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INTEREST: Hello Kitty Dictionary Gets Axed Over Murderous Description


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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4551
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Hey, maybe Wikibear on Conan can have a new female companion, "Talking Dictionary Hello Kitty". Part 2 of "Necklace" seems exactly like something Wikibear would bring up.

"Also, in South Africa, a 'necklace' can refer to a tire filled with gasoline put around a person's neck and set on fire. The hair and nose burn off first! What an excruciating way to die! I'm Wikibear!"


Last edited by Tenchi on Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4613
Location: New York
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:06 pm Reply with quote
I'd totally watch that.

It's accurate, so you can't fault them on that. How do dictionaries for similar target audiences handle it?
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Emma Iveli



Joined: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 679
Location: Hobo with internet
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:09 pm Reply with quote
DUDE! Was anyone paying attention what they were writing or did they think it was a dictionary for adults!

I didn't even know about that necklace thing... Now I do...

Also I noticed Gay is on the same page as gas... while not bad as the other things, many parents wouldn't want it there...


Last edited by Emma Iveli on Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Hello Kitty and rape shouldn't even be present in the merchandise. It just sounds wrong.
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zeo1fan



Joined: 02 Sep 2011
Posts: 1016
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Hoppy800 wrote:
Hello Kitty and rape shouldn't even be present in the merchandise. It just sounds wrong.


On top of that, they gender the crime, which is no good.
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Sam Murai



Joined: 01 Dec 2006
Posts: 1051
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:46 pm Reply with quote
That was priceless! Laughing I can kind of get a "softened" dictionary for younger children, but I dislike the idea in general, so it feels somewhat karmic in its own strange, classically-comedic way that a few still managed to get through--some of the worst ones, in fact… Razz
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13621
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:46 pm Reply with quote
So, now this dictionary gets under figurative fire for not being P.C.?
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:48 pm Reply with quote
I can think of other definitions of "necklace" besides South African atrocities. Confused
Think someone on the dictionary hated his job, and took it out on the "cute" marketing. If it was a generic Kids' Dictionary from Random House, these probably wouldn't have happened.


Last edited by EricJ2 on Wed Jul 23, 2014 5:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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zeo1fan



Joined: 02 Sep 2011
Posts: 1016
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 3:11 pm Reply with quote
Kadmos1 wrote:
So, now this dictionary gets under figurative fire for not being P.C.?


Was that aimed at me?
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kenway



Joined: 23 Jul 2014
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 3:15 pm Reply with quote
Emma Iveli wrote:
Also I noticed Gay is on the same page as gas... while not bad as the other things, many parents wouldn't want it there...


Created an account just to call out this bullshit. If you think that homosexuality is too adult for children, there's a good possibility that you're heterosexist and a homophobe. Actually that "not as bad" part proves it anyways.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 3:17 pm Reply with quote
Hello Kitty has been branching out into more adult venues as its fanbase ages. Here's a story from a few months' back about a joint venture with Playboy:

animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-03-03/hello-kitty-teams-up-with-playboy-for-a-new-kind-of-cute-sexy

and some other, more dicey, licensed goods like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Vibrating-Hello-Kitty-Vibrator-Masturbator/sim/B000JO034A/

This product has over 20 reviews at Amazon, most of them 5's.

More broadly, we have:

http://www.hellokittyuniverse.com/page/Indecent+Hello+Kitty+Products

(both NSFW, maybe)

I bet there's a certain segment of Americans who would be more than happy to hand their young daughters one of these:



I suspect this one isn't really legitimate, but who knows? Maybe it only shoots out flower petals and candy hearts.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4613
Location: New York
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 3:52 pm Reply with quote
You just know someone has a custom Hello Kitty paintjob for a gun like that. Hopefully it just shoots paintballs.
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katscradle



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 3:57 pm Reply with quote
zeo1fan wrote:
On top of that, they gender the crime, which is no good.


That right there would have me writing a complaint to the publisher. Unfortunately, I would argue for "rape" to be included though. The optics just make the faults of the dictionary worse.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 4:14 pm Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
You just know someone has a custom Hello Kitty paintjob for a gun like that. Hopefully it just shoots paintballs.

Don't worry (or is it worry more?) there do exist real guns with the same motif paint job.
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Emma Iveli



Joined: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 679
Location: Hobo with internet
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 5:28 pm Reply with quote
kenway wrote:
Emma Iveli wrote:
Also I noticed Gay is on the same page as gas... while not bad as the other things, many parents wouldn't want it there...


Created an account just to call out this bullshit. If you think that homosexuality is too adult for children, there's a good possibility that you're heterosexist and a homophobe. Actually that "not as bad" part proves it anyways.


That's NOT what I meant!

I meant to say that while it has horrible things in that dictionary, people will still complain that Gay is in it...

I didn't meant to say it "Wasn't as bad"...

You have to remember that many people in this world have the mentally of Helen Lovejow.


Last edited by Emma Iveli on Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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