# What Is The Most Egregiously Sexist Act You Have Ever Seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565 "2009-07-19T23:24:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/121 "2009-07-23T14:06:21Z")
> [@bri1600bv](#): > > After the Lorena Bobbitt thing we had a contest at work (unrelated to it) about guessing your coworkers favorite song…one woman (a whack job man hater) brought in as a ‘prize’ a picture of an Amazon type woman next to a dead unicorn. The Amazon was holding the unicorn’s horn in one hand and bloody knife in the other. The unicorn was laying down dead with a big whole in its head from having the horn cut off. > > The caption was “Lorenna Bobbitt…the real reason unicorns are extinct”. > > I should have sued for sexual harassment, she was an absolute nutjob and didn’t think there was any problem with it. I find that deeply unsettling as well, and I would have been concerned about that woman’s mental health… in addition to her sexism. If I can regress for a moment, EW THAT’S GROSS!!! I can’t believe management allowed that. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/122 "2009-07-23T14:49:36Z")
> [@bri1600bv](#): > > Do you think if I brought in a picture of a woman who had been raped and sexually mutiliated and treated is a joke prize that I’d have been working there more than 5 minutes longer? > > I know, “it’s completely different.” YOu would have used it as a chance to suck up to women in general. Pathetic. Yeah, because a human being being raped and mutilated is the same as a mythical creature having a non-sexual part of its anatomy cut off. :rolleyes: FWIW, if someone in my group of friends had made the joke, I’d think it was hilarious. Unless it was a really tight group of coworkers with a similar sense of humor, though, that was definitely a creepy thing to bring in. ---
**Author:** ![SmashTheState](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SmashTheState](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmashTheState)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/123 "2009-07-23T15:06:35Z")
> [@bri1600bv](#): > > After the Lorena Bobbitt thing we had a contest at work (unrelated to it) about guessing your coworkers favorite song…one woman (a whack job man hater) brought in as a ‘prize’ a picture of an Amazon type woman next to a dead unicorn. The Amazon was holding the unicorn’s horn in one hand and bloody knife in the other. The unicorn was laying down dead with a big whole in its head from having the horn cut off. > > The caption was “Lorenna Bobbitt…the real reason unicorns are extinct”. > > I should have sued for sexual harassment, she was an absolute nutjob and didn’t think there was any problem with it. There there, diddums. Did the big, bad feminist make light of your powerful baby-maker? It’s okay, I’m sure she didn’t mean to challenge your patriarchal hegemony. Here, now blow your nose and be a big boy. ---
**Author:** ![bri1600bv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@bri1600bv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bri1600bv)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/124 "2009-07-23T15:09:04Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > There there, diddums. Did the big, bad feminist make light of your powerful baby-maker? It’s okay, I’m sure she didn’t mean to challenge your patriarchal hegemony. Here, now blow your nose and be a big boy. Making jokes of and alluding to murder and sexual mutilation is “challenging my patriarchal hegemony?”. Umm…FU..And I was 25 and she was about 55. I don’t think I had any patriarchal hegemony, you lunatic. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/125 "2009-07-23T15:11:21Z")
What’s funny is that the joke isn’t even that Bobbit was justified, like a “whack job man hater” would make–it’s that Bobbit was a crazy person who would run around hacking off anything that looked remotely phallic. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/126 "2009-07-23T15:49:19Z")
> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#): > > When I was in high school I worked at Best Buy. After a year there was an opening for a senior in the video games/software section. Two people applied: myself and a girl who had been there for two months. When I found out they were giving the job to her, I asked my manager why I was passed over, seeing as I had 10 months on her. He said it was because they needed more women in that position. I told him I’d quit if he gave it to her, he said he figured it would come to that and he was sorry, but his hands were tied. What a bunch of bullshit! Everyone knows women don’t know shit about videogames and software! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/127 "2009-07-23T15:55:02Z")
