STFU Parents Once Again Deemed To Have The Acronym Too Offensive For The NYT
The New York Times has reported on things that use the almighty F word before. They have covered Go The Fuck To Sleep and the popular website Fuck! I’m In My Twenties. But you know what they have a really hard time crediting? STFU Parents, as you can witness in the latest Real Estate Section, when discussing co-ops and strollers:
But strollers ”” and the parents who wield them ”” have become an unfortunate symbol of all that’s annoying about the modern urban parent. The sight of a mother careening down a crowded Manhattan sidewalk with a double-wide Bugaboo can rankle many a pedestrian. It seems to me that members of your co-op board might be responding with a broad stroke to a perception ”” real or imagined ”” that carriage drivers have been scuffing the elevator’s delicate walls.
”There are a lot of parents who use their strollers in a rude manner,” said Blair Koenig, who writes about frustrations with modern parenting. ”The rule could be a passive-aggressive way of reacting to those specific individuals.”
Blair Koenig, who writes about frustrations with modern parenting. With no link. When she was contacted because of STFU Parents.
Now. I don’t want to get too nitpicky here, but another person who has a website was also quoted in the article and she has the link to her website displayed for all the Internets to see. It’s amazingly bizarre because, and Blair can explain this much better than I can:
“It’s frustrating because the reasoning I’ve been given in the past is that it’s not just the acronym, but rather the content that makes the Times uncomfortable with linking to the site. I’ve pressed the ombudsman to understand why other websites, bands, or books get links (even if the ‘F’ word or acronym is taken out), and he said it’s because the Times has certain “standards.” He wrote, “For one reason, we don’t like to include such references for younger readers — or for any readers who might be offended. Granted, we aren’t the parents of young readers. But we feel some obligation to try to maintain The Times as a respectable publication and respect all of our readers.” So that’s what pisses me off the most. I receive emails from parents every day who say they love the site, and yet it seems like the Times finds the blog (and the book) too offensive — if not obscene — to link to. There’s a paradox in thinking that I’m an expert worth tapping for a quote and then not crediting my work in the story. Why quote me at all? To me, THAT is offensive! I’ve now determined that I’m just too trashy for the Times. My parents are both very proud.”
It’s shady and I find it offensive because not only am I a fan of STFU Parents, and Blair, I know how annoying it is to be quoted somewhere and not have all of your hard work acknowledged without even a teensy tiny hyperlink. And as a parent I’m not offended at all by STFU Parents or even having it spelled out to me as Shut The Fuck Up Parents, because if we lose the ability to laugh at ourselves and our identities as parents, we are pretty much screwed. They are basically censoring her because some precious parents who take this whole journey we are on WAY too seriously might get all offended by an acronym.
So there you have it. The person quoted in the NYT is Blair Koenig, who runs STFU Parents. And the NYT should seriously STFU about this dumb rule they have with not giving her credit when it is due.
(Image: STFU Parents)
