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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think dressing up as Jimmy saville for an 80s party is wrong?

23 replies

cherryade8 · 16/06/2013 08:14

I didn't attend the party but saw the pictures on Facebook, the man concerned is not my friend iyswim. I find it offensive to his victims and also not taking child abuse/ sex crimes seriously to dress up as him for a fancy dress party. Also, what if someone at the party had been a victim of paedophilia themselves, surely dressing up as a known paedophile could be very upsetting?

Aibu?

OP posts:
TheDeadlyDonkey · 16/06/2013 08:19

Yanbu, but some people are twats.

prettybutclumpy · 16/06/2013 08:20

YANBU! that is horrid

StuffezLaYoni · 16/06/2013 08:22

What an idiot that person must be. There's a got to be a moment where they think to themselves, "now is this really a good idea?"
Or are they just a massive attention seeker?

maddy68 · 16/06/2013 08:46

I think yabu. He was an 80s figure which is easy to copy
People dress as hitler etc. why I'd it more offensive to dress as jimmy saville ?
Sure if any of his victims were at the party the outfit wouldn't be worn.

MyBaby1day · 16/06/2013 08:49

YANBU, it is horrible to dress as that person! Angry

AKissIsNotAContract · 16/06/2013 08:56

YABU. There would be few historical fancy dress costumes if we could only dress as nice people from the past.

HollyBerryBush · 16/06/2013 08:56

I would imagine most historical figures are grim if you want to strip away the veneer. I didn't FIL was out of order for dressing up as Henry VIII, even though he lopped a couple of wives heads off.

bragmatic · 16/06/2013 09:00

Incredibly bad taste. Plenty of other options.

Roma2013 · 16/06/2013 09:08

It's quite common, amongst students, to have this sort of party actually. It raises some interesting questions (some poster have mentioned these indirectly):

-how much time needs to elapse before people can dress up as well-known figures who've committed heinous crimes? When do these figures become historicalised and therefore lose their offensive valency?

-is dressing-up a sign of celebrating those individuals or of ridiculing them?

-isn't humour sometimes about working through, as a society, our fears and negotiating our moral compass (think of some stand-up material. There are jokes about paedophilia. I'm not saying that I would find these funny -but others do laugh and I wonder why?) Humour can be satirical and double-edged. Some would argue that dressing as Saville foregrounds paedophilia better than burying what he did (out of sight, out of mind). Let's face it, that was exactly what happened in the past and it was complicit in letting Saville get away with it at the time.

redexpat · 16/06/2013 09:26

Wrong - no. Bad taste - yes.

Tweasels · 16/06/2013 10:43

I think the problem with JS as opposed to Henry VIII would be that JS's victims are still alive.

Trills · 16/06/2013 10:58

There would be few historical fancy dress costumes if we could only dress as nice people from the past.

I agree, and I really don't know who gets to decide what is an appropriate length of time to wait.

Trills · 16/06/2013 10:59

You weren't at the party - it may be that he judged correctly that his friends who were going to be at the party would not be offended by it.

WeleaseWodger · 16/06/2013 11:00

Heard friend of friend's DP dressed up as him for a butlins party (the no kids type of weekends) and was kicked out.

Chivetalking · 16/06/2013 11:09

Crass choice. Doubt it would have been quite so amusing to him if he was related to a victim of abuse.

ComposHat · 16/06/2013 11:40

I heard from a friend the other the day that the 'nonce wing' in their local prison has been re-christened 'Saville Row' by staff and inmates.

Bad taste but it made me laugh.

SmiteYouWithThunderbolts · 16/06/2013 11:43

Was it a Bad Taste party? If so, YABU. That's the whole idea. If not... well I'm not going to clutch my pearls and go for a lie down just yet, but it is admittedly a bit too soon for this sort of thing to be properly funny.

AKissIsNotAContract · 16/06/2013 11:44

Grin @ compos

ComposHat · 16/06/2013 11:51

Jerry Sadowitz in 1987

Pagwatch · 16/06/2013 12:13

I think it's bad taste but I can't get too worked up about it.
I was abused. I am still perfectly capeable of seeing Jimmy Saville without being traumatised. I think dressing up like that is crass but i am not sure why the sight of someone dressed up as jimmy saville would be likely to upset me unless i were actuallly one of his victims? Perhaps I am unusual in that.

BridgetBidet · 16/06/2013 12:22

I have to say just when all the stuff about this was coming out I went to a Halloween party and someone was dressed as Jimmy Savile which was really funny because obviously the theme is monsters, ogres etc and it was quite witty.

But pictures of various similar have been all over facebook, but now - yes it's bad taste, and also an old and tired joke.

AKissIsNotAContract · 16/06/2013 12:31

Do people think it's bad taste when kids dress as pirates? It's only dressing up FFS.

HaveIGotPoosForYou · 16/06/2013 14:13

Not wrong, just in very bad taste.

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