Jive Turkey
ONE love, blood, life
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And BVS takes the bait
"Racist" Spicks and Specks app censored by Apple
- Thread starter cobl04
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I was under the impression it was actually originally an English phrase. It's hardly in common usage down here, though I think most people would understand it when used in context (such as the Bee Gees song, which makes perfect sense to me). Of course, as has already been established in this thread, trying to find a decently sourced history of the phrase is a nightmare. I've read a couple of letters in newspapers over the last couple of days asserting that the origin of "spick" is the same as that of "speck", as in "a speck of dust", but they've provided no source and I can't find anything online about it. The similarly unsourced post by paulmt on this thread expresses basically the same thing as those letters: MediaMonkey Website • View topic - "Spicks & Specks"?
Regarding automatic censorsing, I think what a lot of people here are annoyed about is this assumption that something offensive in the US is also offensive outside the US. I've seen and heard quite a few angry "USA ≠ World!" kind of comments about this, not to mention a good few references to that silly furore about the KFC ads made during the West Indies' cricket tour. It would be one thing if this had happened on the US app charts, but the fact this was on the local Aussie charts just makes it even sillier. Shouldn't things be censored on the basis of what is locally offensive, not what is offensive in another country? I mean, I know of a Japanese musician with the last name Abo. I wouldn't expect that to be censored on a local Japanese or US chart, but on an Aussie chart, I could understand if it happened (though disagree with it), since "abo" is a very derogatory term here for Aboriginal people.
Jive Turkey
ONE love, blood, life
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- 13,645
They should censor this too
deep
Blue Crack Addict
"A Jew or Not a Jew," or "Juif ou pas juif" 
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/14/501364/main20106022.shtml
buy it here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jew-or-not-jew/id446751873?mt=8
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/14/501364/main20106022.shtml
buy it here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jew-or-not-jew/id446751873?mt=8
Jive Turkey
ONE love, blood, life
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- Mar 28, 2005
- Messages
- 13,645
Does that make the Adam Sandler song racist too?
dazzledbylight
Blue Crack Supplier
ah, yolland, that's what I was going to add....
The slur was/is never spelled with a 'k'.
Irvine511
Blue Crack Supplier
yep. by $76bn corporations like Apple.
not government.
again: not government. this was done by the corporations.
corporations.
not the government. or Michelle Obama.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
And it's "strictly," not strickly. As I recall, you are some sort of an educator. So, yeah.
What amazes me is that there is a fuss being made over Spicks and Specks, which has absolutely no racist connotations, while nobody has said a word about an intersection on Melbourne's CBD fringe where Whiteman Street runs straight into Power Street.
(Of course, it's a coincidence, but at least there's more to it than this or that KFC West Indies ad.)
(Of course, it's a coincidence, but at least there's more to it than this or that KFC West Indies ad.)
MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
Huffington Post
"Is My Son Gay?," a new app available in the Android Market, has a rather simple premise: It claims to determine, through a series of 20 questions, whether or not the survey-taker's offspring is, in fact, a homosexual. And yet despite this simplicity of purpose, the app is--surprise!--incredibly controversial.
The Android app was made by French developers "Emmene Moi" (Eng.: "Bring Me"), whose only previous work was on "Mon Fils Est-Il Gay?" (Eng.: "Is My Son Gay?"). The English version of "Mon Fils Est-Il Gay?" looks to be a straight translation from the French, as the app's description in the Android Market appears to have been ripped from a computerized service like Babelfish. Here is the description:
You're questioning yourself? 20 questions to know more about your son. After this test you'll have the proven answer to a question you might have since maybe a long time.
The app itself is a 20-question survey of "Yes" or "No" questions designed to identify your son's sexual preference. Via rue89, and translated into English by resident HuffPost French speaker Alice Hines, these questions are:
1. Does he like to dress up nicely? Does he pay close attention to his outfits and brand names?
2. Does he like football?
3. Before he was born did you wish he would be a girl?
4. Has he ever gotten into or participated in a fight?
5. Does he read sports magazines?
6. Does he have a best friend
7. Does he like team sports?
8. Is he prudish/modest?
9. Does he like diva singers?
10. Does he spend a long time in the bathroom
11. Does he have a tongue, nose or ear piercing
12. Does he spend time getting ready before being seen in public?
13. Have you asked yourself questions about your son's sexual orientation?
14. Are you divorced?
15. Does he like musical comedies?
16. Has he introduced you to a girlfriend ever?
17. Is the father (you) very strict or authoritarian with his son?
18. In your family is the father absent?
19. Was he shy as a child?
20. Is he close to his father?
Reaction around the Internet has not been kind. Gay-friendly Instinct Magazine said that the app is based on the "science of tired and offensive stereotypes," while Jezebel laments the app's "horrible, stereotypical questions." The app is not entirely homophobic, apparently, as Jezebel reports that, if your son is determined to not be gay, the app says "No need to look the other way! ... He is gay! ... ACCEPT IT! ..."
