Why is it cool…

[JamesSD]

"Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them." says the T-shirt. If the 'Boys' was replaced by any other gender, ethnic grouping or social construct, the wearer would rightly be lashed verbally for being a bigot.

I'm sure it's been said before, but the slogan in question is pretty tongue-in-cheekish. The artist's stuff is mostly marketed at teen girls - and let's face it, most teen boys are at best clueless (that was me!) and at worst obnoxious.

Women and Men both have terribly annoying traits. It's why we have such high libidos. Can you imagine very many couples would get together if not for sex?

It might not be quite as clever, but the humor is akin to South Park. And really, I think I could get away wearing a shirt that said "Girls are dumb" or "Girls have cooties", etc. In fact, if I was single I could envision it being a conversation starter at a party.

 

[cloudy]

I don't care about the shirt either. I'm talking about things like Svenskaflicka's screed in this thread, which, as far as I can tell, no one's objected to in the least. I'm talking about the fact that no one but other men have come to our own defense.

I guess you didn't see my post, either.

 

[Guest]

didn't see mine either!

 

[Guest]

"BOYS AGAINST THE GIRLS!"

hhhheeeeheeeee!/GRRRRRRrrrrr

Ok..so..I put that on a shirt!

The battle cry of the playground.

IF you ONLY see the humor in that you are being blind to the inequities of our current society.

IF you CANNOT see the humor in that then you are perpetuating those inequities by harboring them. An example of that: an unqualified black man MIGHT cry racial discrimination when he does not get a job that he is unqualified for. <(no humor there, rather the harboring of and sole focussing on the inequities).


I have always (even as a child) see "boys against the girls!" as an opportunity to chase the girls AND the literal translation of boys rubbing up against them. Yet I am not blinded to the travesty of society.

so laf and cry...that's human-ish

 

[Recidiva]

In reading this, I think the question is really:

Where do you draw your line of what you think is funny?

My daughter has this T-shirt, right next to all the T-shirts she has that make fun of herself, just like her "I'm Special" T-shirt that has Ralph Wiggum picking his nose...

If you think it's funny, you know why. If you don't think it's funny, you know why. I'm trying to listen to why people think it's not funny, and I respect that. However, I still think it's funny in the right context. That's what humor is. Context.

There are those of us who try to look for humor in things, not because we like to have things to laugh AT, but laugh WITH.

I don't like laughing AT people at all, and nothing I said was intended to point a finger at anyone else, only at myself and say "this is funny, I'm funny too."

Maybe some of what you think we're laughing AT is not that at all. Okay, people can be mean and cruel and all that. But try to give the benefit of the doubt when at all possible and you might find humor in things where humor is genuinely intended.

Just a possibility to consider before taking offense at something that might just be funny for something other than mean-spirited.

Again, I love men. Not all of them, granted, but lots of them.

Not a single one of them would look at my daughter wearing that shirt and do anything but smile. Because they know her and they know she's funny and she likes funny things. She has pins all over her purse that are sad faces and broken hearts and it's just a joke. Nobody stops her and says "Do you feel depressed?" They smile. She likes to make people laugh, make people smile. She has "Goodbye Kitty" things to make fun of "Hello Kitty" and it's all cats dying in awful ways...okay, if you're very literal you might think she's a man-hating, clinically depressed, animal mutilating retarded nose picker. She's not.

If it isn't funny to you, that's okay. I'm sorry that it's not funny, because it's supposed to be. Doesn't mean the rest of us are going to stop laughing. Not everyone gets every joke. Not everyone has a sense of humor they enjoy.

I say things ALL the time that people think I'm serious about, and I'm only trying to make someone laugh.

So throw rocks at me!

 

[Guest]

Recidiva,

kook!*












*"kook! is the sound of a rock hitting a noggin'

 

[Recidiva]

Recidiva,

kook!*

*"kook! is the sound of a rock hitting a noggin'

*falls to the ground dramatically, spastically jerking a few times...reaching up only to say..."Tell...chocolate...I loved it..."*

 

[yui]

Yui, your AV there brings to mind another Onion headline:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

There is a pun here, but it's early and my head hurts.

sheesh, how many people have me on 'ignore'???

I think they have me on there, too.

I guess you didn't see my post, either.

Mine either.

 

[elsol]

In defense of Sven...

Do I hit women? No.

