Could everyone quit making “Melania’s a whore” jokes?
Except they’re not jokes, because there’s nothing humorous, OR even relevant to most of the threads where it’s brought up (over and over and over again …sheesh, get some new material).
It was kind of pathetic when she was first lady (“Ha ha, this is all we’ve got to attack her with” Really?).
And now…? It’s even more pointless, and still very immature.
“Har, har, Mealnia’s a hooker.”
“Yeah, an’ she’s like a Russian whore, too, hunh hunh…”
Would it be okay if we made “Melania’s an escort” jokes instead?
Seconded
Thirded
I suppose my own request would be, could everyone quite digressing this fine thread with this stupid complaint?
But since the digression is already well underway, perhaps I can clarify.
First of all my post mentions “Slovenian hooker” just in passing, and the main post is actually a riff on the discussion about Melania plagiarizing Michelle’s work. But that one phrase is what seems to have caught everyone’s attention.
Second, let me explain how humour works – though humour is a personal thing, so this may not work for everyone. See, a phrase like “unprincipled gold-digger” in this context isn’t funny, because it’s literally true. Whereas “hooker” is funny because it’s over-the-top hyperbole. And “Slovenian hooker” is funnier precisely because “Slovenian” is irrelevant, but it adds a sort of lyrical rhythm.
And if the complaint is that this is “mean”, hey, isn’t that what we’re here for? I would also quote Andrew Hall, the author of Laughing in Disbelief, who said:
Satire is a way for the weak to strike back at the strong. The strong have wealth, respect, and power. Those of us who are different need to use other tools. We have laughter. And hope.
I heard a line penned by Finley Peter Dunne. And it stuck with me. To paraphrase: My job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
And if all the above was too long to read, here’s the short version:
Lighten up, Francis.
It’s not funny because it’s sexist. And I thought we all agreed that we wanted less of that around here.
TL;DR: cunt
The problem is that Melania is simply a lousy human being. Sex workers/hookers are not automatically scum, and equating the two is a shitty thing to do and has whiffs of misogyny along with it.
Stormy Daniels is a sex worker, and has about 1000 times more class than Melania could even dream of.
Yes, and hell yes.
And yes to that too!
Pee tape
I agree with your general sentiment, but concluding that this is demeaning to sex workers or that it’s misogynistic seems to me to be reading far, far too much into a light-hearted put-down. If you really want to micro-analyze it, I would draw the conclusion that it’s saying that gold-diggers who marry for money have similar motivations to those who offer sex for money. Except perhaps that the former are worse, since they have a choice; the latter often do not.
Nevertheless, if there’s a consensus here that such terminology is offensive then I won’t use it, not that it’s very likely I’d be using it again, anyway. But I have to say frankly that the whiffs I detect here are not whiffs of misogyny so much as whiffs of the same cancel culture that Bill Maher was talking about last Friday in reference to the Chris Rock joke, that humour is being subjected to a new kind of censorship prescribing what is now “permissible”, in the service of a misguided sense of political correctness. As Maher said, good thing for George Carlin that he’s dead.
And incidentally, there goes the thread, off the rails and over the cliff.
I wish it was a surprise that requests not to describe women as hookers have been met with comments stating it’s just a joke, “lighten up Francis”, and attempts to deflect.
It’s not a light-hearted put-down. It says that you, personally, think it’s an acceptable slam against a woman to say that she’s a sex worker. It says that you do that casually and find it unremarkable when you do it. This is paternalistic, misogynistic garbage. It is not “cancel culture”. It is not faux outrage. Criticize her for something legitimate or shut the fuck up.
But I think what I’m seeing is true freedom of speech.
A lot of people found your post objectionable, I’m kind of on the fence about it myself, simply because Melania Trump WAS a sex worker to some degree, because she posed for nude photographs, some which showed her performing simulated sex acts, and it’s annoying af to listen to evangelical Christian types hold her out as a shining example of virtuous womanhood.
Still, the practice of insulting women by gratuitously accusing them of being sex workers is distasteful to many people. Melania Trump is a horrible person,I think she’s a hard cold calculating grifter.
But since she’s come into the public eye, she’s never been seen doing anything unseemly with men, not even her husband. She doesn’t flirt or chat men up or lead them on. She doesn’t dress or behave provocatively. In fact, she seems consistently joyless and has the demeanor of someone that is disgusted by sex. Given who her husband is, I can’t say that I blame her.
Frankly, a joke or rant accusing her of being a prostitute seems a tad ….lazy, given that she’s not sexually provocative and there’s just so much else to hate about her.
But back to free speech and cancel culture. This IS free speech. No one is censoring what you wrote, banning you, or even warning you. They are simply exercising their right of free speech to tell you they didn’t like what you wrote, in a reasonably polite way.
I’m not even saying you can’t or shouldn’t write stuff like that, only that this isn’t the right audience for it. Feeling that you need to tailor your work to your audience isn’t about being cancelled. It’s about being a good writer. Which you are, but you’re getting feedback. Make of it what you will.
Thank you for another thoughtful post. You make many of them.
I’ll just respectfully disagree with you on that one last point. Being able to tailor your work to an intended audience isn’t really the essence of a good writer, it’s the essence of a popular or commercially successful writer, or the copywriter for an ad agency. It’s not a measure of the art itself.
wolfpup, this isn’t the right audience. I’ve made that error before.
In fact, that satiric article, posted above, about Melania being a registered honorary Dutch sex worker, even makes that point. According to that article, the actual sex workers were so insulted that they all went out on strike in protest. Even satire can make a point!
Not exactly schadenfreude, but I wasn’t sure where to put this so we could all point and laugh. Rolling Stone headline about CFSG endorsing noted TV woo enthusiast:
Are you really the best person to host this particular TED Talk?
I have one thing to say about graphic design - The Cheese Monkeys. I’d love to see Chip Kidd critique the logo. O.K. - that’s two.
You do NOT need one of the best graphic designers in the world to glance at that T logo and say “Complete Rip-Off!”*
.
*Technical design term, comes between “Ah Dunno…” and “The Fuhhhh…?”