I hope that someday greater numbers of people will realize that the genders are far, far more similar than they are different (secondary sexual characteristics excepted).
I’ve never heard a gender stereotype that was ever at all useful in understanding a specific individual.
Hijack
You think the old (and luckily mostly long since retired) term “niggerrigging” means shoddy?
Funny, in my family (we did use that term 30-40 years ago, before we all knew better), we used it to describe not shoddy work, but something that needed to be done to get by until a store bought fix could be made. Generally the “jerry or nigger rigging” term carried a connotation of innovative and helping to get through a minor emergency.
A minor emergency such as you’re stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no part, and few tools, or can’t quite afford the part right then and there, or whatever you’re “rigging” just needs to do the job for this time frame and the expense to fix it properly wouldn’t be worth it.
Never thought of it as “shoddy” but more along the lines of inventive, helpful, time and money saving.
end hijack
BOTH genders have been getting hosed in commercials, sarcastic jokes and crap for a long time.
Men haven’t had it worse, or more often than women, women haven’t had it worse or more often than men.
Men don’t have exclusive dumped on rights, or even the majority of gender generalizations whether on TV or IRL. This is why the OP called it "Gender Generalizations, NOT “generalizations of women”.
Using an example of a commercial where women are being put under a stupid generalization does not then mitigate the ones where men suffer same.
Wow, I think this **sensitivity ** thing has gone way overboard.
I mean, I use racial stereotypes all the time.
In fact, I’m Chinese. Call me a Gook, a Chink, a greedy money-minded slant-eyes, I don’t care. 
Does it really matter?
If you can’t laugh at yourself, as a man or woman, and say "Hey, thats true. As a guy, I do have trouble asking for directions. 
", then its gonna be a sad, sad world we live in.
Sadly, I think the only people we can make fun off now, are like, white Caucasians.
:rolleyes:
aw man, I wanted to make fun of some black Caucasians.
I dunno. I think the genders can be pretty different in some respects (apart from boobs vs. balls, etc.), and I like it that way. That a few people derive some humor from la difference occasionally seems hardly cause for gnashing of teeth and so forth. It’s a joke thread, for crying out loud.
I never said it did.
I did say that I see about 10 commercials or sitcoms in which the male figure is the ‘dunderhead’ for every 1 in which the female figure is the ‘dunderhead’ and I think it’s really telling about what society deems acceptable that the bitching begins when it’s a commercial or sitcom in which the female character is the joey.
The pendulum has swung to the other end. The advertising geniuses have no concept of no one being the butt of the joke, so they now make men the butts. No, it’s not right.
And as I said in the OP, I would have been just as annoyed if the thread that started this had been making jokes at the expense of men. I think it’s time we grew the hell up as a species.
(I’m not holding my breath.)
Everyone has shitty days. However, let’s say that your average person is cranky 10% of the time (that’s 3 days out of 30). Now let’s also say that during “that time of month”, assuming it lasts 5 days, the average woman experiences mood swings due to hormones (because of which she appears cranky). Then the percentage of time that she’s having a bad day due to her period is 62.5% of the time. Gvien those constraints, the odds say that it’s due to her period.
I’m not justifying the logic, numbers, or viewpoint. In fact, classing “days” in this manner is plain stupid. I just read your post and it made me think of it. Sometimes I wonder why these things occur to me at all…or, a better question, why I post a response…
Oops. That should actually read **male ** Caucasians. :smack:
I seem to remember some research that showed that the PMS thing was mostly due to assignment bias. That is, they had women write down in a journal how their day was, what their mood was, etc., and others do the same for them. Then after a certain period, they asked everyone to explain some of the women’s moods. According to the journals, the moods have virtually no correlation to the menstrural cycle. But in the interviews, both the women and the other people assigned blame for particular moods to PMS, forgetting other moods that couldn’t be so easily blamed on something notable. The researchers concluded that what was happening was that people were more likely to remember bad moods IF they had something obvious to blame them on: i.e., PMS, and the perception that PMS made people moodier or decreased performance and so forth just couldn’t be matched up with the data.
Not in those words, but your complaints were in direct reply to someone who was griping about a specific commercial in which women were targeted. And your comments of “now you know how men feel” make it pretty clear that you cannot resist coming in whenEVER anyone gripes about how a woman is portrayed with your worn out mantra of “see what poor men go through, they have it SO much worse” etc ad nauseum.
The “look how stupid men/woman” are thing regarding commercials, sitcoms, real life is certainly not 10 to 1. NEITHER sex has cornered the market on fun being made of them for their supposed shortcomings.