Do I rape women? No.

Do I kill women? No.

Do I give half of the extra money in my paycheck to the woman who has the same position and gets paid less? No.

Do I do an equal share of housework? It ain't even close... so I buy her something from Tiffany's at the end of the year and call it even.

I haven't broken any crimes but I certainly have a presence on the asshole meter.

And yes, for every dyed-in-the-wool cunt I've met, I've shaked hands with 20 true-blue assholes. As I look around, I also see LOTS of silent conspirators on my side and a whole lot silently convinced on the other.

Am I going to apologize? I'll say the words.

Am I going to change? Not while the worst the other side is doing is the occassional rant on a public forum... Go Sven! Get it all out, sister!

Sure there are some guys that would happily give up power for the sake of [Insert Your Word], I'm not one of them.

Maybe I wasn't born with the 'share' gene, or as I'm sure someone will suggest, maybe I'm not even human.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[Recidiva]

I've never understood this whole guys thinking they have the power thing. I've never bought it, not even for a minute. Women just have a different set of values and their own power.

But that's 'cause I'm a girl and I LIKE it. Doesn't mean I don't respect men and their sets of values and their power structure.

It's like some guy rollin' by with a shiny car looking at a pregnant woman going "Oh, look, a FAT chick!" and the woman thinks "What an asshole." They're BOTH missing the point.

If you get the shiny AND you get the pregnant, that's cool. I respect guys' versions of power, I respect mine. Course I'll make fun of them both as much as I want 'cause that's what I do.

If you don't get the shiny or the pregnant, fine. Understanding both, though, is what I like to do.

Different types of power. Giving birth twice? Now that is just cool. Guys can't do that, I feel sorry for them. So they have shiny instead. They seem to like it, I seem to like mine, what's the harm done anywhere?

 

[rgraham666]

I guess you didn't see my post, either.

I did, and thanks. Thanks to yui as well.

I'm still sorry I started this thread. I do understand about humour, although I notice mine seems to be shrinking recently. And I do understand people don't really mean to be cruel.

And I'll confess to being a bit trigger happy when I believe I'm being found guilty of what I am rather than what I do.

Someday, I'll learn to discern between the various shadings of human behaviour. Unfortunately, that day isn't today.

Again, my apologies.

 

[Alex756]

Stereotyping and categorizing and blanket insulting are not real, they are a sweeping generalisation that doesn't really apply to any one individual in the group but might kinda, sort of, just a little bit might apply to alot of them in a very abstract way.

The T shirt is just a sign of what is going on.

Stereotyping a man is sexism
Stereotyping a caucasian is racism

To judge people on their sex, religion, sexual preference, race or whatever is wrong.

I don't care WHAT country someone is from, we are all humans and deserve to be treated as such.

No the world is not perfect and everyone is not treated fairly. No history has not been perfect. That is no excuse for retalitory bigotry.

That is the thing that is bugging people in this thread. Not a particular shirt, but an attitude the shirt is a sign of.

~Alex

Also seeing how many people have me on ignore

 

[Recidiva]

I did, and thanks. Thanks to yui as well.

I'm still sorry I started this thread. I do understand about humour, although I notice mine seems to be shrinking recently. And I do understand people don't really mean to be cruel.

And I'll confess to being a bit trigger happy when I believe I'm being found guilty of what I am rather than what I do.

Someday, I'll learn to discern between the various shadings of human behaviour. Unfortunately, that day isn't today.

Again, my apologies.

I started out the day that this thread started sending a very grateful "Thank You" note to rgraham666 for giving me a high score and kind feedback on one of my stories.

I'm the crying chick in the back 'cause someone was nice to her.

If I've hurt anyone's feelings in an attempt to be funny, I apologize.

I'll only accept your apology if you accept mine

And only if you promise to keep starting threads that make people think, talk and interact.

 

[rgraham666]

I started out the day that this thread started sending a very grateful "Thank You" note to rgraham666 for giving me a high score and kind feedback on one of my stories.

I'm the crying chick in the back 'cause someone was nice to her.

If I've hurt anyone's feelings in an attempt to be funny, I apologize.

I'll only accept your apology if you accept mine

And only if you promise to keep starting threads that make people think, talk and interact.

Done, and done. Thank you.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

The T shirt is just a sign of what is going on.

