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Topic: Apparently, We’ve Become Super Sensitive To Everything (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Michael Casselman
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | 1  

I took it to be a play off of the name of the event, not necessarily everything it stood for. It wasn't an overly wordy quip, but more along the lines of "Take my wife, please" than "Screw 'em if they aren't paid as much as me".

That may be a distinction without much of a difference to some, but I had many female Facebook friends who were honestly befuddled as to the intent of the 'Day Without Women' event. They were aware of International Women's Day, but even when they were informed about 'A Day Without Woman', could not get behind it. The common responses I saw were variations of "If you're a working woman, why protest?" (Apparently, they had not been affected by the wage disparity at the heart of the protest).

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David Miller
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | 2  

The guy wasn't making a sexist joke in a vacuum. Outrage culture may be on the rise, but so is complete dick culture.

Gaming has been notorious for attracting an organized and avowedly sexist subculture distinguished by its energy, immaturity, persistence, copious free time and outright hatred of women. His tweet was greeted with high-fives from an audience who finds grand entertainment in harassment, stalking, doxxing, dick pics, and rape and death threats. I don't blame the company for wanting to appeal to a better sort of customer and culture, and distancing themselves accordingly.

So we have to weigh sexist cracks a little more carefully. Boo fucking hoo.


Edited by David Miller on 16 March 2017 at 1:51pm
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Leigh DJ Hunt
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | 3  

Comes across as an old-fashioned sexist quip and so I'm not surprised he's got flak for it. 
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Stephen Churay
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | 4  


Anyway, given they say his resignation is
NOT because of the tweet, where are the
pitchforks?
======
I'm sure there are other factors involved,
but even if Moriarty is saying this, it
has to have some bearing on the decision.
Honestly, articles like the one I linked,
and there are others, make this guy out as
a sexist pig. The article itself is the
pitchfork.

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John Byrne
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | 5  

Bitches should never have been given the vote.

Or, to put that another way, and as I have said before, we will not truly be a mature society until "Sticks and stones &c..." becomes our universal mantra.

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Peter Martin
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | 6  

Joe Boster it's more like this:

1. Person A makes a joke about thing X on the special day that thing X takes place.
2. Group of people B who took part in thing X say, we don't like that joke.
3. Group of people C who work with person A, say, we're not comfortable with that joke.
4. Person A quits his job, meanwhile saying that some people find his joke funny "because not all people are humourless sacks of shit".
5. Person D asks why everyone is being so sensitive.
6. Person E says 2 is completely predictable given 1.

I would also say, it doesn't matter how many people aren't in group B, it remains unsurprising that there is some flak from group B when you take the piss out of their protest, no matter how 'innocent' your word play is.
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Stephen Churay
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | 7  

I don't even see this as taking the piss
out of the protest. This guy is part of a
company that reviews and comments on video
games via YouTube and podcasts. I took the
joke as not only playing on the stereotype
of the chatty woman, but the gamer who
constantly gets interrupted from his game,
because he obsesses over the game and
ignores the girlfriend. This due to the
idea of women "taking the day off".

Besides, it's a joke.
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | 8  

Besides, it's a joke.

-----

So? Are you suggesting that you can make racist and sexist comments
all day, say "Just joking!" and that will absolve you?

I think the lesson here is people need to stop treating Twitter like your
living room. My best friend is female, and I'll occasionally make the
"Shut up and go back to the kitchen" comments to her when I'm over at
her house or on the phone with her, and she knows me well enough to
know I'm not being serious and that I'm saying something completely
opposite of my attitude toward women. If I made the same comments to
her in public, I would be a sexist asshole who'd rightfully deserve to get
his ass kicked. CONTEXT MATTERS. Twitter is a public space that
specifically limits your ability to place things in perspective, and you
can't play the victim if people don't understand the context of your
"joke".

And I keep looking at the article you are saying is a pitchfork, but all I'm
seeing is reporting that people called him out for the joke, including his
business partners. So what's the issue?
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Wallace Sellars
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | 9  

This is not a direct response to the incident shared by Stephen, but some of
what has been said in this thread reminds me of how a number of people have
told me they will never watch Archie Bunker because the show is racist. I
have tried to explain that the program routinely makes a point of showing how
foolish Bunker's prejudices are; however, my words have always fallen on deaf
ears.
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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | 10  

 Wallace Sellars wrote:
... A number of people have
told me they will never watch Archie Bunker because the show is racist. I
have tried to explain that the program routinely makes a point of showing how
foolish Bunker's prejudices are; however, my words have always fallen on deaf
ears...


Crazy, isn't it? As Michael Roberts pointed out above, context matters, and with "All In The Family" (and the other sitcoms mentioned in this thread) it is definitely about the context. With Archie Bunker, Norman Lear and his crew sought to expose how ridiculous racism and bigotry are with the character of Archie Bunker.

Archie, like many people of his generation that were prejudiced was shone to be so out of outright ignorance. The character wasn't reviled because he was clearly not genuinely hateful, just in need of being educated on the wrongness of his prejudices. But it certainly was a point of the series to expose that ugly side of our culture and show how stupid it is to hold such prejudices.

People who only know that Archie Bunker is prejudiced and therefore wrongly think the show promotes prejudiced views are missing out on excellent social commentary that is still as relevant today than ever before (moreso, even) .

Al Bundy was the put-upon "hero" of "Married With Children," but was shown to be a buffoon whose attitudes put him in a position in life where he feels he is a failure with a family that doesn't respect him. He was not racist, based on the show, but he was undoubtedly sexist, and he was taken to task for that on the show many times.

Ralph Kramden of "The Honeymooners" was never shown to be racist, and any sexism he conveys is partially a product of the time the show was created. Even then, he is never shown to outsmart Alice, his wife. She chooses to stay with him because deep down inside, past his blustery, loudmouthed exterior, he is a truly loving and caring companion. He is a softy in reality who puts on an attitude to show he is the 1950s' example of the Alpha male "King of His Domain." However, anyone who watched the show knows it's Alice that rules that roost, and he knows it, too.

So, yeah... context.


Edited by Matt Hawes on 16 March 2017 at 6:19pm
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John Byrne
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | 11  

Context is the second thing to die on the internet.

The first is a sense of humor.

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Kevin Brown
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Posted: 16 March 2017 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | 12  

I read the tweet.  I laughed.  So did my wife.

Soooooooo.....  what does that say about us then?

Oh wait, I know.  It says we have a sense of humor.


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