# Are Sexist remarks more socially acceptable than Racial ones? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 21, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sexist-remarks-more-socially-acceptable-than-racial-ones/450141 "2008-05-21T19:20:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sexist-remarks-more-socially-acceptable-than-racial-ones/450141/41 "2008-05-22T18:32:43Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] Aren’t jokes supposed to be funny? I don’t get the hate for “sit like a lady”. That seems more like politeness. Heaven knows I’ve told my son to “act like a gentleman” forty million times when he was a child. [/QUOTE] Perhaps, but “sit like a lady” could be taken as (and if addressed to HRC by a heckler in a public setting almost certainly would be meant as) not, “keep your legs crossed,” but “sit down and shut up.” ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sexist-remarks-more-socially-acceptable-than-racial-ones/450141/42 "2008-05-22T18:45:34Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] Aren’t jokes supposed to be funny? [/QUOTE] Mostly, but not always. Sometimes they’re meant to be ice-breakers, or to diffuse a tense situation or to strengthen social bonds, or to impress a date. And there’s a difference between “supposed to be funny” and “funny”. I’m pretty sure “I’m not an alcoholic, I’m a drunk! Alcoholics go to meetings!” is “supposed to be funny”, but it’s not actually funny. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sexist-remarks-more-socially-acceptable-than-racial-ones/450141/43 "2008-05-22T20:19:22Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Perhaps, but “sit like a lady” could be taken as (and if addressed to HRC by a heckler in a public setting almost certainly would be meant as) not, “keep your legs crossed,” but “sit down and shut up.” [/QUOTE] Right. I admit that part of why I was thinking of the phrase is a bit of ‘bleed-over’ from another thread. [QUOTE=WhyNot] And there’s a difference between “supposed to be funny” and “funny”. I’m pretty sure “I’m not an alcoholic, I’m a drunk! Alcoholics go to meetings!” is “supposed to be funny”, but it’s not actually funny. [/QUOTE] Agreed, and there’s a difference between being jocular and being boorish. My problem with the “Iron my shirt” is that a person with manners knows the joke is lame. It’s oooooold. Time to come up with something new, already. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sexist-remarks-more-socially-acceptable-than-racial-ones/450141/44 "2008-05-22T21:02:54Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] You can find all sorts of articles on the Internet, and books too and I shouldn’t wonder, arguing that the moon landings were all faked on a studio set. Granted there’s a great modern mythology about the “Burning Times”, and it’s popular with a certain set of victim feminists, but that doesn’t mean it’s founded on especially solid facts or reasoning. [/QUOTE] You must have missed the part where I wrote that I didn’t agree with their assessments. Thanks for the lecture anyway. Marc [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sexist-remarks-more-socially-acceptable-than-racial-ones/450141.md?page=2)