"Are you on your period or something?" and other sexist remarks

[Moksha]

If you need a list ask your Mommy. Or interact with human women.

Look, I do not deserve being smacked down for trying to offer a helpful suggestion.

[Lem]

If you need a list ask your Mommy. Or interact with human women.

Look, I do not deserve being smacked down for trying to offer a helpful suggestion.

You thought that was a helpful suggestion? I thought it was insensitive, sarcastic and demonstrated a mean-spirited and deliberate obtuseness. Everything you say is parody, how would one know that a grown penguin really does need a god-damn LIST to know what not to say to a woman?

[Res Ipsa]

If you need a list ask your Mommy. Or interact with human women.

Look, I do not deserve being smacked down for trying to offer a helpful suggestion.

My dear penguin,

The problem with suggestion is that it implies that women are so irrational that no rational human male could ever figure out what they want. It also places a burden on the women to figure out a set of rules to teach men how to be decent human beings. Why should women be saddled with the responsibility of teaching grown men to be decent humans.

It’s not really that hard. Get used to thinking of yourself as a human being who doesn’t want to cause unnecessary pain to your fellow human beings. View women as human beings. Not men, because some of the ways men treat each other are pretty awful. As fellow humans. Listen to what your fellow humans say. When they talk about sexism understand that they are talking about harm.

That will take care of the vast majority of the situations you’ll run into in every day life. The boundaries are fuzzy, and it’s tough to know exactly where the boundaries are if you try to push as close to the boundary as you can. So, stay a step or two back from the boundary. And when someone expresses hurt, apologize for hurting them (because your a decent human being who doesn’t want to unnecessarily harm fellow human beings) and try to understand why your fellow human being felt harmed.

I am not holding myself out as a great example. But when I try to do this, I think I’m a better human being than when I don’t.

[Moksha]

You thought that was a helpful suggestion? I thought it was insensitive, sarcastic and demonstrated a mean-spirited and deliberate obtuseness. Everything you say is parody, how would one know that a grown penguin really does need a god-damn LIST to know what not to say to a woman?

Perhaps we should just forget this and continue our cruise on Haiphong Harbor pretending everything is normal despite the explosions.

[Lem]

....pretending everything is normal despite the explosions.

A feeble swing and a HUGE miss.

[Jersey Girl]

You thought that was a helpful suggestion? I thought it was insensitive, sarcastic and demonstrated a mean-spirited and deliberate obtuseness. Everything you say is parody, how would one know that a grown penguin really does need a god-damn LIST to know what not to say to a woman?

Perhaps we should just forget this and continue our cruise on Haiphong Harbor pretending everything is normal despite the explosions.

On what planet is it a good idea to use/and or forward stereotypes of any kind as a form of response on a discussion forum?

In what way are either of those tactics useful to anyone for any reason unless they are intended to wound for the purpose of silencing one's adversary?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

If you need a list ask your Mommy. Or interact with human women.

Look, I do not deserve being smacked down for trying to offer a helpful suggestion.

I have to know. Are you Robert Kirby?

- Doc

[Jersey Girl]

Fabulous. Now I have to figure out who Robert Kirby is.

[Res Ipsa]

You thought that was a helpful suggestion? I thought it was insensitive, sarcastic and demonstrated a mean-spirited and deliberate obtuseness. Everything you say is parody, how would one know that a grown penguin really does need a god-damn LIST to know what not to say to a woman?

Perhaps we should just forget this and continue our cruise on Haiphong Harbor pretending everything is normal despite the explosions.

“Normal” is part of the problem. I’m reading a recent biography of Sylvia Plath. What’s striking in the early part of the book is how “normal” did so much damage to bright and talented young women. Sylvia’s parents were, as they say, wicked smart. Her father wrote a famous treatise on bees. When they married, they planned to work as a partnership in research and publishing. But after marriage, Otto forgot about the plan, and expected Auriel (sp?) to be a normal housewife and mother, abandoning her career plans. So, she did: she was a housewife, mother, and supported her husband’s career at night, doing all the support work a great man needed to publish a leading treatise on bees.

Normal is simply what most people do and expect. Our normal is heavily influenced by deep seated gender norms that treat what men do and how men think as normal. Think of what normal includes over history. Normal does not mean good. Instead of going back to normal, shouldn’t we try to go forward to better?

[Res Ipsa]

Fabulous. Now I have to figure out who Robert Kirby is.

Former columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, I think.