**Dora the Explorer** goes on adventures that most often involve being spoon-fed information to get a generic baby animal to its generic mother. Example, Baby Bugga-Bugga. If it’s not mother-child reunions, it’s something fairy-tale related or some other horribly impossible situation (e.g., returning a fallen star to the sky from the top of a mountain). It smacks of “all girls like babies and princesses.” I paid it no mind until my daughter took an interest in watching **Go, Diego Go!** Diego is a Dora the Explorer spin-off show. He’s an animal rescuer. He too often reunites babies with mommas. But when Diego does it, it’s with real animals (e.g., it’d be with a hissing cockroach rather than “Bugga-Bugga”). The viewer is always taught about the animal’s native habitat, its natural predators, and some of the animal’s notable features (diet, skills, adaptations, etc.). The adventure involves some simple, but real decisions too. The shows just scream out to me. They’re saying, “Dora was a huge success, but it’s for girls! We could get even more money if we make the same shit for boys!” And then some sexist dickwad in a suit came by and said, “Boys need science. Girls need dolls & babies. Make Diego smarter, faster, independent, bigger, and better. Oh, and after a few episodes, kill off that sidekick. He doesn’t need some baby anthro-jaguar to lean on.” Meanwhile, Dora always needs a buddy for adventures. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/128 "2009-07-23T15:59:09Z")
You know, Lorena Bobbit amputated half her husband’s penis in the immediate aftermath his raping her and after years of corroborated domestic abuse. I think people forget there is a real tragedy behind all the jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/129 "2009-07-23T16:17:10Z")
> [@JerseyFrank](#): > > They’re saying, “Dora was a huge success, but it’s for girls! We could get even more money if we make the same shit for boys!” And then some sexist dickwad in a suit came by and said, “Boys need science. Girls need dolls & babies. Make Diego smarter, faster, independent, bigger, and better. Oh, and after a few episodes, kill off that sidekick. He doesn’t need some baby anthro-jaguar to lean on.” Meanwhile, Dora always needs a buddy for adventures. If we’re going to start talking sexist entertainment, how about _Twilight_? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/130 "2009-07-23T16:26:53Z")
> [@lisacurl](#): > > You know, Lorena Bobbit amputated half her husband’s penis in the immediate aftermath his raping her and after years of corroborated domestic abuse. I think people forget there is a real tragedy behind all the jokes. That was more or less my point–if anything, the joke was dismissive of any legitimate motivation for Bobbit to have assaulted her husband. (Not that I’m condoning violence against anyone, even complete shitheels–just saying that it wasn’t coming out of a vaccuum.) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/131 "2009-07-23T16:30:18Z")
> [@JerseyFrank](#): > > Make Diego smarter, faster, independent, bigger, and better. Oh, and after a few episodes, kill off that sidekick. He doesn’t need some baby anthro-jaguar to lean on." Meanwhile, Dora always needs a buddy for adventures. Well, have _you_ ever seen a woman go to the bathroom alone when she had a friend handy? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/132 "2009-07-23T16:33:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’ve posted about this a couple of times, but the most egregious sexism I ever saw was from a middle school teacher (in his 50s)… he was fired at the end of the year. Nice to see that he was enough of a concern to let him finish out the year “honorably.” > [@Chimera](#): > > Has NO ONE realized that breadsticks can easily be torn in half? Apparently you’ve never eaten my wife’s breadsticks. (I kid, she’s an excellent cook). But seriously, I hate half-food. My wife is #9 of 10 children. They had 1/2 food at the house all the time. Not enough potatoes? Here, have half! Fuck that. I want the whole goddamn potato. > [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Ugh, I just find cat calling in general to be egregiously sexist, and even though it’s an everyday occurrence, you don’t get used to it. Or I don’t. It strikes me as extraordinarily crude and offensive every single time, **even when it’s happening to other people.** Typical response from a cat-caller, “Cuz lord knows that’s the only time you’d hear it, you uptight b\*\*\*\*” I hate it too. I worked a variety of jobs in my youth where this was ever-present. I didn’t have particularly enlightened parents or mentors, but even I knew this was threatening for the receiver of the attention. > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > doing the “walk of shame” back to her place. Two guys were out on their front porch drinking beer (getting an early start on their drinking for the day’s football game), and started yelling harassing comments at her. It doesn’t make it right, but when you do the crime, you pay the time. You gotta know that the walk of shame isn’t paved with gold. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > FWIW, if someone in my group of friends had made the joke, I’d think it was hilarious. Unless it was a really tight group of coworkers with a similar sense of humor, though, that was definitely a creepy thing to bring in. Yeah, except that your group of friends aren’t your group of co-workers led by someone with a man-hating twinge. It’s harassment. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/133 "2009-07-23T16:40:09Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > If we’re going to start talking sexist entertainment, how about _Twilight_? Dora isn’t strictly entertainment though. It’s “educational.” It’s “entertainment.” No, it’s **edutainment!** I love commercial bullshit as much as the next American, but about 5 minutes before my daughter was born, I got a spidey-sense for gender bias in kids stuff. I can deal with dolls & pink dresses. I can stomach purses & shoes. But that show is just telling my kid that she’s not good enough to do anything like a boy can do. Shit, even **on Diego** they’ve got a female character. And 99 out of 100 episodes, she’s back at home base at the computer typing in shit for Diego. And yet my wife complains that Spongebob is mean & violent and that Dora/Diego are better options to have our child watch. We were pretty much limited to 30 minutes or less of TV a day, but that all went to pot when child #2 was born. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/134 "2009-07-23T16:45:25Z")
> [@JerseyFrank](#): > > Yeah, except that your group of friends aren’t your group of co-workers led by someone with a man-hating twinge. It’s harassment. Pssst, go back and read the second part of what you quoted. I made a direct contrast between with friends (funny) and at work (creepy). > [@JerseyFrank](#): > > Dora isn’t strictly entertainment though. [snip] But that show is just telling my kid that she’s not good enough to do anything like a boy can do. Yeah, but \*Twilight \*says that it’s okay for men to force women to comply with the decisions they’ve made for them, that when a man forces himself physically on a woman it’s “cute,” that sexual attraction is all that determines love, and that when a woman is gang-raped to death by her husband and his friends, she should regret being beautiful, not regret having married a waste of meat or regret growing up in a time when women were treated like chattel. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/135 "2009-07-23T16:52:33Z")
> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#): > > When I was in high school I worked at Best Buy. After a year there was an opening for a senior in the video games/software section. Two people applied: myself and a girl who had been there for two months. When I found out they were giving the job to her, I asked my manager why I was passed over, seeing as I had 10 months on her. He said it was because they needed more women in that position. I told him I’d quit if he gave it to her, he said he figured it would come to that and he was sorry, but his hands were tied. About 10 years ago, I was told I had to hire a less qualified black applicant instead of the more qualifed white applicant (both were women) because of FCC regulations regarding diversity in broadcast facilities. I believe those regulations have fallen by the wayside. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/136 "2009-07-23T16:56:11Z")
Could be something to do with Best Buy’s own in-house hiring practices rather than something mandated by law, though. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/137 "2009-07-23T16:58:02Z")
Double smack: :smack::smack: > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Pssst, go back and read the second part of what you quoted. I made a direct contrast between with friends (funny) and at work (creepy). Oops, sorry. That’s what I get when I read too much and multi-quote. > [@](#): > > Yeah, but \*Twilight \*says… Ah, I see. I never read/saw/heard about Twilight, other than that it was popular. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/138 "2009-07-23T16:59:27Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Could be something to do with Best Buy’s own in-house hiring practices rather than something mandated by law, though. Or some manager being sweet on the new girl. I’ve always assumed the “my hands are tied” speech is bullshit for something they wish not to tell me. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/139 "2009-07-23T17:00:19Z")
> [@JerseyFrank](#): > > Ah, I see. I never read/saw/heard about Twilight, other than that it was popular. Based solely on mentions in the popular media I’ve deduced that it’s a story about vampires written by a girl who is too squeamish to mention things like biting and blood and stakes. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565/140 "2009-07-23T17:00:45Z")
> [@JerseyFrank](#): > > Ah, I see. I never read/saw/heard about Twilight, other than that it was popular. I actually went and read the whole damn series because I had a couple of (otherwise very intelligent, very independent) female friends who were obsessed with it. It’s disgusting. (And, what’s possibly worse–the writing is terrible.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-egregiously-sexist-act-you-have-ever-seen/503565.md?page=8)