No one is allowed in almost any thread, without your constant knight in girilish armor act that is, to make any comments about how a woman is treated in any given situation withOUT you not being able to resist your one-trick-pony gripes and whines.
Have you ever considered that some men might find it insulting that you feel that they can’t fight their own battles unless some woman is always shoving it down others’ throats the ways in which they’re targeted?
We KNOW, we GET IT. You think men are horribly treated, constantly abused, oppressed, downtrodden, discriminated against, and that we don’t give them sex because we’re all busy dating the "wrong’ men and that is wrong of us, etc.
We GET IT, you don’t have to constantly cram your pet project down everyone’s throats.
At any rate, back to that actual OP.
I also HATE gender stereotypes. But the “jokes” that make me see red are the jokes about marriage (against EITHER or both spouses). And the MIL jokes…grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I’ve never used the phrase nigger-rigging myself (even saying it out loud makes me rather uncomfortable), though I have used jerry-rigging. Maybe it’s really jury-rigged? I tried to look it up, but all I came up with was this: Answerbag Resource Busy -- Start a conversation. Have some fun. Anyone know if that info is accurate? I know a lot of word etymology is questionable and there are a lot of urban legends involved. Either way, the quoted post is how I’ve always interpreted both phrases as well. No one ever told me a specific meaning for it, I guess it just never even occured to me that nigger would somehow imply shoddy work. I realize it’s a slur, but I guess since it’s such an outdated phrase to begin with, I saw it more in a historical context, kind of like how it’s used in Huck Finn. An antiquated term from a different time. Ah, my sheltered brain.
Now, if someone can tell me what “that would be mighty white of you” means, I would greatly appreciate it. I heard it it O Brother Where Art thou? and neither me or the bf have been able to figure it out.
And I’m sick of how stupid commercials and television make people appear in general, male or female. If it’s some stupid lady spilling a pot of pasta all over herself because she doesn’t have the Special Pasta Pot [sup]TM[/sup] in an infomercial, or a guy with a cellphone calling his wife because he can’t figure out how to buy a loaf of bread. No one is that damn stupid in real life.
Hey, it was a well thought-out response. Still, you have to allow for other factors: not all women share the same experience during their periods. Some experience hardly any change at all (myself included, though occasionally I do have maybe a day a month, if that, when I happen to be irritable and on my period at the same time). Yet other women experience an incredible amount of pain, often resulting in increased crankiness. For example, many women who have endometriosis experience debilitating pain during their periods - as in, they can’t even walk, and they’re bleeding really profusely for longer than average. That’d make anyone cranky. Still other women find that migraines are triggered by hormonal changes relating to their period. I used to have seizures triggered by mine, but for some undefinable reason, they stopped. Either way, it’s a crap-shoot.
So I guess I’m saying in a very rambly, round-about sort of way (which is why my name is what it is) that women experience menstruation differently, and assuming that all women are cranky during the entire five days you have allotted isn’t the best assumption. I would say that most women (and please correct me if I’m wrong, ladies) might be a little irritable, but that irritability may or may not be menstruation-related.
I suspect that you don’t read a damn thing I’ve written. You obviously don’t understand that I think making fun of either gender is wrong, but am questioning why it is that making fun of women causes so much more stir than making fun of men does.
Why are there boycotts and protests of companies who ‘demean’ women in their commercials but there aren’t any when it happens to men?
There should be a reaction to both.
Of course, you’re probably not going to read this, either, so I’m sure I’m wasting my effort.
You’ve chosen to see me a certain way, and won’t change your opinion. Foolish me, I keep thinking you will.
You might’ve noticed that I’ve been discussing things fine with featherlou and actually trying to work to a point of understanding each other. Or maybe you didn’t, because you were too busy typing up your latest ‘go away’ screed.
I’m sure this will disappoint you, but I’m not going away. I’ll participate in those threads I choose to, not the ones you tell me to.
Because we can’t be bothered? Because sometimes the commercials are funny anyway? Because we perceive no threat? Because we look at the guy in the commercial and say, “Heh. Glad I’m not like that dumbass.”
No, wait, I know what it is. Men just have a better sense of humor. Paul Harvey said so, after all.
If we’re (as a society) trying to overcome sexism and gender stereotyping, then we either have to treat it as just as bad to make fun of men as it is to make fun of women, or follow the FNI (Friday Night Improv) rule I learned many years ago when doing FNI.
If you are going to make fun of a stereotype, make it so big, so huge, and so outrageous that everybody knows you’re making fun of the stereotype and not the stereotypee.
I promise not to make fun of your cellulite, if you promise not to make fun of my hairy ass.
Or take dennis miller’s one good piece of advice before he became a dickhead - humour is rough. Wear a cup.