I found myself arguing with idiots on the internet. I know… WTF was I thinking? I turned into this sour puss.
It was kinda fun for a minute until it was just pointless. I was on the South Aussie with Cosi page pointing out that he is a nice bloke but misses the mark when it comes to living in the 21st century with some of the things he posts. He made a dumb joke about the winner of a competition for show tickets, who happened to have the last name Hore. Anyway… I stated the obvious bad taste but his supporters, who were mostly male, lined up to point out that “it’s a joke”.. “lighten up” blah blah blah.
Well…. I say NO NO NO. I won’t lighten up. I was on the tail end of Psycho Sunday and was a bit pissed at the kids so wrote something about the women I know who have sported this name would more than likely want to rip him a new arsehole and shove the winning tickets up there while they were at it. Harshly poetic, and gross, but fairly accurate I would envisage.
In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best time to jump on social media and find some adults to argue with who are more ignorant than the kids.
However…..
Living in the country and being a woman of my generation this stuff used to be EVERYWHERE. It didn’t occur to me to mind in my younger years. It was something we just dealt with. We copped it on the chin, cause “it’s just a joke love”.
Like many women, I have spent most of my life laughing off lame sexist jokes, excusing misogynist remarks, and not making waves or speaking up when my blood would boil listening to bogan idiots be sexist twats all for the sake of a joke.
I’ve overheard the “geez I’d like a piece of that arse”’comments from the 40 something year old married man, ogling over the 18year old girl. I’ve also listened on and even laughed nervously as men “jokingly” put their wives down to somehow try and appear more manly.
God forbid I should speak up and cause a man to feel uncomfortable and offend them if I pointed this out. So I didn’t. But I do now.
There is definitely a shift toward positive change and there are some wonderful men out there just being, you know, normal decent humans. But there’s still the old bangers who think the women speaking up are just whingers who are easily offended. We’re man haters and feminists who don’t shave our armpits. We’re bitches because we speak our minds and won’t take shit from men who should know better. Or men who should at least apologise when it’s pointed out, rather than turn it around and tell us to “lighten up” and get over ourselves.
Sadly, some of these men are raising children and have a wife who has to swallow that shit every day.
Mr Hooch has at times pointed out that perhaps I’m a bit harsh or “full on” when it comes to this, and I can see his point. Maybe I hit the dickhead alert button a bit quickly. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes and we’re sometimes the result of the generation of which we were raised. But when you know better…don’t you try and do better? Luckily I married a good one who has an open mind and can see my point of view. It’s the good men that need to speak up and pull the reigns in on the misguided ones who think that this stuff is still OK – it just “what blokes do”. However, getting that to happen is a whole new battle that is as deep as it is wide.
In saying all of this, I’m all for a good joke. I love nothing more than clever humour, but not when it crosses a line. It’s a blurry line, because some of the best humour comes when it’s teetering on it’s edge. I just can’t find the funny when it comes to belittling others or being obviously offensive, especially to the already marginalised.
And yeah… in 2019 women are still marginalised.
Bet our sisters who burnt their bras in the 60’s are pissed off.
So I have declared that there will be no more ranty commenting from me on social media.
Well… not until the next Psycho Sunday hits anyway.
