4 ms·
> That's actually the schtick that a lot of comedians go by. Would you agree there's a difference between a comedian telling a sexist joke and a respected spea
by ceol 15y ago
> That's actually the schtick that a lot of comedians go by.
Would you agree there's a difference between a comedian telling a sexist joke and a respected speaker at a tech conference telling a sexist joke?
> Prefacing your comment with "I'm going to hell for this" is perfectly fine and in most cases, it does show that the person truly understands they're making a comment that could offend others.
However, they didn't stop from making the comment, so I'd say it's even worse: They know what they said is offensive but don't care.
> Filtering your output because of others and your true conviction are two different things and you're not doing anybody a favor by forcing a causality here.
I'm not forcing any causality. If you tell sexist jokes, it's not a stretch for people to assume you're sexist. But all too often we don't; we write it off as "just a joke" because the person did a slight nod to their offensiveness. Instead, we should take it the other way and stop excusing this behavior. It does nothing but alienate women.
- slantyyz 15y ago>> It does nothing but alienate women. In addition, there are personal/professional costs too: * It does nothing but create the perception that you're not a professional worth listening to. * It also does nothing to make a non-brogrammer want to hire you (or the company you work for) in the future.
- skore 15y ago> They know what they said is offensive but don't care. I think this might be the crux here: If you simply cannot find humor in such jokes, that's just the way it is and I can spend all day trying to convince you that it is possible - we simply cannot resolve this. But it's not about whether the person telling the joke does or does not care about whether it is offensive. Actually, a lot of comedians tell joke knowing full well and precisely because the jokes are offensive. > Instead, we should take it the other way and stop excusing this behavior. It does nothing but alienate women. I don't think this is a problem that we can "solve" just like there is "solution" to human diseases. The complex moral and emotional minefield that is human interaction is like an immune system: A dirty solution to a truly dirty problem. It often sucks, but there is a reason why it's there: Because it just, sadly, happens to be the best solution to a problem. I fully agree that the "mild" form of sexism that is often laughed away is terrible and a lot of people do a lot of hurt without even noticing a lot of the time. But I don't think there is really a solution other to just being a human and acting appropriately like one.