The thing that pisses me off is the JCPenney ads. They feature this hapless man with a child destroying a house cause the mom is off at Penneys shopping. Lord knows a man can’t possibly fix a child lunch without 3 boxes of food on the floor and a gallon of milk spilled on the counter.
Now then, the jokes don’t really bother me, cause you know it’s a JOKE. The advertising does, it stereotypes.
I agree with Dio. If I were offended by everything that’s “supposed” to offend me, I’d never have time to do anything else.
However, as a man I’d like to thank you for standing up for us.
You agree that ‘men are mostly bastards anyway’?
Would you agree with a statement that ‘women are mostly bitches anyway’?
You forgot the worst part, when the man says, “Where is your mother?” Ugh. Like the woman just abandoned her kids with some helpless moron so she could feed her shopping addiction. Great stuff there.
I don’t know why, but the J C Penny commercial with the black family cracks me up everytime. There’s just something about the way the husband asks “Where is your mother?” and that look on his face. Priceless.
Mostly? Drop the -ly and move it two words to the left. Now you’ve got yourself a joke!
[quote=catsix]
Would you agree with a statement that ‘women are mostly bitches anyway’?
“womenly are most bitches”
:dubious:
I find some of those sexist jokes funny. Men and women are different, and jokes that pick up on these differences can be funny. Just like I can laugh at those “You May be Ghetto If…” jokes, I can laugh at something that slams my gender. And yes, there are “bad women” jokes floating around. My friend just sent a funny one showing two birds under the caption: “Which one is the female bird?” One bird had a beak that was flapping away while the other bird had it’s head away to the side, perfectly still. Hehe.
But everything in moderation, I say. I hate advertising that panders to the stereotype that men can’t clean or cook or raise kids or be anything more than big children. Jokes that play on these stereotypes aren’t funny to me either. They aren’t offensive to me, but they are tired.
When I was thirteen, I went to this Summer Camp for Dorks (specifically, for French-speaking dorks) that opened with a cultural lesson. We were taken in small groups into rooms in which folks dressed in elaborate African robes fed us food and entertained us.
Only there were certain rules. The guys all sat in chairs, while the girls sat on the floor. The guys could talk, the girls were shushed every time they tried. The guys were served food first, the girls were served only after the guys ate.
Afterward, we all got to talk about the experience, and everyone was outraged at the sexism of this group, me included.
Then the counselors explained. Women in this culture, they said, were considered sacred for their childbearing abilities. They sat on the ground to represent their close connection to Mother Earth; guys, with less connection, were forbidden from sitting on the earth. Women, wiser than men, didn’t need to speak as much as chattery foolish men did. And men ate first in case the food was tainted; they were more expendable than women, who only ate after the food was proven to be safe.
The lesson the counselors wanted us to learn was not to judge other cultures so quickly, that what looked sexist from the outside might actually have really good reasons. “But wait a second!” I protested. “It’s still sexist; it’s just sexist against guys now!”
The worst part of the experience was the damned patronizing counselors who kept trying to explain to me, oh so patiently, that I was just being ethnocentric. Grrrr!
There are three problems I have with such jokes:
I would have a real hard time being married to a woman that told such jokes about guys.
Daniel
Depends on who the man is. If we know each other, it may be funny. It also depends on the teller and the context. Is it his mom tellin’ the joke?
Actually, there’re ‘keychains, bumperstickers, t-shirts’ etc. like this already. And, apparently they are tolerated.
I’ll agree with these.
May well be, depending upon how the word’s being defined.
Actually, some of them are. This is a matter of aesthetics.
The structure of humor is such that quite often, somebody gets made fun of. Just like you friends can rib you about things you wouldn’t tolerate from strangers, there’re different criteria for different situations.
I still see no poiint in deciding to be offended by stupid man jokes. I just don’t have the time nor inclination. And, after all, what’d be the point?
The point is that when people wear shirts that say “Boys Lie” or Diogenes says most men are bastards, that’s unfair to my husband who doesn’t lie and is not a bastard and deserves more credit than that. Nor does my husband shirk chores, or spend time in the bathroom to get away from my nagging voice :rolleyes:. My husband and I are best friends, married almost ten years and I don’t go for stereotypes that depict him as otherwise.
Exactly. I just don’t see the stupid man stereotype as applying to me specifically or to much of reality in general. I doubt that many people, (if any), do see the stereotype as applying to any actual individual.
I’ll let Diogenes speak for himself, but I took that comment as a tongue in cheek. It’s called a sense of humor. Go get one.
[/quote=catsix]
Would you agree with a statement that ‘women are mostly bitches anyway’?
[/QUOTE]
Not all of them, no.
I’ll let Diogenes speak for himself, but I took that comment as a tongue in cheek. It’s called a sense of humor. Go get one.
Not all of them, no.
This man certainly needs to learn how to preview.
It all comes down to the “historical oppressors” and the “historical oppressed”.
Oppressors include men, whites, heterosexuals
Oppressed include women, minorities, gays.
It’s always allowable to slam the first - it’s usually not allowed to slam the second.
Lord Ashtar is right, jarbabyj. It was a joke. Lighten up. Men are not harmed by a few dumb man jokes.
Have you never laughed at Homer Simpson?
Yes, but I don’t say “Most men are like Homer Simpson”. I laugh at him as a person. When you start rolling your eyes and saying “MEN, CAN’T LIVE WITH THEM, CAN’T SHOOT THEM…” or “TYPICAL MALE” it goes beyond a joke to one person and begins encompassing EVERY MALE HUMAN BEING.
What is INSULTING about it to me is that very often it’s WOMEN making those statements and they would be fucking batshit if a man said something disparaging about women.
History matters. Men have never been the victims of systematic violence or oppression. The contexts for these kinds of jokes are not the same. Men have never been powerless.
What’s awesome about you is how you ignore evidence that contradicts your prejudices. I mean here I am, as pinko a bleedingheart feminist as you can hope to find, giving a whole set of reasons why anti-male jokes are a bad idea, and I’m joined in this idea by plenty of other bleeding hearts; rather than pay any attention to this, you’d rather play the martyr, act as if it’s always allowable to make such jokes.
Pathetic bullshit. Grow up. The world’s more complicated than you think.
Daniel
Diogenes, note my three reasons above for thinking that such jokes are a bad idea. None of them contradict the historical argument, nor are they contradicted by the historical argument. How do you respond to them?
FWIW, I agree without reservation that anti-minority jokes are worse precisely because of the historical oppression argument you raise. That doesn’t, however, excuse the telling of anti-male (etc.) jokes: just because they’re not as bad doesn’t mean they’re a good idea.
Daniel
I don’t take most things too seriously, except for one thing.
The Viagra joke.
I think it is exceptionally rude, crass and demeaning to poke fun of anybody who has a medical condition. Especially one that is so embarassing to most men who suffer from it.
If I were to make similar jokes about frigidity or breast cancer, I’d be a social pariah, and rightly so. But somehow, Viagra jokes are hilarious to some people.
Because, you know, the penis is involved. :rolleyes:
I’ve called people on the carpet on this board for throwing Viagra comments around casually, and they’re always completely oblivious to it. Impotence is a serious problem for anyone who suffers from it, and shouldnt be snickered at.