pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
‘Ozempig’ remains Minnesota baseball team’s mascot despite uproar that name is form of fat-shaming
Updated: MAR 29, 2024 / 04:49 PM CDT
This photo provided by the St. Paul Saints shows a pig named Ozempig on Thursday, March 28, at a farm in Wisconsin. Some people have criticized the Minnesota team’s decision to name the pig after the weight loss drug Ozempic, saying the play on words belittles people who are overweight. (St. Paul Saints Baseball via AP)
For a Minnesota minor league baseball team known for a history of outlandish promotions, the idea of naming its longtime live pig mascot after the weight loss drug Ozempic made perfect sense.
The St. Paul Saints quickly found out that not everyone was amused by the pig’s name, Ozempig, or the team’s posting of a backstory about the pig’s embarrassment at gaining weight and promise to try to remain trim.
Almost immediately after the team announced the name this week ahead of Saturday’s opening day game, criticism began pouring in on social media from people distressed by the name, calling it hurtful and insensitive.
Sean Aronson, the Saints’ vice president and media relations director, said the team only wanted an amusing, topical name for its pig when it chose Ozempig from nearly 2,300 entries in its “Name the Pig Contest.” Team officials were shocked that so many people found the name offensive, Aronson said.
“In today’s world, people don’t want to be diminished, they don’t want to be made to feel a certain way and I’m not going to tell them how they feel is wrong,” Aronson said. “But I can tell you there was no ill-intent, there was no maliciousness, there was never even a discussion in the room when we were going over the name that hey, this may offend some people.”
Ozempic is among several new drugs that been effective at helping people lose significant weight. The drugs can be expensive, depending on insurance coverage, but have drawn extensive attention in part because the have been promoted by celebrities and on social media sites.
The Saints’ pig is a beloved participant in the team’s games played at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the much larger home of the Minnesota Twins in downtown Minneapolis. The animal carries out balls to the umpire and over the course of the summer becomes noticeably larger — so much larger in fact that another young pig takes over duties midway through the season.
Naming the pig mascot after the high-profile drug seemed a natural for the Saints, a Triple-A affiliate of the Twins that has a long history of amusing promotions, such as attaching a fan to a Velcro wall in the outfield and holding races in the infield between people dressed as giant eyeballs.
With such past stunts in mind, some Saints fans defended the name as a play on words and nothing more.
Aronson said team officials understood why some people are outraged and considered making a name change but decided to stick with Ozempig.
“We knew how we originally came up with the name and we’re good with it but we did discuss it and decided we’re going to keep it,” he said.
‘Ozempig’ remains Minnesota baseball team’s mascot despite uproar that name is form of fat-shaming
SCOTT McFETRIDGE, Associated PressUpdated: MAR 29, 2024 / 04:49 PM CDT
This photo provided by the St. Paul Saints shows a pig named Ozempig on Thursday, March 28, at a farm in Wisconsin. Some people have criticized the Minnesota team’s decision to name the pig after the weight loss drug Ozempic, saying the play on words belittles people who are overweight. (St. Paul Saints Baseball via AP)
For a Minnesota minor league baseball team known for a history of outlandish promotions, the idea of naming its longtime live pig mascot after the weight loss drug Ozempic made perfect sense.
The St. Paul Saints quickly found out that not everyone was amused by the pig’s name, Ozempig, or the team’s posting of a backstory about the pig’s embarrassment at gaining weight and promise to try to remain trim.
Almost immediately after the team announced the name this week ahead of Saturday’s opening day game, criticism began pouring in on social media from people distressed by the name, calling it hurtful and insensitive.
Sean Aronson, the Saints’ vice president and media relations director, said the team only wanted an amusing, topical name for its pig when it chose Ozempig from nearly 2,300 entries in its “Name the Pig Contest.” Team officials were shocked that so many people found the name offensive, Aronson said.
“In today’s world, people don’t want to be diminished, they don’t want to be made to feel a certain way and I’m not going to tell them how they feel is wrong,” Aronson said. “But I can tell you there was no ill-intent, there was no maliciousness, there was never even a discussion in the room when we were going over the name that hey, this may offend some people.”
Ozempic is among several new drugs that been effective at helping people lose significant weight. The drugs can be expensive, depending on insurance coverage, but have drawn extensive attention in part because the have been promoted by celebrities and on social media sites.
The Saints’ pig is a beloved participant in the team’s games played at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the much larger home of the Minnesota Twins in downtown Minneapolis. The animal carries out balls to the umpire and over the course of the summer becomes noticeably larger — so much larger in fact that another young pig takes over duties midway through the season.
