I finished the ep last night and both agreed that the idea of House parenting Cuddy's child was scary, because this is a character that's never really seen any point to changing his behavior unless it benefits him in the short term (and even then, it's not really changing -- see the conversation between him and Wilson about lying to Cuddy about being sorry for lying).

I love the medical aspects of the show, but I find myself watching other shows that aren't quite as rage-inciting. Most have their problems, but House really feels like an exercise in "how many people can we offend/trigger?".