I disagree. Threads like this reinforce the perception that it is OK to ridicule those we find different. Even if you personally would never take it further than a post to a message board that the tiger man would never read (though who’s to say he isn’t amongst us?), you encourage others to do so by fostering an “us against them” attitude.
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Tiger Man modified his own body through personal choices. People have every right to laugh at him, think he is silly, and perhaps even think there’s something wrong with him. If people snicker at him it is because he brought it on himself.
Marc - to some degree we all are responsible for the things that make us different. Glasses? You could wear contacts. Fat? You could lose weight. Geeky? Take up sports! At what point in this continuum does the MGibson scale identify that it is OK to make fun of them, taunt them and teach others that it is right to despise them?
Self-created freakdom doesn’t absolve the rest of us from treating them as a fellow human being.
I wouldn’t taunt or tease Tiger Man if I were to see him on the street or at the movies. But I do think it is ok to laugh at someone who goes out of their way to look ridiculous. I wouldn’t go out for a beer with the guy, if I were hiring employees he probably wouldn’t be high on my list, and I can have the opinion that he’s a rather silly man who might have some emotional issues. And don’t try telling me that looks don’t matter. No man who goes through that much surgery does it because it doesn’t matter.
Yeah, after all, if you want to be like a leopard, you really should live in the woods and cook over a fire. Just when did leopards start cooking over fires? (Reminds me of a rant from MASH – “…the army forces us to live like dogs in tents…” to which Pierce replied, “Dogs live in tents?”)
I love freaks. I love the freaks who elected to be freaks in the first place. You have to love people who are taking up all the space at the bottom of the bell curve, leaving room for everyone near the middle, or if you’re lucky, the top.
Oh, he’s just trying to be different like everybody else.
Wait, so if it is wrong to mock and point fingers at Tiger Man, would it also be wrong to mock and point fingers at, say, George Bush? What if criticizing his intelligence and policies gives others the impression that criticizing people is OK?
No, we have the right to criticize whoever the hell we want. Tiger Man is an idiot. George Bush is an idiot. If it hurts their feelings that I think they are idiots then I guess their feelings get hurt.
Now, I don’t believe that one should be rude. If I met Tiger Man or George Bush at a party I wouldn’t laugh and point. But I have no obligation to pretend that I have no opinion about their intelligence and personal choices simply because that might hurt their iddy biddy feelings.
It isn’t nice to get together in a group solely for the purpose of criticizing and deriding someone (whether you say it to their face or not). It’s not about hurt feelings. It’s about not giving the impression that it is all right to get together in a group and gang up on someone who is different.
So where do you think the Tiger Man belongs? It seems to me that you have a problem with him even existing.
Looks don’t matter to me. They are apparently very important to you. Because otherwise you would have to treat Tiger man like everybody else. Wouldn’t it be horrible if you were unable to make snap judgements on people based on what they look like?
That’s right Hibbins. Don’t forget that this thread exists solely to encourage people to come in and point and laugh at the freak. It isn’t a passing mention in a general conversation. It isn’t you reading the paper, seeing something stupid W has said and laughing at it with your mates. It’s saying “let’s all get together for the sole purpose of saying how we don’t approve of anyone setting themselves up to be different”.
So that’s why I’m with Unclebeer from that linked thread. It’s repulsive.
The OP was a picture of a weird bloke who had plastic surgery to look like a Tiger.
The OP was shocked and thought that other Dopers might want to see this… Some people laughed, some people retched, many people ridiculed.
Some people went all self-righteous and started slating these people. ok… two words… Harmless Fun.
It’s one the the oldest forms of humour known to man.
Caveman 1: Ug! [lit. Look, Og is fat. Ha Ha!]
Caveman 2: Ug! [lit. Oh yes. Ha Ha!]
We laugh at freaks, it may be un-PC but that’s the way it goes. I find them funny, this may be ‘wrong’ but it’s the pit. I’m sure it’s the least of Tiger Man’s worries.
Do you see, Opal? This is the attitude you foster by posting your OP. You may never interact negatively with a “freak” in your life. But you have fed Pnuk’s belief that it is OK to do so.
I would have my body surgicalkly altered to resemble a Nauga – Hufe Eyes, Filed Teeth, Bloated Belly. The easiest part would be the pelt. I’m sure I could find plenty of NaugaHyde somewhere.
(My apologies to those who didn’t grow up in the 60s, or who aren’t obsessed with old ads.)
Seeing as Tiger Man’s appearance is all about choice, it seems fair game to chuckle under my sleeve at him if I thought his appearance represented foolish choices. Just as I might when I see someone wearing a Motley Crue or Poison t-shirt. It is not equivalent to making fun of fat or naturally-homely people.
But I certainly wouldn’t sneer at him to his face; my mama raised me better than that.
I wonder how he shaves without damaging his whiskers? D’you think he got lip electrolysis before he had them implanted?
Hmm… boy don’t YOU jump to conclusions! He belongs wherever he wants to belong. I don’t have a problem with him existing–I’m glad he does! He makes the world less boring. I just think he looks funny. I have friends who I think look funny. I have friends I think are physically ugly. I have friends who wear clothes I find to be lame. I still like them, I still get along with them, etc. I also know that a LOT of people think that I look funny. I’ve had strangers follow me through the grocery store trying to taunt me, I’ve had people stop their cars on the street to shout things at me… and none of that bothers me. That’s fact right there. Now if the owners of the grocery store had told me I had to leave, that would be different. Do you understand yet?
No, it isn’t. I totally approve of people “setting themselves up to be different” and if this guy’s tiger thing had been done better, I’d probably think it was fairly cool. Oh, and if he didn’t have plans of permanently GRAFTING TIGER PELTS TO HIS SKIN which I don’t find cool at all. But anyway, being different is A-OK in my book. Heck I’m one of the ones who IS different.
The OP was actually my way of saying "look at this, can you believe it? Is it true? and then also a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement that the main thing the thread would be would be people making fun of him. I know how the board goes. And yes I find it funny. And no, I don’t think it’s wrong to think it’s funny, or to share the laugh with my friends. I also don’t think that finding something funny is the equivelant of thinking it shouldn’t exist, or not approving of it.