Once-Acceptable Targets: Difference between revisions
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In the past, we like to think, there were many more [[Acceptable Targets]] than there are today. Back then, unlike the present, an easy source of humor was to select people with a different appearance, culture, religion or gender from the assumed audience, treat them as inferior, and make fun of them.
Some of these targets are no longer popular. In some cases, [[Decade Dissonance|times have changed]], and what was funny in 1935 simply is not funny now. More importantly perhaps, changed economic and political circumstances have transformed some previously-despised target groups into valuable demographics that it is unwise to antagonise. Some feel, particularly those who would prefer to go on picking on these '''Once-Acceptable Targets''', that these changes can be "blamed" on [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]], but this is very much an area where [[Your Mileage May Vary]]. [[
Incidentally, a group may be listed on this page as a Once-Acceptable Targets, and still be oppressed, persecuted, mocked, negatively stereotyped or discriminated against today. It's just not ''quite'' as universally endorsed anymore.
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* Finns are becoming popular in Dutch media once more. With many youth related crimes related to the Moroccan minority in the Netherlands, people started complaining about the constant naming of the Moroccan minority in news blurbs. Queue the online community by referring to Moroccans as 'Finnen' (Finns).
* [[Poul Anderson]] portrayed Finns as users of black magic in his Viking stories to [[Deliberate Values Dissonance|make sure it sounded right.]] In one he was embarrassed enough about it to apologize in the afterword.
===Russians===
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Whether your parents were subjected to a particular ritual before your birth isn't today a matter of much moment. For most of Western history this was not the case. Historian Maggie Secara [http://elizabethan.org/compendium/40.html points out] that in Elizabethan times you legally ''could not own property'' if you were illegitimate, could not hold public office, could not ''marry''. This discrimination continued into modern times, often framed in terms of the illegitimate child's "right to a name": [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s 1904 novel ''Freckles'' is largely based around the notion of the hero's supposed bastardy, and on his use of the name "Freckles" because he has no "right" to any other. It wasn't until 1927 that the law in Texas was revised to remove the word "ILLEGITIMATE" from birth certificates. As late as 1959, [[Robert Heinlein]] based a story around the notion that an "Unmarried Mother" would do everything she could to conceal her—and her child's -- status.
Possibly a reason for it is not just the fact of having an unmarried parent (which is of course the perpetrator's responsibility) so much as a bastard being a surprise nuisance. In the past property, politics, and kinship were all tied together and it was often thought to be agreed ahead of time how it was to be split when [[The Patriarch]] died. An unannounced illegitimate child that had not been formally prepared for causes everyone to revise their calculations, whether or not it is said child's fault. In other words part of the reason for this ceasing to be an [[Acceptable Target]] is not the increase in virtue but the decline in importance of [[The Clan]].
===The left-handed===
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While some sports fandoms can still be ridiculed, such as those who play fantasy sports, fans of "That Other Football" (ex. an American Football fan in Britain or a Soccer fan in America), and Chicago Cubs fans (and other teams that have a really long championship drought, such as the [[NHL|Toronto Maple Leafs]]), even they aren't as lambasted as other [[Acceptable Hobby Targets|fandoms]].
==== [[Literature]] ====
* [[Terry Pratchett]] perhaps
==== [[Web Original]] ====
* Lampshaded in this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIUQw1w5OqM online sketch] that addresses the hypocrisy then makes fun of both fans for their fandom.
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[[Category:Acceptable Targets]]
[[Category:Race Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Tropes March On]]
[[Category:Time Marches On]]
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