Someone says or does something that some group finds offensive. The thing is, though, the person who speaks against it isn't part of the group themselves and is getting offended on the group's behalf. The people who are actually members of the group either don't mind or think that the "offensive" statement is Actually Pretty Funny.
The unoffended members of the group may be called or might actually be Category Traitors or Boomerang Bigots with Internalized Categorism. If this argument is happening on the internet, they could be accused of (or actually be) not actually being group members at all. No True Scotsman might also be applied as well, saying anyone who isn't offended isn't a "real" member of the group.
There are Unfortunate Implications for both sides of this issue. On the one hand, members of the group don't need outsiders speaking over them when they're perfectly capable of stating their own views. On the other hand, just because one sample of the group feel a certain way doesn't mean they speak as a consensus of the entire group.
The implications get even worse if the outsider in question is from a majority group attempting to speak out for an oppressed/disadvantaged minority, but in the process of doing so they ignore or disregard the opinions of the minority group they’re trying to help.
Happens a lot in Fan Wank. Overlaps with Unwanted Assistance and For Your Own Good. Related to Category Traitor, Condescending Compassion, Windmill Crusader, and Windmill Political. Definitely does occur as Truth in Television — yet note how many of the examples below still are Strawman Political. This often happens when someone in the group is a friend or a family member of the person saying the offensive thing. See also N-Word Privileges.
Might happen when Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales.
Examples:
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Art
- A museum in Boston
had an event in which people could pose in a kimono front of Claude Monet's painting La Japonaise in the style of that painting. While Japanese kimono makers loved the event (many of them are desperate for more new customers in the form of overseas buyers) and most Japanese and Japanese-Americans were also fine with it, several (non-Japanese) Asian-American groups protested the event, deeming it an example of "cultural appropriation" and "Orientalism".
Live-Action Film
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before: When watching Sixteen Candles with Lara Jean and Kitty, Peter finds it surprising that both of them, being Asian, love the film even though it features the racist stereotype character Long Duk Dong. Lara Jean and Kitty agree, but ignore him because they love watching Jake Ryan.
Literature
- Showing up in several Discworld books, the Campaign for Equal Heights is an advocacy group aiming to reduce discrimination against dwarfs. The Campaign is mostly run by humans who think that the dwarfs are being exploited, looked down on, or otherwise unfairly treated. Dwarfs themselves don't care much about what the Campaign is doing; they only want to work and send more money home. Besides which, as the narration mentions, if they were actually offended by something the humans did, they have their own ways of expressing themselves. Typically involving battleaxes.
- Hand of Thrawn: Played for Drama. The political question of what to do with the revelation of the Bothans' part in the Imperial genocide of the Caamasi is never properly posed to the Actual Pacifist Caamasi survivors themselves, who don't want the entire Bothan civilization punished for something only a few could possibly have been involved in. This is mainly because it mostly stops actually being about Caamas pretty quickly: a lot of the participants, such as the Ishori and Diamalans, are just using it as an excuse to settle old grudges.
- In the Harry Potter books, Hermione tries to free the House Elves from what she considers to be slavery, though most of them like their duties. When other characters (including the House Elves themselves) try to explain this to her, she just claims that the Elves have been brainwashed to accept the mindset and refuses to entertain the idea (which is the actual truth) that they just have different values than humans. In fairness though, while they like working for humans, the elves don't enjoy being abused, and Hermione works to stop it later in the Ministry.
Live Action TV
- In one of The Late Show (1992) "How to Host a Dinner Party" sketches, one of the obligatory guests is the annoyingly politically-correct guy. The sketch has him complaining about how sexist Basic Instinct was, to which one of the female guests responds that she quite enjoyed it.
- In an episode of Coupling, Sally is infuriated by Howard, a gay man who is a right-wing Tory voter and minimally PC. When Jeff gives a trademark Bucket of Ears speech about how much easier sex must be for gay men:
Howard: That's a very good point, actually.
Sally: No it's not! It's homophobic, you stupid queen! - In the Battlestar Galactica (2003) episode "Bastille Day", Tom Zarek, a prisoner aboard one of the ships in the fleet, uses a Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters motif. A civilian on President Roslin's staff describes him as a freedom fighter for a colony that had been exploited by the other members, and Lee Adama is an admirer of Zarek's manifesto, but Dee, a Galactica crew member who actually grew up on the planet in question, says Zarek is just a terrorist and doesn't speak for them.