Naming the pig mascot after the high-profile drug seemed a natural for the Saints, a Triple-A affiliate of the Twins that has a long history of amusing promotions, such as attaching a fan to a Velcro wall in the outfield and holding races in the infield between people dressed as giant eyeballs.
With such past stunts in mind, some Saints fans defended the name as a play on words and nothing more.
Aronson said team officials understood why some people are outraged and considered making a name change but decided to stick with Ozempig.
“We knew how we originally came up with the name and we’re good with it but we did discuss it and decided we’re going to keep it,” he said.
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
Hey Caitlin she/her - read a little history. Not all white people in the past were bad and beat people with whips.
Notice that she failed to include native Americans and Chinese in this calculus? Usually the case.
nivek
As Above So Below
nivek
As Above So Below
pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
I was reading Louis Gossett Jr's obituary and it struck me how he was being pulled over by police up until the 1980s because he was black with a flashy car in the wrong neighborhood.
I've heard enough overprivileged nitwits bitch about slavery and reparations. Their notions of all that stem from Django Unchained no doubt. Certainly seems like it to me.
The real crime wasn't slavery - an awful lot of people died to put an end to it, among other things. The real crime is what happened over the next 100+ years. When did social equity and civil rights turn into revenge and reparations? Oh, progressives see it that way. Interesting that the Southern White Democratic Party is the one who perpetrated the worst extremes on minorities post-war. Dixiecrats. Pulling down statues that they themselves erected is ironic.
I've heard enough overprivileged nitwits bitch about slavery and reparations. Their notions of all that stem from Django Unchained no doubt. Certainly seems like it to me.
The real crime wasn't slavery - an awful lot of people died to put an end to it, among other things. The real crime is what happened over the next 100+ years. When did social equity and civil rights turn into revenge and reparations? Oh, progressives see it that way. Interesting that the Southern White Democratic Party is the one who perpetrated the worst extremes on minorities post-war. Dixiecrats. Pulling down statues that they themselves erected is ironic.
nivek
As Above So Below
Seattle closes gifted and talented schools because they had too many white and Asian students, with consultant branding black parents who complained about move 'tokenized'
Seattle has shuttered its gifted and talented programs because the school board determined they had too many white and Asian students.The district began phasing out its Highly Capable Cohort schools and classrooms for advanced students in the 2021-22 school year because they found it had too many racial inequities. School bosses said black and Hispanic students were underrepresented at the schools.
According to Seattle Public School data, of the highly capable students in the 2022-23 school year, 52 percent were white, 16 percent were Asian and 3.4 percent were black.
During a January 22, 2020, school board meeting, parents of black students in the Highly Capable Cohort asked the board to consider finding ways to incorporate students of color into the gifted program rather than shut it down.
Then school board vice president Chandra Hampson slammed those parents saying, 'this is a pretty masterful job at tokenizing a really small community of color within the existing cohort.'
(More on the link)
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nivek
As Above So Below
Majority of children who express unhappiness with gender will grow out of these feelings, major new study shows
The majority of children who are unhappy with their gender will grow out of the feeling, according to a major study.It found that one in ten 11-year-olds was not content with their birth sex, but for most this uncertainty had vanished by the time they reached their mid-20s.
Scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands followed the lives of 2,772 young people, assessing them at the ages of 11, 13, 16, 19, 22 and 25.
They were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the statement: 'I wish to be of the opposite sex.'
At the age of 11, the start of the study, 11 per cent of participants were unhappy with their birth sex.
This number dropped at each assessment until, by the age of 25, it was just 4 per cent.
(More on the link)
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nivek
As Above So Below
nivek
As Above So Below
The furries are terrorizing us! Utah middle school students walk out of class in protest claiming teachers are allowing classmates in animal costumes to 'BITE, scratch and bark at them'
Students at a Utah middle school staged a walkout to protest their peers who identified as 'furries' - people who dress up in costumes of animals - scratching and biting classmates. The hours-long protest took place outside Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, on Wednesday. It was triggered by a petition demanding a stricter dress code, with some middle schoolers reported the offending students were physically attacking other people. A 'furry' is anyone with a strong interest in anthropomorphic animals. Enthusiasts often don full-body animal costumes and gather at 'furry' conventions. The allegations from inside Mt. Nebo Middle School drew condemnation from members of the costumed community themselves. 'It's crazy that it's escalated to this point where these kids are being so distracting to their peers that their peers want to stage a walkout,' a furry identified as 'Strudel' said.
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nivek
As Above So Below
nivek
As Above So Below