liz_marcs | So, I emailed Bravo about the use of "wop" on Television Without Pity

This is a follow-up to my No, Calling Someone a "Wop" is NOT Okay rant from this morning.

Several people have tried contacting Sars, Wing Chun, and Tech Support over at Television Without Pity this morning regarding the repeated use of ethnic slurs in a recap of Supernatural's "Sin City."

All those emails bounced.

So, I decided to go here and complain directly to Bravo. Since they didn't have a menu selection for "Television Without Pity," I went with "General Inquiries."

Here's the message I sent. I redacted my real name, since I thought it best to use it when I contacted Bravo.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Since the emails to Sars and Wing Chun do not seem to work (in fact, messages have bounced back to people who've tried to contact them over the past 24 hours), I'm left having to email you.

In today's recap for "Supernatural" on the Television Without Pity website, recapper Demain repeatedly used ethnic slurs to describe an Italian character that appeared in the episode. These ethnic slurs were "wop" and "dago," the former usually rendered like so: FUCKING UNBEARABLE WOP. (Yes, it was in all caps.) This occurred repeatedly for several pages.

Now, if recapper Demian had used these slurs once when they initially appeared in the recap, I could easily see how it could be read as the recapper's annoyance with how ethnic characters tend to be poorly and stereotypically written on "Supernatural." However, the repetition of "wop" in all caps goes far, far beyond the use of "wop" to point out a long-running issue with a television show. It crossed the line into very offensive.

You should also be aware that news of Demain's offensive recap is even now zinging around cyberspace, which means that more and more people are reading about it and wondering not only how the Television Without Pity administrators could allow this recap to go up, but also how BRAVO (which owns the site) could allow this recap to stay up.

Needless to say, this is not reflecting well on your network or on the Television Without Pity site.

I would like to see that recap re-written with the offensive and repeated use of "wop" removed, or the recap to removed in its entirety. While I would also like to see Demain's removal as a recapper (he has numerous other problems as a recapper, but my opinion on that front could easily fall into the "it's a matter of taste" category), I would settle for more oversight of Demain's recaps to prevent a repeat of this situation.

Thank you for your time an attention.

[Real Name Redacted]

Note that the email was very politely worded.

I've already received an automated reply, so the email did get through. As to whether a real human being will read it, I can't say. It's worth the shot, though.

ETA:

winterlive managed to get the right email for Sars, and got a rage-inducing response in reply.

Hmmmm, guess I'll be forwarding my email to that exact same address.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I was just about to tell you about

winterlive getting through to Sars (that's winterlive, in case I messed up the HTML again) but then saw your ETA.

*sigh* yep, i screwed up the HTML again... sorry!

I was thinking about this after I read your post. I'm a big advocate of 'pay attention to the context' before getting upset about something, but I have to agree if his point was, as you say, to illustrate the bad sterotypes on the show, he didn't do it right, and he is just not a good enough writer to pull it off. It comes off as some guy who thinks he's funny, when he really isn't.

And really, it's like any ethnic joke. They are very insidious, and help prepetuate rasism/elitism/whatever in our society by covering it with a wink, wink, nod, nod mentality. They are more dangerous than outright predjudice, I think.

If he used the 'n-word' it would've have been stopped, even if he was just trying to point out the absurdity of sterotypes, but just because 'wop' can be considered marginally less offensive, people think it should just 'not be a big deal.'

Can't wait to hear what kind of reply you get.

Fuck this shit. Bravo (and TWOP) is owned by NBC/Universal.

I wonder what THEIR reps think about this bullshit.

Fucking ironic? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

Heh. I've had a run-in with Sars before, and I'm not surprised she blew this off. She's a good writer, but her internet success seems to have gone to her head. She's more than a little full of herself.

I'm rather 'meh' about Demian as a recapper so I really don't read them but after reading your post, I went right to TWoP to check it out. Damn. I'm really appalled. What the HELL were they thinking to let that go by? Now since TWoP has been bought by Bravo, it's my opinion that they have really become hostile and intolerant with their customers (us) and I cannot even fucking believe that language that would get any of us banned for life is allowed to be used by an employee of theirs.

Assholes. That is just one more nail in the coffin for them as far as I am concerned. Once I spent half my time on this site - I've met friends that I have known for years now. It really hurts me to realize how much they have changed. I think this will pretty much be my farewell - most of my friends have moved to another site anyway.

Anyway, I just wanted to say good luck to you. I don't hold out much hope of them listening but at least you are trying.

it's my opinion that they have really become hostile and intolerant with their customers (us)

*become*? They've always been pretty hostile. It's weird, because the sister popculture site they had (forget the name), managed to combine being fairly hardassed as moderators with a reasonable attitude over all (ie, they'd ding people pretty quick, but suspensions or demerits also had a limited time), while TWOP tends to be randomly assy; some people are allowed to be as rude and snide as they want, while others less favored by a forum's moderator get smacked at the drop of a hat.

And sometimes they were just *random*. I got an account's posting privileges permanently blocked for... putting a spoiler bar over one word. I'm not kidding; I had forgotten that while main discussion of previews were supposed to go in different thread, references to them in the main discussion thread weren't actually considered spoilers. And you weren't supposed to spoiler bar things that weren't spoilers.

Which was the point I gave up serious discussion there. I still stop by occasionally (with a different account) to post passing comments about minor shows that don't have a forum elsewhere, but there was no reason to provide content for them when they Clearly Did Not Want It.

Amazing. I get kicked off the TWOP boards for several days for heavy use of sarcasm, but they allow and (I'm assuming) PAY this guy to be as offensive as possible. Methinks they have gotten a little big-headed.

I started reading them when it was just Dawson's Wrap, and it was a LOT funnier then.

Thanks for the info, thanks for writing them.

I got kicked off the boards for being critical of some posters highly offensive comments about actor's physical attributes.

But there's one rule for recappers and their kiss-ass lackies and another for the rest of us.

Whoa. Demian was one of my favorite recappers, it's beyond sad that he did that. Sars response was no surprise, of course. They can do no wrong, you know.

I'm not at all surprised by Sars response. That's been her attitude since the site was Mighty Big TV - I am much smarter than you and why are you bothering me.

So, I emailed Bravo about the use of "wop" on Television Without Pity

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