Saturday, April 26, 2008

Funny, Without Being Sexist

MediaBistro ran a caption contest for this photo:



The winner:"Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) observes her chances for becoming the Democratic nominee for president."

7 comments:

Jill said...

That is excellent - I see it and think, ha! Microscopic! as in, they want the viewer to realize that the person writing the caption at a minimum believes Clinton's chances are microscopic.

Very clever and not sexist. It would be sexist if there was an implication that she couldn't understand what she is looking at or know how to use the equipment, playing into stereotypes about women and the sciences or math or something.

Thanks, Scott.

Mencken said...

"Hillary examines the evidence that The New Republic is sexist".

Jill said...

Very nice job at trivializing something about which you differ with another person. Real strong form of discourse.

Mencken said...

Jill, if you tell us the last place you saw your sense of humor, maybe we can help you find it.

Jill said...

Mencken - you don't get it and that's fine.

I didn't think Ann Coulter's faggot comment about John Edwards was funny or satirical or something about which we needed to lighten up, as she suggested.

I don't look for my sense of humor but you seem to like judging it or it's lack of existence.

Again - go for it. There's nothing funny to me about subtle, nuanced or in your face sexism or misogyny.

I can live with not having any humor about what you think is humorous.

Mencken said...

Of course I don't get it.... I'm just a man. But that slight doesn't make me think that you're a misandrist.
And therein lies the difference.

Jill said...

I've not once said or implied that it's your gender that makes you not get it. I have no idea why you don't get it.

Do you?

A few commenters over the blogs that have discussed the TNR cover have themselves said, this must prove that men and women are different, and I've replied by saying, well, yeah - we are in some things.

But there's no necessary causal connection.

I'm not even sure how we'd prove that. If you were a woman who'd written all these comments, I'd still be saying that you don't seem to get it.