PC Principal: April Fools’ Day Edition

By Allison Johnson
Web Content Contributor

Recently, I came across the topic of pranks and the fact that some pranks are offensive. For example, I heard it is not “politically correct” to play a pregnancy prank anymore. I totally understand that there are women who struggle with fertility issues and would understand why it could annoy them that someone would use a pregnancy as a joke. On the contrary, I can also understand why someone would not think it is offensive. It makes sense why a woman or couple would choose to prank their parents and close friends over a pregnancy. Let’s be honest, it probably is a parent’s or significant other’s worst nightmare to hear that their partner or child is starting a family before they are ready, so of course it is a classic prank.

I say, let’s be open minded about two things if you happen see something like this online during April Fools’ day. First, before you rant about how a person is so insensitive about pranking their parent’s or boyfriend with a pregnancy, think about this: It is ridiculous if you think they came up with the joke and thought, “you know, Nancy had a miscarriage three years ago, so I know if I do this prank it will really hurt her.” They probably aren’t even aware of a person’s fertility issues. The goal was not to offend you, because the goal of this prank is obviously to scare a family member or friend, which is the purpose of April Fools’ day. The second thing to be open minded about if you were planning to pull this prank is that this IS a topic that has received a lot of attention on social media for being hurtful and offensive to some, so why not just put it to an end. It is a hackneyed prank anyhow. Let’s be more creative.

I’ll be honest though, I personally have never heard a conversation between people talking about how a prank like this is inconsiderate or hurtful. I came across this topic because a few Facebook friends of mine have shared posts saying it’s offensive to them.  Facebook is a place of knives where everyone behind an iPhone will tear you into pieces over anything. If you want to avoid that, just stray from using the clichéd “I’m pregnant prank.” I hope if you didn’t know about this topic, you now understand why it could offend people. Just be considerate and don’t do it if this was your plan this April.

On March 23rd, I ran a Twitter poll and asked my followers if a pregnancy prank was offensive to them or not. I recently discovered out of 27 votes, 70% percent voted no and 30% voted yes. Most of my followers are college students, so it makes sense that it doesn’t bother them because in my opinion we are not in a position where we are trying to conceive a baby. Well at least on purpose we are not!

Featured image by Allison Johnson.