I caught this preview clip of the Oprah show that is set to air today, and was surprised to see that the word penis is bleeped out as though it is a swear word. Since when did names for our body parts become vulgar? It will be interesting to see if penis is bleeped out during the entirety of the show, and would certainly send the wrong message to young viewers in that it makes naming genitalia somehow shameful and dirty by the omission of the word.
Also, this is the only preview clip of the show that is up - notice that it is focused on the penis of Lorena's husband, and not the events that led up to what caused her to cut off his genitalia.
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You know, I never even knew the whole story until I googled it just now. I'm only 19, so I was a little too young to know about this when it was going on, but the story I always heard was that she did it because he cheated on her. Not even the half of it.
But yeah, why is 'penis' bad, but the F-word (and not the fucking kind) can be on comedy central at 10 at night.
Oh my goodness. It's Oprah. What impressionable 8 year-old watching Oprah? And why is 'penis' such a dirty word? Because it's sexual sometimes? It's so hard to believe how scared we are of a body part.
Why DID she cut his penis off? And isn't it a little victim blaming like to say he must have dome something to deserve it? I mean, what did actually happen?
Nevermind, I looked it up. Sounds like battered wife syndrome. Did anyone find anything about that? It didn't mention it in the articles I found. Just the Post-traumatic stress and depression.
Her husband was really awful to her. I hope they mention that in Oprah.
I don't know the whole story, but I just looked it up on wikipedia and as I suspected it involves him abusing and raping her. So I only think it seems victim-blamey to say he must have deserved it if you say that without checking into what happened.
Still, I don't think it can be considered ok to maim someone while they're asleep and not directly threatening you or holding you prisoner. Morally it sounds like he might have deserved to be punished, but I don't think we as a society can say that its ok for people to take the law into their own hands like that unless they absolutely have to.
I just saw that they acquitted her by reason of temporary insanity. Seems about right-- not saying this kind of thing is allowed, but saying that in this case its understandable that she would snap.
It may well be victim blaming, but most (all, probably) people engage in that regularly. While it might not be universal, a lot of people would agree with the sentiment: "If he didn't want to get his dick cut off, maybe he shouldn't have beaten and raped his wife." Whether or not the action merits the reaction will depend on your personal code of ethics, and I doubt you will find perfect agreement on this.
(Of course, he was not convicted of any crimes in that case, but that does not affect the general public understanding of the facts to any significant degree, especially given his other conviction(s) and whatnot)
basically as long as the victim is a man you can maim him, as long as you accuse him of abusing you. you don't even have to prove it. you just have to put the accusation out there and all's fair. amazing coming from a woman that jumped all over the rhianna abuse allegations to be so comfortable mocking this situation. i guess she knows her hypocrisy will be justified by people even some on this site
...glenn sacks? is that you?
that's the best response you can come up with?
No, it's not the best I can do. I've been reading this site for a while find what you have said in a number of threads to be not only counterproductive but almost offensive considering you post on a feminist site and repeatedly state the equivalent of "But, but, but the menz!"
While yes, you have a point, I happen to disagree with it, as I feel all it says is that "Women lie about being raped/abused/whatever to get even with men!" and it makes me really angry because you don't even attempt to qualify it in any way.
I've had a really crappy week and thought I'd try to throw a little humor in with my opinion, but I guess that doesn't work for you.
Of course, neither you nor I have any direct knowledge of whether that is true or not. That Bobbit was convicted of assaulting one of his fiancees, and plead guilty to assaulting a different wife does not make me sympathetic to believing he is innocent, and I am led to believe that the evidence that he was assaulting her is pretty strong. Certainly during the associated trials, several witnesses testified to this effect. It is certainly not a typical "he said, she said" kind of case.
Beyond that, I have not either endorsed or condemned the point of view I described, only described it. You can make assumptions about what my opinion might be based on the limited data you have about me (presumed gender only, I think), which may or may not bring you to the right conclusion, but I think I have been pretty neutral in my statement.
Honestly, it sounds to me like Oprah said the word "dick", not "penis", which would explain why it was beeped out...I think so, anyways. They bleep out the word "dick", right?
They do, but if you look at Bobbitt when she says it, her mouth clearly forms the word 'penis'. I don't understand why the true medical term for a body part is censored.
It seems to me, from the logo in the corner, that it's The Insider that's beeping penis not Oprah. She's been having a few sex positive episodes lately and I don't think she would considering the term offensive.
Its ridiculous that she is bragging about something like this (I mean seriously, you were found to be insane by the court) , and that the crowd is so supportive of it.
Sometimes they bleep things in commercials that aren't in the shows. I guess because commercials might be shown at different times with different language rules? I don't know.
I remember when this happened, but not all the details (I was only about 9 or 10 at the time). I didn't know until now that he raped her.
Right that's true, I didn't think of that. Commercials do have their own rules because they aren't rated.
But still. Why censor the word 'penis?' Ever?
Dear YouTube,
What is a "penius," exactly?
I can't handle this story. Maybe because it has become such a joke. While I think John Bobbitt sounded like a terrible husband, I can't do anything but cringe- at his maiming, and how the public seems so thirsty for detail, and almost celebratory, about such a violent act. I think the whole thing- the abuse, spousal rape and maiming- is just terrible.
Agreed. People are holding her up as a hero for what she did. I don't think that what she did in that situation was necessarily an unreasonable reaction given what he'd been doing to her, but I don't think its a "wow, good for her!" situation, either.
I happen to have watched this episode of Oprah yesterday (I'm in the Boston area) and the word penis was not bleeped out, though the audience did start to laugh everyone time Oprah or Lorena mentioned the word and when Lorena was talking about what she did with the penis after she cut it off.
It should be noted that Lorena cut off her husband's penis after he started attacking her and attempting to rape her in bed while she was sleeping. This incident was the culmination of physically and verbally abusive marriage.
One of the more disturbing admissions by Lorena during the show was that her ex-husband continues to send her Christmas cards and Valentine's Day greetings! She said she does not respond to them but I found it quite disturbing that he continues to contact her. Too bad Oprah didn't pick up on this.
Maybe they bleeped out "penis" because the story is scary, not because the word is vulgar. I remember my mom always turned on Oprah after I came home from school. Certainly any little ones passing through the living room would be scared by the imagery. Maybe the network was just being concious of that?