Wednesday, July 14, 2010

"Their parents must be so proud"

I've seen variations on this (clearly sarcastic) statement in many of the places where pictures/videos of G20 vandals are posted.

What I don't understand: why would you say that? What do their parents have to do with anything, and how did it occur to the speaker to mention them in the first place?

Are the people who make this statement implying that they shouldn't have been vandalizing specifically because it would embarrass their parents? If so, do the people who say this take their parents' reactions into account when making everyday choices? Because I don't know about you, but I don't give it a moment's thought - it's just completely irrelevant.

Or are they implying something else? If so, what?

I can't even begin to fathom why this would be anyone's reaction, but I've seen it an awful lot. Help me understand.

5 comments:

TravelMaus said...

Speaking for myself, my parents came to Canada with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, worked hard and gave up almost everything so that my brother and I could have a better life. They taught us good manners, right from wrong and instilled, in us, good work ethics. I'm not saying that what they did was completely correct. In doing what they did they didn't teach us how to have fun and be adventurous or takes chances, for instance. Anyhow, I digress. I think when people say, sarcastically, " Their parents must be so proud", they're saying "look at all their parent's suffering, and hard work to raise them, and this is what the results show." Just an idea.

laura k said...

I think it's a snark cliche, a meaningless crack that some people say when they see young-ish people engaging in behaviour they find distasteful.

Nitangae said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nitangae said...

I think it works on several wonderful levels:

1. Mocking: Demonstrators are like silly little children! They should not be taken seriously! Mamma Boy Mamma Boy!

2. Change of tone (now quite serious): Demonstrators are being bad - their mothers and fathers should punish them!

3. Change of tone again to self-affirming: We are adults, we are - we don't demonstrate! We support strong adults like Stephen Harper and the Police! they are strong adults like us (Note that nobody says of a violent police officer that "his or her parents must be so proud")

4. Implied in 3: We are very weak little children, but good little children - help us Daddy Harper!

5. Also note that this particular phrase only functions well if you assume that Black Block = Protestors while violent police = exception to the rule.

impudent strumpet said...

What I found really weird about it is that they're looking at a person, and then completely skipping over that person's basic humanity and going to their parents. It would make more sense if it is a deliberate...what's the word I'm looking for...patronization? like Nitangae suggests