So, silver linings. This conclusion may also protect the app from expulsion from the Android Market, as the Developer Program Policies state that content may be removed for several reasons, most relevantly for
Hate Speech: We don't allow the promotion of hatred toward groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.
So, does this app promote hatred against a sexual orientation? Neither Google nor Emmene Moi immediately responded to request for comment, though with the amount of media attention this app has gained in America, Google should decide soon.
Controversial apps seem to pop up every now and then, the most high-profile ones coming from Apple's App Store. Earlier in September Apple pulled the (also) French-made "Jew Or Not Jew?" Jewish celebrity identifier from its store after complaints; in March, Apple yanked a "Gay Cure" app that used Biblical teachings to help homosexuals become straight. Google has had its own app controversies, too. The Android Market came under fire in March 2011 for not pulling virtual dogfighting game "Dog Wars" from its digital shelves, despite a public outcry from prominent animal rights activists.
"Is My Son Gay?," a new app available in the Android Market, has a rather simple premise: It claims to determine, through a series of 20 questions, whether or not the survey-taker's offspring is, in fact, a homosexual. And yet despite this simplicity of purpose, the app is--surprise!--incredibly controversial.
The Android app was made by French developers "Emmene Moi" (Eng.: "Bring Me"), whose only previous work was on "Mon Fils Est-Il Gay?" (Eng.: "Is My Son Gay?"). The English version of "Mon Fils Est-Il Gay?" looks to be a straight translation from the French, as the app's description in the Android Market appears to have been ripped from a computerized service like Babelfish. Here is the description:
You're questioning yourself? 20 questions to know more about your son. After this test you'll have the proven answer to a question you might have since maybe a long time.
The app itself is a 20-question survey of "Yes" or "No" questions designed to identify your son's sexual preference. Via rue89, and translated into English by resident HuffPost French speaker Alice Hines, these questions are:
1. Does he like to dress up nicely? Does he pay close attention to his outfits and brand names?
2. Does he like football?
3. Before he was born did you wish he would be a girl?
4. Has he ever gotten into or participated in a fight?
5. Does he read sports magazines?
6. Does he have a best friend
7. Does he like team sports?
8. Is he prudish/modest?
9. Does he like diva singers?
10. Does he spend a long time in the bathroom
11. Does he have a tongue, nose or ear piercing
12. Does he spend time getting ready before being seen in public?
13. Have you asked yourself questions about your son's sexual orientation?
14. Are you divorced?
15. Does he like musical comedies?
16. Has he introduced you to a girlfriend ever?
17. Is the father (you) very strict or authoritarian with his son?
18. In your family is the father absent?
19. Was he shy as a child?
20. Is he close to his father?
Reaction around the Internet has not been kind. Gay-friendly Instinct Magazine said that the app is based on the "science of tired and offensive stereotypes," while Jezebel laments the app's "horrible, stereotypical questions." The app is not entirely homophobic, apparently, as Jezebel reports that, if your son is determined to not be gay, the app says "No need to look the other way! ... He is gay! ... ACCEPT IT! ..."
So, silver linings. This conclusion may also protect the app from expulsion from the Android Market, as the Developer Program Policies state that content may be removed for several reasons, most relevantly for
Hate Speech: We don't allow the promotion of hatred toward groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.
So, does this app promote hatred against a sexual orientation? Neither Google nor Emmene Moi immediately responded to request for comment, though with the amount of media attention this app has gained in America, Google should decide soon.
Controversial apps seem to pop up every now and then, the most high-profile ones coming from Apple's App Store. Earlier in September Apple pulled the (also) French-made "Jew Or Not Jew?" Jewish celebrity identifier from its store after complaints; in March, Apple yanked a "Gay Cure" app that used Biblical teachings to help homosexuals become straight. Google has had its own app controversies, too. The Android Market came under fire in March 2011 for not pulling virtual dogfighting game "Dog Wars" from its digital shelves, despite a public outcry from prominent animal rights activists.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
It certainly doesn't promote hatred, it just promotes ignorance.
OP
OP
cobl04
45:33
I think I'd be a raging homosexual according to that app.
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