Offensive posters for sale at freshers' week

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

I'm a university lecturer. I have been out and about on freshers' week to different buildings and come across a poster sale that is on for a few days. There are several options for sale, Harry Styles, Blink 182, Stranger Things, Billie Eilish, Mabel, lots of different ones. But three I find really offensive, and I imagine some students would, too:

A Buddha with the wording "Don't be a Ct"
A poster with "Fk Off" in different coloured fonts
Another with the same words taking up the whole poster

Asterisks mine. Think I am repressed if you like, I don't care!

I've definitely seen t shirts for sale with an image of Jesus saying don't be a cunt. What "reaction" do you imagine happening?

You don't have to buy them

I think many people would be offended and possibly take action if it was the Prophet Mohammed! And indeed have - remember Charlie Hebdo?

I personally don’t get offended by religious satire but I’m with @ImJustMadAboutSaffron on the use of swearing. It’s a poor way to express yourself. Maybe I’m lucky in that I don’t know anyone who swears routinely. However these are posters for juvenile undergrads. If you buy such crap at 30, it’s worse! However I think they should be available and certainly could be used as a basis for discussion in media degrees? Or any degree that explores marketing and how the brain works!

I don't like, casual swearing. It's very often childish and also very often pointless - save it for when you really need it or it loses its currency

It's absolutely fine that you don't like it! That's your choice. You are allowed to dislike things or be offended by them.

The point is that this doesn't mean other people have to stop doing it. Your personal view on these posters is irrelevant because you don't have to buy one. You don't have a right to wander through a student union poster sale without seeing anything you happen to dislike or find offensive.

and one called something like Let's Kill Toby (?) with a kid tied up and being threatened by someone with a knife, mimicking Ladybird books (I haven't seen this one)

Oh FFS, this is a massive overreaction. It's part of a series of images by an artist who does mock-up 80s kids activity book covers of horror movies themes. So they look like books in a series called 'Activities for Children' and they have titles with things like 'Let's Summon Demons!' The Toby one says 'Let's Sacrifice Toby!' There's also one called 'Let's Visit The Doctor!' which shows a smiling child and his mother in a doctor's office, but the doctor is a 17th century Plague Doctor. And there's one that says 'Don't Talk To Strangers!' where the kids are being beckoned by a sinister green alien. None of the images are gory, it's just meant to be an amusing juxtaposition between the cheerful artwork and the horror movie theme.

They are very much not scary, offensive or unpleasant and you can buy the images on greetings cards, t-shirts and posters everywhere, including lots of high street shops like HMV, Fopp etc.

And do you think we ought to judge the appropriateness of wall art in student bedrooms based on the views of people who take action like that? If we let them make the rules, there'll be a few changes around the place.

Also, I'm not sure that Islamic fundamentalists have a whole lot of respect for images of Buddha.... Buddhas of Bamiyan - Wikipedia

I think many people would be offended and possibly take action if it was the Prophet Mohammed!

That's because images of the Prophet Mohammed have a completely different meaning to Muslims than images of the Buddha have to Buddhists. In Islam, ANY visual depiction of Mohammed is forbidden and taboo. But Buddhism doesn't prohibit making images of Buddha, just like Christianity doesn't prohibit making images of Jesus.

Given that there has, for decades, been a poster available that says 'Jesus Loves You (but everyone else thinks you're a cunt') I don't think a picture of Buddha and the words 'Don't Be A Cunt' is much of a problem, given that not being a cunt is kind of a central tenet of Buddhism. Certainly no more offensive than statues of Buddha being sold in garden centres to decorate the water features of suburban white people's gardens.

This is true. You could paint the most beautiful and flattering picture of Prophet Mohammed or Prophet Jesus Christ or any other Prophet and Muslims still wouldn't want to see it or have in their homes.

I know Muslims have a different opinion regarding images. That was my point. There are “rules”. We don’t have entirely feee speech. Other religions take it on the chin. It’s just the way it is but causing offence is a minefield. Some people do find it juvenile but the posters are aimed at juveniles. So be it.

I’m pretty sure when I was a student in the 90s there were posters of religious figures doing various things including smoking spliffs and flipping V signs. Setting out to shock the easily offended is pretty much what people that age live for, so I’m not entirely sure how the OP gets through working life surrounded by them.

I think Muslims do take it on the chin. A few bad apples aren’t representative of 1.8 billion Muslims.

Well yes except most (all?) artists avoid art with the Prophet Mohammed don’t they? The behaviour of the minority has stopped “free speech” expression about Muslims by and large. Do you know where you can openly buy posters of the Prophet Mohammed? The behaviour of the few worked. Hopefully others won’t decide to defend what they want in the same way. I never rule out nutters but agree religions should be open to satire.

I'm a university lecturer and I think those posters are funny!

Oh dear.

Well we all know that swearing isn’t big, clever or funny but if you don’t like it then don’t buy it.

We so did!

Or similar anyway.

Perhaps your university had a different poster supplier in the 1990s to mine.

And we didn't think that university was a place where we had to censor ourselves, nor to be protected from being offended at every turn, either. Given we were now adults 'n' all.

This is not me condoning or not condoning the content of these specific posters by the way; I am deliberately not commenting on that.