instruction:
Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
question:
Peace on Earth? There are a whole bunch of people who simply don't like Christmas and are fighting to get rid of it any way they can . And, there are a lot of people on the other side who are angry at those efforts . And so, this whole battle over whether to say Christmas or Happy Holidays misses the point . I suppose it may be hard to be a non-believer in the religious themes around Christmas and live in our culture . You are confronted daily with the religious symbolism of Christmas in the books you read, the friends you have and the movies you watch ; and , above all ,  you have to stay away from religious stuff...like Christmas celebrations . I'm a believer, but not without a modicum of compassion for those who don't share my religious beliefs . I can imagine how irritating Christmas must be for those whose whole worldview is built on the belief that Christmas doesn't matter because it points to what is spurious at best and dangerous at worst . I get that, too . I must admit, though, that I get irritated sometimes when a group of people bring a lawsuit to get rid of the town creche or when someone wishes me "Happy Holidays." It bothers me when universities remove Christmas trees or Christmas concerts are canceled because it offends those who aren't religious or Christian . Frankly, I listen to a lot of stuff from the other side all the time . Fair play suggests that it wouldn't hurt for the other side to abide some of mine . I decided that I'm just not going to fight the Christmas war . I'm an old guy and old people are already irritated about being old . As someone said, it takes very little to tick us off . Instead, I'm just going to sing as loudly and as publicly as I can a Christmas carol---a Christmas carol about love and a God who went to a lot of trouble to express his love for us . You see , in my belief system, Christmas doesn't mean that God came to destroy us or to kick posteriors . I believe that the reason he came was to tell us that he isn't angry . And when we make obscene gestures or get mean with those who disagree with us, it kind of misses the point . It becomes a disconnect between what I believe and what I do . And if I really believe(and I do) that the King came , it kind of changes my perspective . I have a friend whose family takes playing chess very seriously . It gets so "hot" sometimes that they end up throwing chess pieces at one another . As you can imagine , they lose a lot of pieces . One Christmas when they were playing chess, my friend took the baby Jesus from the small creche under the Christmas tree to replace one of his lost pieces . My friend then began to move all over the board, going after his brother's pieces . "You can't do that," his brother said,"that's illegal." "Oh, yes I can," my friend said."This is Jesus and he can do whatever he wants to do." Jesus does as he pleases and he does it right well . At Christmas he decided to love and, then, clean up the mess later . So I think I'll opt out of the war . The King was doing fine before I came along and will do fine long after I'm gone . He doesn't need my defense . So, Merry Christmas or...uh .... Happy Holidays . Whatever .
answer:
There are a whole bunch of people who simply don't like Christmas and are fighting to get rid of it any way they can And, there are a lot of people on the other side who are angry at those efforts


question:
Will the awful power of the word 'slut' defeat feminists' efforts to reclaim it? It's been over twenty years since then - Bikini Kill frontwoman and Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna scrawled the word SLUT across her stomach . In the years since, there's been a book called Slut! , countless feminist debates over the reclamation of the word "slut" and, in 2011, thousands of women took to streets across the globe in anti-rape marches called SlutWalks - a reference to how victims of sexual assault are often blamed for the violence done to them . Like "cunt" and "bitch", many feminists have long tried to wrest away from its original users the power and harm of the word "slut" and to give it new meaning . Increasingly, though, it's seeming like we might not succeed any time soon . Take Leora Tanenbaum: in 2000, she wrote Slut!: Growing up Female with a Bad Reputation chronicling girls' and women's experiences with the word . She herself was called a "slut" as a high school student in the 1980s - long before the term "sexual harassment" was coined - and told me"I had no vocabulary to understand what happened." Now, 15 years later, Tanenbaum is about to publish another book: I Am Not a Slut because, in part, the sheen of reclaiming "slut" seems to have worn off over the years . When she spoke to women who called themselves "sluts" with a "positive and defiant" spirit, all told her the decision had turned against them later- and all regretted it . Tanenbaum told me that, when women are in closed circle or close-knit community - like a protest with like-minded people, or among friends who understand the cheeky appropriation of the word - identifying as a "slut" can be empowering . But what inevitably happens, especially in today's digital culture where revenge porn, stolen pictures and cyber harassment is the norm, is that "it always spills outwards." For them it was an amazing feminist experience , but it didn't last . Every single person I spoke to who intentionally embraced a "slut" persona ended up being treated terribly by people outside of her circle , because the culture we live in is so dominated by the sexual double standard . But beyond women who tried to reclaim "slut" for themselves, other feminists have rightfully asked why we should all try to reclaim a word with so much baggage - especially a word that impacts different women differently, and brings them a lot more pain than righteous justice . SlutWalks, for example, are no longer the cause celebre they once were because some women of color spoke out against the ways in which the protests and the reclamation of "slut" focused on the ability of white women to simultaneously embrace the word and reject its meaning . A group of black female academics, activists, and writers wrote an open letter explaining that "as Black women, we do not have the privilege or the space to call ourselves 'slut' without validating the already historically entrenched ideology and recurring messages about what and who the Black woman is." Rutgers professor and writer Brittney Cooper wrote at the time,"To organize a movement around the reclamation of a term is in and of itself an act of white privilege." In response, some SlutWalk organizers changed the name of their protests ; today , while a handful of SlutWalks remain , the excitement over the movement has waned noticeably . But women everywhere are still being actively, physically hurt by the stereotypes that lead people to call them "sluts" . Just look to the high profile deaths of young women who were slut-shamed and a mass shooting where the killer said he was targeting "blonde sluts" : we're still being targeted because of our identities and sexualities , and it has, perhaps appropriately, put a damper on the once-celebratory reclamation of the word . Maybe that the wounds inflicted by "slut"- and the culture that encourages people to define women that way - that we once hoped were superficial are just too raw and too deep . Maybe the speed of the internet is too fast for us to control a word with so much potential to damage . There' s a poster on my living room wall by artist Favianna Rodriguez that reads:"I'm a Slut. I Vote. So Does Everyone I Sleep With. And You're About to be More Fucked Than I Am." For me, it captures the brash, in-your-face spirit that the feminist movement I've loved is known for . But in this time of unprecedented feminist power, the conversation about "slut" can be more reflective than fevered . Women who want to call themselves "sluts" shouldn't stop, or be made to stop - I love that women can embrace that which is meant to hurt them and find power in it . But I also know that we can still claim our sexuality and agency without using a word meant to denigrate- a word that still hurts so many people . Besides , we don't need "slut" to tell us what we already know: women have sex , some people don't like that and we're going to continue to do it anyway .
answer:
Like "cunt" and "bitch", many feminists have long tried to wrest away from its original users the power and harm of the word "slut" and to give it new meaning


