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I like the joke, but to play the devil's advocate it's slightly sexist to assume the mathematician and the engineer are both male.
by jpttsn 13y ago
I like the joke, but to play the devil's advocate it's slightly sexist to assume the mathematician and the engineer are both male.
- 1_player 13y agoNo it's not. If one were male and the other were female, the joke wouldn't work. If both were female it wouldn't work, as (if you're male like me) you're aware of our inherent and unfortunate sexism (our rational brain shuts down upon viewing an attractive female). The difference between sexism and acceptable behaviour is knowing this limitation of our selves and acting respectfully with the other sex.
- jpttsn 13y agoI chose my words poorly; I didn't mean "assume" in the interpretation of the joke, I meant the joke writer was presumptive in using gender roles like that.
- krichman 13y agoThe original assumption that the joke is sexist relies on presuming that the joke makes women into objects used only for sex, but not vice-versa for men. So by claiming that the joke is sexist I think we can reasonably assume the person making the claim believes the engineer and the mathematician to be male.
- Jach 13y agoThis version includes a male pronoun to be explicit for one of the two, other versions include male pronouns to be explicit for both of them. One could also use a 'her' instead somewhere in the joke since lesbians exist but that would needlessly complicate it and possibly cause confusion.
- gngeal 13y agoOk, so make it a straight male mathematician and a lesbian engineer.
- scld 13y agoBut then you would be assuming that they are both straight.