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Lighten up. A friend of mine has an Italian partner and she is constantly joking that Italian women are mad and that she'll kill him if he does something wrong.
by Digit-Al 6y ago
Lighten up. A friend of mine has an Italian partner and she is constantly joking that Italian women are mad and that she'll kill him if he does something wrong.
- aaroninsf 6y agoLet it not go unobserved that "lighten up" is the traditional rejoinder of those engaging in inappropriate behavior. This formulation means: those in a position of relative social power, expect those in subordinate positions to accept stereotyping etc. at the expense of their own and other subordinate classes. The humor, and this rejection of censure, is done to ritually encode and underscoring of the received power hierarchy. In a world in which such rituals are being openly named, and confronted, it is very common for those called out to feel defensive, and act out of that defensiveness.
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoJapan, one of the world’s wealthiest nations and a successful exporter of soft power for decades now, is a “subordinate class”?
- Digit-Al 6y agoAs a mixed race "person of colour" (not a term I'm massively keen on) I'm not generally considered to be "in a position of relative social power", especially over a white European. But whatever.
- dTal 6y agoI wonder if accuracy in a stereotype makes it better, or worse, from a PC perspective. I do think it's important to recognize cultural differences, and that making a joke out of it in public where it can be responded to is probably a healthier way of approaching the subject that forbidding all mention in polite discourse. Speaking from personal experience, the stereotype about Italian girlfriends is not inaccurate.