Some say the arts have gone soft, because creators are too afraid to hurt people’s feelings. Such cowardice is a threat to art, they say, for art is meant to offend.
I both agree and disagree. Art needs to offend sometimes, yes, or society would stagnate. But it’s not cowardly to worry about people’s feelings. It just means you’re a gentle person. The notion that you need to eschew sensitivity before you can produce good art is a fallacy.
In fact, I think some of the best offensive art comes from gentle people. Gentle people don’t like to offend, so when they do it anyway, it’s because their art truly demands it. It means they have something important to say, or to conquer within themselves. They wouldn’t have faced their fear of controversy otherwise.
That courage is what makes for great art, not the offensiveness itself.