# The ultimate in misinterpretations **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724 "2013-09-01T13:05:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/21 "2013-09-01T18:02:21Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > If you read my post, you’ll see that I am saving time and space by not repeating it. That you are unable to see anything “raw and abrasive” about the cartoon (when a number of others here do) puts you squarely in the group I was defining. > > That straight and/or enough words for you? Considering that it doesn’t remotely answer the question I put to you, no, it’s not. Also, I was going to call you out on that “number of others” agreeing with you thing, but on reflection, I suppose it’s technically accurate, in as far as “zero” is a number. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/22 "2013-09-01T18:14:00Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > If you read my post, you’ll see that I am saving time and space by not repeating it. That you are unable to see anything “raw and abrasive” about the cartoon (when a number of others here do) puts you squarely in the group I was defining. > > That straight and/or enough words for you? This comic is clearly quite offensive, as it is saying that people born head first out of a vagina are less dignified than those born by cesarean or breech. People can’t control the circumstances of their birth, and judging them by it is ignorant prejudice. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/23 "2013-09-01T18:19:51Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > This comic is clearly quite offensive, as it is saying that people born head first out of a vagina are less dignified than those born by cesarean or breech. People can’t control the circumstances of their birth, and judging them by it is ignorant prejudice. And, of course, all synonyms and all phrasings are exactly equivalent to all readers and are subject to no cultural influence. Thus, if this wasn’t MPSIMS and you weren’t a moderator, I could use quite a few synonyms for vagina your way and they’d be perfectly unoffensive, right? ---
**Author:** ![Phil\_CostaMesa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Phil\_CostaMesa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phil_CostaMesa)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/24 "2013-09-01T18:29:04Z")
I saw those passages of the OP and thought, “Well, I get his point, but the fact that he goes into name calling make me believe she has a reason to believe he’s condescending.” I think she may not eloquently be able to express herself and what she feels, but based on the OP’s name-calling (which are put-downs, judgments, denigrations) she seems to have a reason for being upset with the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Phil\_CostaMesa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Phil\_CostaMesa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phil_CostaMesa)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/25 "2013-09-01T18:37:44Z")
Here’s a general idea I try to ‘work’ when someone is less than happy with me. It seems to work for me. I find I’m not always the ‘wonderful, completely innocent, non-judgmental, compassionate guy’ I’d like to think I am. “If things go wrong in my world, something is wrong in me. Therefore, if I am sensible, I shall put myself right first.” Carl Jung ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/26 "2013-09-01T18:58:47Z")
Yeah yeah Phil, I get your point. And if I hadn’t already acknowledged my less-than-pleasant demeanor and apologized to her directly for indirectly being abrasive near her, I’d agree with you. But, nope…that’s not enough for her. She’s gotta have something to complain about, constantly, and it’s escalating to the point of trying to get me fired for nonsense. If the comic was offensive, then her way of spreading around a completely erroneous interpretation of it was moreso. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/27 "2013-09-01T19:37:50Z")
Wow. Lynching? I admit, at first glance, it does look like a noose hanging from a tree branch. But if you look more closely, it’s a child hanging from the branch by his knees. The message I get from the comic is to loosen up and don’t take life so seriously. The woman in question totally drew the wrong conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/28 "2013-09-01T20:54:01Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I don’t think these types are ever “happy,” and that’s part of the problem. They are miserable people who only find relief in making sure everyone knows they are miserable by making everyone else miserable. > > They are also often system-gamers, who can barely do their job but have the equivalent of a Harvard J.D. in every little lever and string of the system that will benefit them, especially at someone else’s expense. We’ve got one here at my job who is a vegan. And I don’t really care. I mean, why would I care about what she eats or doesn’t eat? But she cares deeply about what I eat, and apparently about what everyone else eats, too. She really cares. She finds the sight and smell of meat (or “flesh,” as she insists on calling it) _offensive_. Now, I don’t think the firm is going to ban meat from the lunchroom(s), but she’s such a pain in the ass, and so histrionic about her distress when she detects a whiff of meat, that all