You, … were human after all

September 14, 2010 1:41 PM

The National Theatre teaches some valuable lessons about Twitter marketing.
posted by mikoroshi (19 comments total)

Bless them, the backtracking was embarrassing. Also they were kind of right the first time.
posted by shinybaum at 1:45 PM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Yes. we have now all learned that people in England like it when the representative of a professional organization calls somebody a cunt, as demonstrated by a very small selection of responses.

Oh, wait. Most people don't find it a delightful human face on an otherwise dull institution, but a monumental cock-up.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:46 PM on September 14, 2010

TL;DR: Someone working for some staid institution used the word "cunt" on twitter (to refer to someone (a guy) who said said institution should be demolished). Then they claimed their account was hacked.

Not really all that interesting.
posted by delmoi at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hmm, I took a different message from it. I learnt that people on Twitter aren't representative of wider views.

And that anyone who argues that the most appropriate response to calling a Tory grandee a c**t isn't the most grovelling of apologies when the Tory government are putting public arts to the sword doesn't understand politics. An honest and open social media strategy comes a distant second.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

That won't stop the 'arts fatcats' spin on cuts. Also it was just a bad apology, 'my cousin found my password' doesn't even work for fake internet suicides any more. You'd think a theatre could be more creative.
posted by shinybaum at 2:06 PM on September 14, 2010

That was a twatter.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 2:27 PM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I hear by declare that, for evermore, the second week of September will known as Twitter Cunt Week.
posted by i_cola at 3:54 PM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

You say that like every week isn't TCW.
posted by shinybaum at 3:55 PM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Metafilter Twitter Cunt Week just sounded like too much of a mouthful.
posted by i_cola at 4:04 PM on September 14, 2010

Clearly what they should have said was something along the lines of:

We at the National Theater are terribly sorry about one of our staffers calling Steve Norris a giant cunt.

In the future, we will try to use more appropriate, gender neutral appellations, such as "asshole" or "steaming pile."

As a creative organization, we also feel it's important that we rise to the occasion with more creative terminology. Something like "snot faced diaper eating sheep bugger" would have been much more in keeping with our mission and goals.

In conclusion, we apologize for calling Steve Norris a cunt. In the future, we shall hold ourselves to a higher standard, and refer to him as a festering, suppurating ass-pustule.
posted by louche mustachio at 4:07 PM on September 14, 2010 [11 favorites]

Oh man, that was a very specific kind of awesome. I look after a (fairly rad) institutional twitter account, and I totally agree with the valuable lessons link that you have to be an actual human being when you tweet, but something like that would probably still get me fired.

At least I don't have to pretend I was hacked when I post funny pictures though.
posted by Dandeson Coates, Sec'y at 10:02 PM on September 14, 2010

In the future, we will try to use more appropriate, gender neutral appellations, such as "asshole" or "steaming pile."

That's 'arsehole', if you don't mind.
posted by pompomtom at 11:09 PM on September 14, 2010

louche mustachio: In the future, we will try to use more appropriate, gender neutral appellations

“Cunt” in UK English is very much gender neutral. The fact that in the US it’s used more to refer to women is one of the main reason it’s slightly less offensive here. Our “cunt” is an all-purpose insult – a magnified “twat” or “wanker” – whereas yours is a magnified “bitch,” with all the misogynistic venom that implies.
posted by him at 1:41 AM on September 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

Most people don't find it a delightful human face on an otherwise dull institution, but a monumental cock-up.

It's a monumental cock-up, not because they called him a cunt -- remember, this is Steven 'Shagger' Norris that we're talking about, everyone agrees that he IS a cunt -- but because he ran twice as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, we've now got a Conservative government and the National Theatre are heavily dependent on public subsidy for their continued existance.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:47 AM on September 15, 2010

Perhaps I'm a little bit innocent, or maybe Aussie slang has migrated from it's British origins... but isn't 'twat' a gendered term, unlike 'wanker'? I thought it referred to the same body part as 'cunt'. No opinions on the relative offensiveness in different countries, just curious about what it means.
posted by harriet vane at 6:06 AM on September 15, 2010

My perception is that whilst both “twat” and “cunt” come from female anatomy (as “dick” and “cock” come from male anatomy), their figurative meanings have drifted pretty far from the original definitions. Personally, I would use all four of these as ungendered insults. Maybe “cock” would be used more often to refer to men, but that’s more to do with the nuance of its particular meaning and the relation of that to stereotypical macho character traits (to my mind, a cock is brash and overbearing in an aggressive, deliberate way, whereas a dick can be unwittingly annoying).

I’m not claiming that my usage is representative of all UK English usage – I’m sure there are significant regional and personal differences.
posted by him at 6:14 AM on September 15, 2010

"Pussy" and "cunt" refer to the same part, too, but in the US they have opposite meanings. And are applied at least as often to men-- "pussy" much more often.
posted by msalt at 8:33 AM on September 15, 2010

I have frequently called men 'twat'. It's a byproduct of using London Underground.

Weirdly, 'bitch' and 'bitchy' is still pretty gendered, used mainly for/about women and gay men. If only 'slut' and its variants would become gender neutral too.

PS. Steve Norris is a cunt.
posted by mippy at 8:37 AM on September 15, 2010

Perhaps I'm a little bit innocent, or maybe Aussie slang has migrated from it's British origins... but isn't 'twat' a gendered term, unlike 'wanker'? I thought it referred to the same body part as 'cunt'.

Same body part, but can easily be applied to either gender. Indeed, while driving, it may be difficult to determine the gender of the twat in front.
posted by pompomtom at 6:37 AM on September 18, 2010