Stereotyping a man is sexism
Stereotyping a caucasian is racism

To judge people on their sex, religion, sexual preference, race or whatever is wrong.

I don't care WHAT country someone is from, we are all humans and deserve to be treated as such.

No the world is not perfect and everyone is not treated fairly. No history has not been perfect. That is no excuse for retalitory bigotry.

That is the thing that is bugging people in this thread. Not a particular shirt, but an attitude the shirt is a sign of.

~Alex

Also seeing how many people have me on ignore

Makes sense to me,

 

[elsol]

I'm An Asshole
- Dennis Leary


Folks
I'd like to sing a song about the American Dream
About me
About you
About the way our American hearts beat way down in the bottoms of our chests
About that special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts
Or maybe below the cockles
Maybe in the sub-cockle area
Maybe in the liver
Maybe in the kidneys
Maybe even in the colon
We don't know

I'm just a regular joe
With a regular job
I'm your average white
Suburbanite slob
I like football, and porno, and books about war
I've got an average house
With a nice hardwood floor
My wife, and my job
My kids, and my car
My feet on the table
And a Cuban cigar
But sometimes that just ain't enough
To keep a man like me interested
Oh no, no way, uh uhh
No, I gotta go out and have fun
At someone else's expense
Oh yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah

I drive really slow
In the ultra-fast lane
While people behind me are going insane

I'm an asshole
(he's an asshole, what an asshole)
I'm an asshole
(he's an asshole, such an asshole)

I use public toilets
And I piss on the seat
I walk around in the summer time sayin', "How about this heat?"

I'm an asshole
(he's an asshole, what an asshole)
I'm an asshole
(he's the worlds biggest asshole)

Sometimes I park in the handicapped spaces
While handicapped people
Make handicapped faces

I'm an asshole
(he's an asshole, what an asshole)
I'm an asshole
(he's a big fucking asshole)

Maybe I shouldn't be singin' this song
Ranting and raving and carrying on
Maybe they're right when they tell me I'm wrong...
...
NAAAHHHHH!

I'm an asshole
(he's an asshole, what an asshole)
I'm an asshole
(he's the world's biggest asshole)

You know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna get myself a 1967 Cadilac El Dorado Convertable
Hot pink!
With whale skin hub caps
An all leather cow interior
And big brown baby seal eyes for headlights
YEAH!
And I'm gonna drive around in that baby
At 115 miles per hour
Getting one mile per gallon
Sucking down Quarter Pounder cheeseburgers from McDonalds in the old-fashioned non-biodegradable Styrofoam containers
And when I'm done sucking down those grease-ball burgers
I'm gonna wipe my mouth with the American flag
And then I'm gonna toss the Styrofoam containers right out the side
And there ain't a Goddamn thing anybody can do about it
You know why?
'Cause we got the bombs, that's why!
Two words: Nuclear Fuckin' Weapons
Okay!?
Russia, Germany, Romania
They can have all the Democracy they want
They can have a big Democracy cake walk
Right through the middle of Tienemen Square
And it won't make a lick of difference
Because we got the bombs
Okay!?
John Wayne's not dead
He's frozen!
And as soon as we find a cure for cancer We're gonna thaw out "The Duke"
And he's gonna be pretty pissed off
You know why?
Have you ever taken a cold shower?
Well, multiply that by 15 million times
That's how pissed off "The Duke"'s gonna be
I'm gonna get "The Duke"
And John Cassavetes
And Lee Marvin
And Sam Peckinpah
And a case of whiskey
And drive down to Texas
And-
(Hey, Hey! You know you really are an asshole)
Why don't you just shut-up and sing the song, pal?
You know, the whole time I thought I was that asshole
And it turns out it was him
What an asshole!

I'm an asshole
(he's an asshole, what an asshole)
I'm an asshole
(he's the worlds biggest asshole)

A - SS - HO - LE!
Everybody!!
A - SS - HO - LE!

*dog barking noises*

I'm an asshole and proud of it!

 

[Recidiva]

I'm an asshole and proud of it!

I love that song. My favorite part is hearing Denis Leary tell the story about when his kid got called to the office for singing it in school and Denis got a phone call and a conference: "Sir, do you know this song?" and he said "Know it? I wrote it!"

 

[English Lady]

The T shirt is just a sign of what is going on.

