Untitled

“In this video I’m going to teach you guys how to instantly spot a feminist so you can avoid them as much as possible. In this video I’m just gonna talk about women who are feminists. Although there are plenty of males who call themselves feminists, those males are pretty easy to spot out because they are pathetic betas who are just trying to get female attention by agreeing with what females are saying.”

I enjoyed this video. I found it to be entertaining and informative.

I hate the whole condescending-professor-without-the-degree-voice.

Have you ever noticed that when a someone has a relevant point, someone else who can’t actually argue that point strips it down and tries to argue it piece-by-piece, until they’re just arguing word choice and usage? Oh and then they try to imply you have some sort of agenda to discredit you somehow…even though they are obviously the ones with the agenda. Pretty basic and by-the-book by now.

I wrote my little rant in response to a group of guys I know, wannabe comedians, who are constantly posting about how no one is allowed to be offended (or shows any signs of it anyways) but they become enraged when their material is considered offensive. They seem to find it offensive that they are considered offensive!!?!? They will essentially throw a temper tantrum while screaming that you’re a big baby who needs to grow up. If you delete their comments on your pictures, or ask them not to tell certain jokes at certain events, they will start yelling about censorship. So that’s exactly how it happens.

TW: Discussion of rape culture

For those of you who missed the 2013 Oscars the other night, you’ve probably heard by now that 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis was the direct subject of Seth MacFarlane’s unoriginal, lazy humor and general shitiness. (And who the fuck picked him to host the Oscars? Where are Tina Fey and Amy Poehler when they’re needed?) 

MacFarlane stated “Just to put it into perspective how young Quvenzhane Wallis is, it will be sixteen years before she’s too old for George Clooney.”

Ah, MacFarlane, the poster boy for rape culture and perpetrator of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, transphobia, ageism, biphobia, and every other kind of oppression there is. I didn’t think he could get any worse. But apparently he has now run out of his unoriginal humor to the point where he finds it acceptable to fucking sexualize a NINE YEAR OLD.

The girl has puppy dog purses, for crying out loud!

And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse for this girl, THIS happened:

Yes, I am aware that The Onion is satire; yes I am aware that it was supposed to be poking fun at the fact that Quvenzhane is a very sweet girl.

But cunt? CUNT? To a fucking NINE YEAR OLD?! You couldn’t have just said she was mean? Or better, yet, spare her this kind of humor since she’s a KID?

And I know what you’re thinking; I’ve heard it all before.

“Geez, lighten up.”

“Learn to take a joke.”

“Don’t be so serious.”

“It was a joke, get over it.”

“Whoa, someone’s touchy.”

“That’s just their sense of humor.”

“You’re overreacting.”

I’m not.

For instance, we live in a culture that demands that people who have been victims of violent, gendered sex crimes need to laugh about what happened to them because other people somehow think it’s funny. And yet people are somehow surprised by the fact that 54% of rapes go unreported, only 3% of rapists will go to jail, and rape victims aren’t taken seriously.

Or the fact that racist and sexist jokes are abundant and socially accepted, people who make or laugh at them claim that they aren’t REALLY sexist or racist- it’s just funny to pretend like they are! (That makes it better how…?) And yet we continue to hear the incessant cries of “why isn’t there a white history month? We have racial equality- we have a black President! Don’t pull the race card! Why aren’t there men’s studies classes? Women got their rights back in 1920! You want insurance companies to cover birth control? Why should we to pay for you to have sex?!” along with a huge backlash against feminism and racial equality, and a demand for a return to traditional gender roles.

These ideas and the kind of “jokes” people like Seth MacFarlane make are not mutually exclusive. They desensitize people and create apathetic attitudes towards violence, oppression, and hate crimes.

Jokes like these are nothing new, far from creative, and anything but “edgy.” They’re lazily taken from harmful ideas and stereotypes (as opposed to actual comedy, which takes work and requires thought and creativity) and have been told over and over and over and OVER. Offensiveness aside, when any joke is told a million times, it stops being funny and starts becoming obnoxious and just plain boring. And jokes that feed off of and perpetuate detrimental ideas and dehumanize people do not exist in a vacuum. They have real repercussions.

So no, I will not “lighten up” or “get a sense of humor.” I will not dumb myself down and become desensitized to things that matter, and I do have a sense of humor, thank you very much. Just not one that requires I be a thoughtless obligatory laughtrack to unoriginal, overused, and harmful “jokes.”

So if this somehow means I’m a mean uptight feminist with no sense of humor, so be it. I have better things to worry about.