Video Games
- In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, PC Principal gets into an argument with two men over one's apparent racist comment to the other:
PC Principal: Excuse me, but did you or did you not say that this man looked tired?
Man: Yes, he's my friend. I said "Paulo, you look tired."
PC Principal: MICROAGGRESSION!! [Beats the crap out of the man] Persons of Hispanic backgrounds have been stereotyped as being "sleepy" and saying that they look tired is a microaggression that WILL NOT STAND!
Paulo: But I am tired. [PC Principal beats him up, too] - The Elder Scrolls: In Daggerfall, the historical dramatization novel series The Real Barenziah included a pretty graphic sex scene between Barenziah (a princess of Morrowind in hiding) and Therris, a Khajiit member of the Thieves' Guild. Come Morrowind and the Tribunal Temple has ordered the passage censored (the ESRB apparently got wise to Bethesda Getting Crap Past the Radar), but in the Tribunal expansion, both Barenziah and the books' author Plitinius Mero exist as NPCs. If asked, Barenziah comments that she enjoyed the books and is friends with Mero.
Webcomics
- This is Pat's entire deal in Achewood. He is never happy unless he can find some kind of political incorrectness to complain about, and if he has nothing in his immediate life that's wrong he'll be offended on behalf of entire other groups. He's really an insufferable ass who uses "being offended by something that should be offensive" to make himself feel superior.
- Jim in Ménage à 3 is a Straw Male Feminist who is shown telling a woman who is a huge fan of the Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball series "What woman in her right mind would play such garbage?" after calling the series sexist and degrading to women. They give the details of their argument to Gary later.
Tracy: So I tell Jim, "A woman, virtual or not, is free to be as sexy as she wants!"
Jim: And I tell her, "Well, not if it panders to the Male Gaze!"
Western Animation
- South Park:
- People are up in arms over the band "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld" because (allegedly) the only reason they're popular is that people like to come to laugh at Timmy, who is in a wheelchair and can only say his name. But people are actually there to support Timmy and enjoy the music, and Timmy himself is having fun. Phil Collins is also upset and jumps on this bandwagon, but for him it's really because TatLotU are more popular than he is.
- In another episode, the kids in South Park have taken to using the word "fag" as a such a generic insult that they don't realize it's associated with homosexuality. People become up in arms about it and try to stop it. The homosexual community in South Park actually see it as a good thing that they've been dissociated from the insult and try to encourage it.
- In another episode, Big Gay Al implores people not to sue the Boy Scouts over their policy of not allowing openly gay scout leaders, reasoning that the Scouts are a private club and should be allowed to determine membership according to their own values, even if they are values that he disagrees with.note This is far from a unanimous (or even widespread) opinion among Real Life gay people regarding the Real Life Boy Scouts.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The episode Over A Barrel has rough analogues for settlers and natives in the form of ponies and buffalo respectively feuding over the use of a patch of land: the ponies see it as perfectly good land for growing crops for the developing town of Appleloosa, while the buffalo have used it as a sacred ground for centuries. Both sides have genuine grievances and make good points, and in fact Little Strong Heart and Braeburn seem willing enough to try to reach a compromise. Unfortunately Rainbow Dash and Applejack shout over the two representatives, having become emotionally vested themselves.
Rainbow Dash: We brought our friend Little Strong Heart to explain why the settlers should move the apple trees off buffalo land.
Braeburn: That information would be helpf-
Applejack: That's funny, because my cousin Braeburn was about to explain to the buffalo why they should let the apple trees stay!
Little Strong Heart: That would be a useful thing t-
Rainbow Dash: The land is THEIRS! - The Popeye cartoon "Leave Well Enough Alone" has Popeye feeling sorry for the animals in a pet store so he buys them all and sets them free. The only animal left in the store is a parrot who says he's got a good thing with a roof over his head and three square meals a day. Just as all the animals are caught and about to be impounded, Popeye licenses them all and returns them to the pet shop. Again, the parrot admonishes "leave well enough alone."