Stereotyping a man is sexism
Stereotyping a caucasian is racism

To judge people on their sex, religion, sexual preference, race or whatever is wrong.

I don't care WHAT country someone is from, we are all humans and deserve to be treated as such.

No the world is not perfect and everyone is not treated fairly. No history has not been perfect. That is no excuse for retalitory bigotry.

That is the thing that is bugging people in this thread. Not a particular shirt, but an attitude the shirt is a sign of.

~Alex

Also seeing how many people have me on ignore

I agree -judging, stereotyping etc etc are not good things.

But what sort of phases me, and it is a different issue to whats being discussed here (I think) is how it seems that now it's wrong to notice that something is different in another person.

It's almost as if we shouldn't notice a person's skin colour, size, height,clothing etc etc etc, but surely we should encourage noticing these things. As these are the things that make each person an individual.

I think the problem comes when one thing ie "He's a man" becomes the over-riding factor in the way you see that person, especially if you've got predjudices that work against men (for example) instead of taking every single person you meet as someone new. The problem is we all (and I'm pretty certain we do all do it) judge someone the very first time we meet them by the way they look.

I think knowing there is this immediate judgement based on looks is good, the hard work is then putting it aside and learning about the person as an individual and not tarring them with the same stereotyping brush.

Did that make any sense at all?

 

[elfin_odalisque]

to tear strips off of men?

"Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them." says the T-shirt. If the 'Boys' was replaced by any other gender, ethnic grouping or social construct, the wearer would rightly be lashed verbally for being a bigot.

From what I've seen of the Sisterhood's general sporting skills we'd probably miss anyway.

Never mind changing gender - just put an adjective in front of 'boys' - and see what happens.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I saw Huck's comments, and Cloudy's too, and Vella's, and others, and they're appreciated, but really, I left the tee-shirt thing alone way back there. Tee-shirts are just tee-shirts after all, and this one especially is just a joke.

To be specific, I guess I'm still smarting over a post made by Doormouse maybe over a year or so ago, lamenting the fact that men were such assholes and wife- and children-beaters and drunkards and all that. The post was bad enough, but what really rankled was that when a couple of us protested--all men, I might add--we were told that it was a joke and that she was upset over a bad relationship and basically that what we felt didn't matter, because we were, after all, just white men, and what the fuck did we know?

Well what I know is this: that if I had a relationship go south and came here complaining over the fact that women were all such selfish cunts and bitches, I would have heard about it, from both men and women, and rightly so. But when someone posts hateful and insulting comments about men, no one has anything to say about it.

I'm not looking for apologies and explanations. I know everyone means well and no one thinks of themselves as a bigot or as cruel, or as intentionally hurting others. We all have our own crosses to bear, whether it's our sexual orientation or ethnicity or gender or whatever, and we tend to focus on those and ignore the others that don't directly affect us, and that fills us with dangerous feeling of self-righteousness and sanctimony that blinds us to our own prejudices and petty hatreds.

Being hurt in the past doesn't give you the right to be hurtful in the present.

 

[English Lady]

...........

Being hurt in the past doesn't give you the right to be hurtful in the present.

Bingo!

 

[elfin_odalisque]

The actions of one person, however upsetting or hurtful, doesn't give anyone the right to write off a whole group; gender, race, religion or whatever.

 

[Guest]

rats!

I coulda sworn I said something pithy.

shrug.

 

[Recidiva]

The actions of one person, however upsetting or hurtful, doesn't give anyone the right to write off a whole group; gender, race, religion or whatever.

I do agree with this, but I also think that a certain level of not taking things personally, and that realizing that blind selfishness is often a sign of a person being in a lot of pain or not knowing better.

I mean, you don't mutilate little kids for saying stupid, selfish things. That's what they do.

Some people are really little kids and need lots of understanding, attention, sometimes a kick in the ass, and mostly, a very good sense of humor to put things in perspective.

What is incredibly painful to one person might look like a hangnail to somone else who is used to more responsibility or pain. Making fun of something might be their way of comforting someone and letting them know it's going to be okay and that it's a shared experience, not trying to mock their pain tolerance.

 

[elsol]

Some people are really little kids and need lots of understanding, attention, sometimes a kick in the ass, and mostly, a very good sense of humor to put things in perspective.

Or to have rocks thrown at them... oh wait, that's how we got here.

Sincerely,
ElSol