She wasn’t dripping in diamonds or strolling the red carpet with man-candy on her arm, but that didn’t keep nine-year-old Quvenzhane Willis from earning some well-deserved shine for becoming the youngest-ever nominee for Best Actress at the recent 85th Academy Awards.

A child prodigy that enraptured critics and filmgoers as the headstrong Hushpuppy in last year’s poignant Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhane is already slated to appear in the upcoming historical drama, 12 Years a Slave and also confirmed that she was replacing Willow Smith in an update of the stage and screen classic, Annie.

It’s an enviable list of credits that many fledgling actors and actresses are still struggling to achieve, but what also stands out about Wallis is her fiestiness and force-of-nature personality, traits that led to her becoming a dubious target of the satirical publication and website,The Onion, during Sunday’s live Academy Awards telecast.

In a message that was fired off from their official Twitter page, a writer maligned the history-making nominee with a level of vulgarity that shocked even their most non-PC readers by referring to Quvenzhane as “kind of a [expletive], right?”

The level of outrage was as incredulous as it was immediate, many responding with condemnation and even ‘unfollowing’/’unliking’ The Onion as a result: “Not funny guys.” “Totally inappropriate, even for The Onion. Disgusting.” “You just called a child a perverse sexualized gender insult. What?!?”

Those who champion The Onion’s brand of humor defended the explosive word choice by describing it as an inverted exaggeration of her precociousness, sort of like describing Barbra Streisand’s mellifluous vocals as screeching or hunky Hugh Jackman as hideous.

But if that were the case, why not just use a less sexually loaded term that would’ve conveyed the spirit of the joke (such as “brat”)? What was it about Quvenzhane that compelled an adult to degrade her with such misogynistic hostility? And if it were their daughter, sister or niece being maligned, would it still be considered a knee-slapper of a joke?

One can only take edgy so far before it becomes inexcusable. In their shallow world, the same pluck and personality that fueled 7-year-old Dakota Fanning’s performance in 2001’s I Am Sam, which made her the youngest-ever Screen Actors Guild Award nominee somehow translated into arrogance and attitude when demonstrated by Wallis.

Those intimidated by girls and women who refuse to ‘stay in their place’ consider assertiveness to be emasculating and tend to degrade the target’s femininity, which moves the online attack far beyond the realm of acceptable “satire.”

Soon after the controversy erupted, the post was removed and The Onion’s CEO, Steve Hannah, publicly apologized for the “crude and offensive” term “masquerading as satire.”

But the implication of the comment—now don’t go too far and get too confident little girls, or else”— requires much more than an apology. A sizable donation in the name of Quvenzhane to the charity of her choice would be a good start, and sensitivity training and further instruction for staff about the difference between ‘comedy’ and ‘cruelty’ would also make an impact.

However, as the situation currently stands, a below-the-belt vulgarity stole the spotlight from an adorable prodigy who deserved respect, not ridicule.

And while Quvenzhane’s career choice may invite extra scrutiny, such exposure shouldn’t allow for hatred or humilation masquerading for humor.

Call it what it is: patronizing, disingenuous, even imbecilic. But it sure isn’t any kind of ‘funny.’