of us in my department have just stopped having lunch at our desks. We used to order sandwiches or pizza or something about once a week, and hang out and eat lunch in the department. But we had to stop, because she’d always complain. Now we have lunch in the lunchroom, and she is definitely not invited. And now she complains to management about how she’s been “excluded” from department activities. Hey she is (or was, before we all got sick of her) perfectly welcome as long as she doesn’t tell us what we’re allowed to eat. > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > What, you’re some kind of old fart who is afraid of the language evolving? :dubious: Old fart? Maybe. I have no idea. Afraid of the language evolving? Not at all. But it seems we’ve gotten a little too comfortable about what is pretty degrading language. “Bitch” doesn’t belong in the workplace, any more than “twat,” or “cunt.” ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/29 "2013-09-01T20:57:25Z")
I was trying to figure out what was hanging from the branch, now the cartoon makes sense. I’m not sure how it’s supposed to be offensive to women. I don’t think it’s offensive, I don’t think it’s funny. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/30 "2013-09-01T21:06:32Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > “Bitch” doesn’t belong in the workplace, any more than “twat,” or “cunt.” Which reminded me of some 3rd-grade playground humor. (Cups hand behind ear, and shouts.) “Twat? I cunt hear you!” The louder you did it and the closer to a teacher or playground monitor, the more points. I’m also reminded of a rather rotten Spider Robinson novel in which the big teen heartthrob band of the time is tenderly using “fuck” in their lyrics. Maybe language evolves continually along these lines and I am just an old fart, but as someone who can blister paint alongside any longshoreman and has had to learn to watch his vocabulary over the years, I can’t believe it’s mere prudery or excessive sensibility on my part to flinch when some 20-something calls everyone and everything around him “bitch.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/31 "2013-09-01T21:13:35Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Maybe language evolves continually along these lines and I am just an old fart, but as someone who can blister paint alongside any longshoreman and has had to learn to watch his vocabulary over the years, I can’t believe it’s mere prudery or excessive sensibility on my part to flinch when some 20-something calls everyone and everything around him “bitch.” I’m sure you’re a raw old salt indeed, but just to be clear, no one at any point in this story has called anyone a bitch in the workplace, right? Or I have I missed something? ---
**Author:** ![eltro102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@eltro102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eltro102)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/32 "2013-09-01T22:43:33Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The type of person who finds something wrong with your tone, inflection, facial expression, body language, etc. no matter what you’re saying to them is in need of therapy. The world has become such a toxic place for them that the flick of your eyebrow means more than the lavish praise you’re giving. wrong end of the stick? sounds more likely that the op is actually, just maybe, possibly actually doing what he’s been accused of? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/33 "2013-09-02T02:21:39Z")
Perhaps you should get all the people she showed it to in the office to rally and try to get her fired for showing them something so offense. I mean, if you left out something that was _actually_ offensive, say an open Hustler or an a bunch of heroin and a dirty spoon and syringe she would have taken it right to the boss, not run around showing it to everyone. It seems to me that if she was offended that she saw that comic it would stand that everyone else should be offended by it as well and she’s the one that showed it to them, not you. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/34 "2013-09-03T18:37:28Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Wow. Lynching? I admit, at first glance, it does look like a noose hanging from a tree branch. Sure…if you completely disregard the fact that the “noose” is actually _speaking_, as evidenced by the dialog balloon pointing to it. > [@Amateur Barbarian](#): > > Which reminded me of some 3rd-grade playground humor. (Cups hand behind ear, and shouts.) “Twat? I cunt hear you!” “I have an ear infuction!” ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/35 "2013-09-12T00:27:22Z")
I think [this](http://xkcd.com/167/) should have been attached to [this](http://xkcd.com/291/). Maybe then her panties wouldn’t have been so bunched up, and she would have realized she just didn’t get the joke… It seems like the comics were both pieces of the same original “story”… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724/36 "2013-09-12T00:44:56Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Sure…if you completely disregard the fact that the “noose” is actually _speaking_, as evidenced by the dialog balloon pointing to it. So, why would a talking noose be an impossibility in a comic stip? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-in-misinterpretations/667724.md?page=1)