question:
Billy Crystal is wrong. There is nowhere near enough gayness on screen. Comedian, actor and - apparently - bewildered Victorian time-traveller Billy Crystal disappointed millions of fans and general conscience-havers this week when, in an interview with the Television Critics Association, he said that he thinks gay characters on TV are "pushing it a little too far" . "I hope people don't abuse it and shove it in our face," Crystal continued, referring to gay sex scenes, "to the point where it feels like an everyday kind of thing." He later attempted a half-hearted backpedal, telling the Hollywood Reporter that, don't worry, he totally thinks straight people are gross, too : "What I meant was that whenever sex or graphic nudity of any kind (gay or straight) is gratuitous to the plot or story, it becomes a little too much for my taste." Sporting try, Billy , but we can see your tell : several of your chosen turns of phrase have been used to dehumanise and deny representation to gay people for decades - "shove it in our face", in particular, is tantamount to a coded gay slur . For that matter, it is not even possible to "shove" heterosexual sexuality in anyone's face , because there is no human on earth whose face isn't already completely submerged in and saturated by it . Gratuitous straight sex is a defining plot device in pretty much all media: primetime soaps, daytime talk shows, beer commercials, Billy Crystal movies . We know what you meant . Of course ,  it's perfectly fine to be uncomfortable with overt displays of sexuality, regardless of orientation - everyone has the right to set and defend their own sexual boundaries . I, for instance, find the idea of a woman loudly faking an orgasm in a crowded delicatessen so unbearably awkward that it makes me want to crawl out of my skin and flush the rest of me down the toilet . And that's why I FAST-FORWARD THROUGH THAT PART OR WATCH SOMETHING ELSE . It's almost as though you can choose what media you want to consume without policing anyone's sexual expression and furthering the oppression of an already marginalised and underrepresented group . But Crystal's dull, antique disdain for gay sex actually manages to crystallise a very important, progressive point : not only is there not "too much" gayness in media , gayness doesn't go anywhere near far enough . Back up the gay truck and just flood the place . It's about time . If you want evidence that our media is broken (or, more unsettlingly, working just as it's intended) , look no further than the staggering whiteness, straightness, and maleness of the 2015 Oscar nominations . As Bidisha summed up in this paper last week: "Every nominated best director, screenwriter, screenplay adapter and original score composer is a white man . All the nominated best actors and best supporting actors are white men . All but one of the best picture nominations are about how hard it is being an entitled, genius white man . All the nominated best foreign language film directors are men . All but one of the documentary directors - Laura Poitras for Citizenfour - is a man . In the best picture category, seven films are directed by white men and the eighth, Selma, is directed by a black woman, Ava DuVernay, who was snubbed for best director." When it comes to diversity in media- after hundreds of years of straight white guys telling straight white guy stories, deciding which subject matters are serious(straight white guy stuff) and which are frivolous (everything else), and congratulating themselves on being the best at fulfilling their own rigged, narcissistic standards - I'm not interested in parity . I want overcompensation . I want new stories . And I don't just mean that from a social justice standpoint . I'm bored . A time is going to come- in my lifetime, I hope - when just being an angsty white man won't be enough any more . It won't carry a movie . It won't justify an Oscar . That's not to say that straight white guy stories can't be compelling, heartbreaking and important  - simply that we've heard them already . We've heard them at the expense of millions of other stories that never get funding, that are rewritten and whitewashed, that are needlessly recentered around a white person a la Orange is the New Black . When these conversations come up , some genius inevitably pipes up with what they think is a trump card - some version of:"Oh, so we should have a show where every character is a disabled black Muslim lesbian!?!?!?" As though nothing could be more absurd and unthinkable . As though there aren't innumerable TV shows and movies with all-white ensemble casts that go uncritiqued . And , to answer your question , UM, YES . That show sounds incredible and I would watch the crap out of it . It's only an absurd concept if you believe that disabled black Muslim lesbians are somehow less valid, less valuable, than straight white men . They're not . There is no such thing as a niche human . Representation is humanisation , and we have an inexpressible amount of ground to make up if we want to begin to establish gay people and trans people and disabled people and people of colour and fat people and sex workers as fully realised human beings - not tropes, morality tales, or comic relief - in the public consciousness . I'd say we could stand a few decades of overrepresentation, in fact . Come on, Hollywood . Shove it in my face .
answer:

Comedian, actor and - apparently - bewildered Victorian time-traveller Billy Crystal disappointed millions of fans and general conscience-havers this week when, in an interview with the Television Critics Association, he said that he thinks gay characters on TV are "pushing it a little too far"