For one, I don't understand women. I don't understand myself half the damn time, much less every other vagina-having person on the planet. For another, I don't hate women. I don't really hate anyone. (Except maybe my brother and sister's stepmom, because she is evil incarnate.)
But mostly, I think this is so incredibly horrible because what it says is that women are all, all of us, without exception, hateful people. Because if you understood us, you'd hate us.
Are you fucking kidding me?
I'm sure it's "just a joke." But I don't think this is funny. I think a lot of things are funny, but this is not. It's marginalizing, which isn't a word I like to use because it implies the whole "offended unfunny woman" trope (which, ironically, is also marginalizing), but is the only one that works in this sense because it implies that women are "less than." They aren't really people, because you wouldn't like them if you actually knew them. As opposed to men, who you can't know you'd like until you get to know them.
It's like, dude. Any woman who says she "doesn't have female friends" should ring warning bells in your head. It doesn't mean women don't like other women, it means that specific woman sees all other women as competition, and therefore doesn't like them. And in a bid to seem like her behaviour is completely rational and not a warning sign of "crazy bitch," she will often go on about how "different" she is from all those other women who are always "bitching," or "causing drama." Or whatever. (There are some few exceptions to this rule, where there actually are women who get along better with men. You can tell them apart because they won't go on about how crazy other women are.)
The reality is that people in general are crazy. And there are probably people worth hating of both sexes. I know for certain there are people I don't like of both sexes, though I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate them. Wish I'd never met them, certainly. But until the time machine gets invented, I suppose we're all stuck knowing there are people out there we wish we didn't know.
I always get annoyed when these stereotypes get bandied around. Yes, lots of people will say that "it's just a joke" and "lighten up", but they don't seem to understand that as long as we make these "jokes" the stereotypes will prevail.
ReplyDeleteAnd I admittedly don't understand other women OR men. People in general are difficult to get a grasp on. (And wouldn't life be rather boring if we could look at someone and immediately know all about them anyway?)
I generally get along decently with most people, men or women. But I have few close friends. That doesn't mean I hate other women though, I'm just picky with what kind of people I surround myself with.
In short, I wish people would just stop with the stereotypes. It doesn't benefit anyone, and it's definitely not funny.
Exactly. I don't think there are things that we should never joke about, because humour is how I deal with most things in my life. I joke about my social anxiety, about my depression, about losing a friend and not knowing why. I joke about everything!
DeleteBut I think there are funny sexist jokes, and then there are things like this which negatively REINFORCE stereotypes, they don't subvert them or make it obvious how ridiculous they are, which is what racist/sexist/homophobic jokes should be - a way to make obvious how ridiculous those types of bigotry are.
Agreed. I joke about just about anything as well. But as you say, there's a difference in how the joke is made.
ReplyDeleteI had more thoughts, but then I realised it was 1.30am and they all disappeared *lol*
Is there a time limit on coherent thinking?
Definitely, my ability to think coherently goes out the window past a certain time. Usually dependant on how well I slept the night before (I've been having super weird dreams constantly lately. I dreamt I was in the Hunger Games the other night. It was terrifying, because I'm pretty sure I lost).
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