From Ceili:
"Women now out number men in college and universities pretty N.America wide. Why do we still feel victimized (by stupid jokes ect) when clearly this is not the case?"
Here are my thoughts on this. People are sometimes too fast to take offense at humor. The only time anyone should be offended by crude jokes is if the person or individual making the joke believes the ideals behind it. We all know stereotypes, which are often based in fact about any culture.
Being from Kentucky, we have a whole lot of hillbilly jokes about us, like never going to the dentist, marrying relatives, so on. I live so close to Cincinnati that I can walk out my front door at night and actually see lights of Cincinnati.
I have a great sense of humor. I am not at all offended by Kentucky hillbilly jokes at all. I only found one, singular time that I was, by ignorant people of Ohio thinking they were better than when I worked in downtown Cincinnati. They were all women. They already knew I lived in Kentucky. They started saying they could tell by the way I talked, which was a southern accent. It was no accent, but know information of where I lived the went flying with gossip among those who will ill towards a new employee, me. These hillbilly jokes towards me were ill willed when I lived in a suburban neighborhood, not on some shack in the hills where my parents were blood related.
Jealousy and competition among people in the workplace is out of hand, especially during times where promotion is a long shot and loss of their job because of a new hire was completely unreasonable, but people don't often see reality for what it is. They think new people are a threat, which they are mistaken. With management downsized, as today, promotion is unlikely. You are only hired because you are needed for a specific task, which has little promise beyond what you were hired for.
I fail to understand the logic of competitive and ill willed people. The fact is, logic of these types does not exist, which is a problem if they ever wish to go beyond anything they are, morally, ethically, and career. The ignorant get nowhere with this. The ones who recognize it for what it is do get somewhere and it might not come in the form of a raise on your paycheck, which companies would endorse slavery today rather than be fair with working people, the way I see it. Anything they can use, such as an ethnic joke, to make themselves look good and you look bad are obviously with ill intent. These people actually believed because they were from Ohio, it made them better than me.
Ill intended people making jokes in order to hurt you are not so funny. A man who resents women making jokes is not funny. A white person who thinks their skin makes them superior to anyone of a differing bloodline are not funny. People like this will never lead a good life, which does not require a ton of money, just intelligence and reaching your needs is all.
I see people as individuals with their own thoughts and beliefs. Most people do not hate others, but are competitive and see everyone as a threat. Those are ill intended people, which most of us are not.
I do not believe women should take personally jokes about women. We sure have an arsenal of jokes about men! We all should evaluate the individual and their beliefs before banning humor, which usually isn't ill intended at all, just hits the sense of humor.
Allow people to be human, which humor is a part that does lift the spirit from many serious issues in life, no matter what your struggles. It all differs with gender and race. Generally speaking, I do not feel that any joke of race, gender, religion, country of origin, etc., should be taken personally until you know for a fact that the individual is ill intended, with hate towards another. Keep in mind, those are very ignorant people headed nowhere, which do not represent the majority.
It is a mistake to be too sensitive. We need humor, even if it is about ourselves, to lighten life a bit. None of us, no matter what race, religion, sex, etc., has many problems which another may not understand. Most joke are a complete exaggeration of truth, with stereotype.
I feel PC is a good thing that is self inflicted on our freedom of speech in ways. I also feel this idea of bias has gone too far. It is far past time for PC to stop. The goals have already been accomplished. People get offended when they shouldn't be. They fail to evaluate the individual and their beliefs, when the majority do not hate. We only seek to have a little bit of fun in our, otherwise, serious aspects of living. We need humor, even if it is to laugh at ourselves.
Humor does often lighten the load of serious worry while trying very hard to get by in this world, which we all equally struggle with, not just blacks, white women, other ethnic people, or white male. All have to work hard to put food on our tables and pay the rent or mortgage loan and need work to help us.
This is idealism at my best. Stop fighting among ourselves. We all want the same thing. Never allow stupid jokes to offend you. Do your work, to the best of your ability, and do not get caught up in things that really don't matter, being PC.
Very well said Wildflower and welcome to A2K :-D
Free speech means you can say almost anything, except, maybe, yell "FIRE" in a theater.
You can say it, you just will get into trouble for doing so. If you are even caught. Then just because you say it and everyone saw you say it doesn't mean they can prove you did, in a court of law.
BlueMonkey, You make a good point; why don't you try it next time you're in a theater to see if it works. I mean, get away with it.
I didn't say I could. I said that that is the way it works.
You may get caught after doing it but they have to prove that you did it even though they know you did.
