Re: Joke, joke, Warning a joke

From: Mary Bryson (brys@unixg.ubc.ca)
Date: Fri Jan 25 2002 - 18:48:47 PST

On 1/25/02 3:40 PM, "Mike Cole" <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu> wrote:

> you all must be joking.
> mike
> .
>
Fraid not Mike
The intended "joke" is offensive, because it reproduces so many
discriminatory stereotypes about "women" -
* Women become reified into a single category - ³the woman...²
* Women are represented as communicatively impaired - reduced to the
communication of complex concepts by the use of single words and facial
gestures.
* Women are interpellated by this joke as (always-already) existing within
heterosexual relations
* Women are punitive, wiley, and predictably vengeful.

I could go on and on, but wonıt.
Habermas might have called this, systematically distorted communication.

Imagine how we might have responded if someone had posted a similar list
about jews, blacks, or fags ­ someone who was not a jew, black, or a fag.
But ³women², well, itıs always ok to bash women.

Mary

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