Mmm… Fish and chips.
On another note: Now that you’ve divvied up the flower of French womanhood amongst you, I take it I can keep my dibs on Beatrice Dalle circa ‘Betty Blue’.
And yojimbo’s right about his temper. Don’t make his anger angry, you wouldn’t like it when its angry.
micilin
Okay, now I’m confused. When Mothchunks made a harmless joke about underarm hair, TwistofFate calls him a racist xenophobe. When Neurotik called the population of Ireland a bunch of drunks, Twisty replies with a joke and a smiley face. How is the first racism and the second good clean fun?
Anyway, moving right along:
Agreed. You might notice I said exactly the same thing in the bit of my last post you quoted.
Knock yourself out. If you’re funny enough, I might join in. I don’t invest my sense of self worth in the patch of ground my mom happened to be standing on nine months after she fucked my dad.
Well, that would be a factually inaccurate argument. How I responded would depend on the context of the OP. If he sounded genuinely ignorant, I’d probably try to correct his misapprehensions. If it were just a troll looking to start a fight, I’d ignore him. Since the poster of this hypothetical thread would be you, Gary, and I’ve seen enough of your posts to know you’re not a troll, I’d probably go with option number one.
No doubt they would, because they’ve already proven themselves to be, no offence, over-sensitive to this issue. And while I’d appreciate you guys’ support, really, 'tain’t necessary. At least as far as I’m concerned.
That’s a very noble sentiment, but also a waste of time, as the intent behind the vast majority of these jokes isn’t malicious. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t say anything: these jokes bother you, and that’s understandable. All I’m saying is, instead of going right into Hunter-Killer mode, a more polite response, at least initially, would probably be more effective.
And as a last note, there are a lot of far more dangerous forms of racism than calling someone a cheese-eating surrender monkey. No one ever lynched a Frenchman just for being French, or beat one to death because he came out of a French bar. Let’s try to keep that much in perspective.
Beware Miller, you may start some new trends.
Well, no, not really, but your perspective is sound on this.
Miller - touche’
The bigotry implied by “CESM” is not on par with true racism -
However, I still think there’s more than enough justification to consider devotees of the expression and sentiment assholes. Their behavior serves to strengthen all the negative stereotypes of Americans - stereotypes America seems to be proud of. It’s embarrassing when it isn’t just dull.
Besides - if you’ve told someone that they’re coming across as belligerant, juvenile, and offensive, and they don’t seem to care, then what can you do?
As the saying goes: “Don’t try to teach a pig to sing - it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
Blah. . . Let me rephrase my first post : Stereotypes that these people seem proud of. I’m sure there are some Americans who are NOT proud of the stereotype, and I’ll just try to back away from that rhetorical pitfall . . . 
Well, no, not that I’m aware of in the U.S. Though as recently as a few weeks ago, when citizens of Abidjan rioted over thier dislike of the French negioted peace treaty for the Ivory Coast, French civilians were beaten. Now, most likely none of the members of this board who joke about the French are Ivory Coastians (Ivory Coastites?), but this being an international board and all, you never know.
Ivorians.
Since less than 1/2 of the population is literate, they speak French and 60 native dialects, not English, and there are only 10,000 internet users out of a population of 16.8 million, or .05% (not 5%) of the population, it is rather not likely at all.
Hmmm… I’m having a little trouble doing some research for this thread…
You’re absolutely right, and that’s part of what I was trying to get at: there isn’t any real history of anti-French bigotry in the US, so most Americans, even if they aren’t joining in on the jokes, don’t really see what the big deal is. It’s funny to be pretend to be bigoted against the French, because no one is really bigoted against them. However, I imagine that for people who live in countries near France and who deal with French people regularly, that’s not the case. I’m sure there are people in other countries who really do hate the French, the way Klansmen hate blacks in the US. Which is why this stuff is so offensive to people like Gary and Twistoffate, because it resonates with actual social problems where they live.
Well, it would partially depend on how you told them that in the first place. If you tried being reasonable with’em and explaining your concerns, but they kept it up anyway, yeah, flame the hell out of them. But if you start off with, “Hey asshole,” just about anyone is going to get their backs up and get belligerent right back at you. The person making these jokes might not be an asshole, he just might not realize to what a large audience he is playing. On the Internet, everyone has the same accent. Just look at yojimbo or Gary Kumquat. They speak English so well, you’d never guess they were foreigners! 
That’s a perfectly reasonable position. OTOH, if “burger-eating fat fuck” came up from several different posters every single time America was mentioned in a discussion on food, and if any American’s opinions on food were dismissed with “a burger-eating fat fuck is telling us how to cook? If it weren’t for us, you’d be gnawing on bark and twigs right now, so shut up,” it might start getting under your skin after a while.
It’s not the statements in and of themselves, it’s the constant repetition from so many sides that gets wearying.
You must not be doing it right, then. Are you sure you’re using enough lubricant?
Well fucking said. Think we could get them to put that on the dollar bill. They could put it in place of ‘Novus Orvo Seclorum’, which is Latin for ‘you can trade this for some potatoes’.
Miller, I guess it’s agree to disagree time. I just can’t view “it’s only a joke” and “it never killed anyone” as acceptable excuses for racism or any other form of bigotry. I guess this does come down to a question of perspective and upbringing.
It has to start somewhere. I think it already has.
Miller, I called him an ignorant xenophobe, not a racist one. Ity wasn’t harmless, it was perpetuating a stereotype that all french women aren’t hygenic.would it be acceptable for me to say that all American women are selfcentered ugly bints? Of course not. I would be expected to be called up on that, so I called Mothchunks on his remark. What if the Statue of Liberty had been a gift from Cameroon and Mothball said it should be holding a Banana and swinging from a tree?
why did I reply to Neurotik’s remark as I did? I was trying to make light of the situation. I replied to the stereotype with a stereotype. And to be fair, its a bit deserved. Every year we give free reign for people to be Irish and get pissed.
And we have St. Patricks Day too 
the problem is intent. I saw what his intent behind the remark was. As I said over and over in the CESM thread, its not the words, its the intent.
Sorry if I prented what appears to be a double standard, and I hope it cleared it up for you.
presented, even.
Ignorant, sorry. Anyway, I didn’t read that remark as being about hygiene. I’m pretty clean, and I don’t shave my pits. ('Course, I’m a guy, so it’s a little different…) Saying French women don’t shave their underarms doesn’t imply a value judgement to me. I read it the same way you read Neurotik’s Irish joke: an attempt to lighten the mood. Like you said, it all comes down to intent, and I just don’t see a malicious intent behind most French jokes.
I think it’s interesting that you can take jokes about your own people more easily than jokes about someone else’s people. I also think it’s interesting that, so far as I know, no actual French people have had a problem with this thread or the Surrender Monkey thread. Not sure if that means anything, justs seems odd.
France, join us now or you’ll never see Jerry Lewis again!
WOW, I was just blowing off a little steam when I heard that the French once again have snubbed us and then I see that this is the longest thread I started.
I was going to start a thread on what makes a thread last a long time (and hence getting lots of posts). Actually even though this was my longest one, I still don’t really know what makes a thread long.
