The White Boy (refer previous story) is at it again. This time he wrote,
That statement is self-explanatory but to give you a bit of context: Bill Maher, a comedian wrote on his twitter
This is an acute case of White man blindness, a serious medical condition where you are so blinded by the privilege afforded to you by your white-ness and penis, that you dismiss everything everyone else feels or does as trivial. Exhibit A
To say that "If you want Maher to stop saying bitches you have to stop all bigger and greater evils. Solve the middle-east crisis and come back to me about offensive tweets" is such a bogeyman argument that I am left speechless.
I know white men are so used to defining what gets to be what that it may come as a shocker but they don't get to define what is or is not a concern of true feminism. They don't get to say "Look at them Arabs, they treat their women so bad, you should fight against it. Not domestic violence. Or equal pay. Or misogynistic jokesters".
There is always going to be evil in some corner of the world and to say this or that is worse, why are we bothered about the small stuff in our backyard, is frankly pointless. We could and should fight against oppression in the middle -east AND misogyny in our society. It is not an either-or choice. And really how can we have the moral high ground when our society treats women badly; 1 in 3 women face domestic violence, #YesAllWomen has shown that fear of sexual assault is a real thing in the western world we live in. Even women at the highest echelons of power, the CEOs and PMs are treated poorly. To say that I should be allowed to make jokes about slapping women into line until Arab women can drive is just silly.
The second argument is a keeper: "Am I not in my rights to have an opinion over an overreaction over an opinion, or is she above criticism too?"
This "Stop oppressing me" is such a classic white man response to being called out that it is by far my favourite. It comes in several flavours. "I am just saying", for instance is a tasty one.
Of course you have rights to spew your opinions you poor little white boy. I am saying that you are phoo-phoo-ing Amanda's opinion as irrelevant and over-reaction when they are neither. She is not immune from criticism but what exactly is your criticism, except rolling your eyes and saying Women, eh? Neither Maher nor Amanda are foreign policy experts but Amanda does write about gender politics and she has written a fair criticism of Maher.
If a reasonable post about the offensive tweet which is not shrill, angry, doesn't call for his head, doesn't generalise men as dicks gets a "BooHoo grow a pair", then what exactly can women do to get heard. When women who write about gender issues in media or games get ridiculed by men (like The White boy), their opinion gets de-legitimised and overlooked.
I am tempted to call The White Boy a dick and an asshole but as soon as I realised that he suffers from the debilitating illness of White man blindness, I am moved to sympathy. Poor fellow! he can't help himself. It is a genetic disorder and he has to live with this disability all his life.
Oh boo hoo, Bill Maher makes a sexist joke to understand Hamas. What is worse slapping a woman or rocket attacks, suicide bombings, or vowing destruction of Israel? Sorry Slate, did the naughty comedian says gross words
That statement is self-explanatory but to give you a bit of context: Bill Maher, a comedian wrote on his twitter
Dealing w/ Hamas is like dealing w/ a crazy woman who's trying to kill u - u can only hold her wrists so long before you have to slap herTo which Amanda Marcotte of Slate wrote
Maher is making light of the serious problem of domestic violence. But he’s also trading on the tired stereotype of women as irrational children who need to be brought in line by more stable men.And the white boy springs to the defence of beloved comedian's misogyny. He unhelpfully adds that the problem is "Slate.com's unthoughtful reactions to comedy". And asked about the author he dismissively explains that she writes about rape culture and abortion issues. Yeah! right. And he extolled the courage of HBO in their crusade for freedom of speech and how comedians should be allowed to say what they want.
This is an acute case of White man blindness, a serious medical condition where you are so blinded by the privilege afforded to you by your white-ness and penis, that you dismiss everything everyone else feels or does as trivial. Exhibit A
True feminism would look at the real problem: Hamas. I stand for freedom and not being offended by a fictional jokes or fictional games. Hamas is the feminist issue allowing honour killing, forcing headwear, and real restrictions. Instead, in the West we are worried about the good man saying bad things? Really? What is worse?Firstly, "I am not standing in solidarity with the asshole comedian, I just like comedy" argument. This argument presupposes that "I like comedy and you don't". If only you had my sense of humour, then you would see that it is not offensive and be A-ok with making jokes about slapping bitches. Hahaahaaaa. So funny.
To say that "If you want Maher to stop saying bitches you have to stop all bigger and greater evils. Solve the middle-east crisis and come back to me about offensive tweets" is such a bogeyman argument that I am left speechless.
I know white men are so used to defining what gets to be what that it may come as a shocker but they don't get to define what is or is not a concern of true feminism. They don't get to say "Look at them Arabs, they treat their women so bad, you should fight against it. Not domestic violence. Or equal pay. Or misogynistic jokesters".
There is always going to be evil in some corner of the world and to say this or that is worse, why are we bothered about the small stuff in our backyard, is frankly pointless. We could and should fight against oppression in the middle -east AND misogyny in our society. It is not an either-or choice. And really how can we have the moral high ground when our society treats women badly; 1 in 3 women face domestic violence, #YesAllWomen has shown that fear of sexual assault is a real thing in the western world we live in. Even women at the highest echelons of power, the CEOs and PMs are treated poorly. To say that I should be allowed to make jokes about slapping women into line until Arab women can drive is just silly.
The second argument is a keeper: "Am I not in my rights to have an opinion over an overreaction over an opinion, or is she above criticism too?"
This "Stop oppressing me" is such a classic white man response to being called out that it is by far my favourite. It comes in several flavours. "I am just saying", for instance is a tasty one.
Of course you have rights to spew your opinions you poor little white boy. I am saying that you are phoo-phoo-ing Amanda's opinion as irrelevant and over-reaction when they are neither. She is not immune from criticism but what exactly is your criticism, except rolling your eyes and saying Women, eh? Neither Maher nor Amanda are foreign policy experts but Amanda does write about gender politics and she has written a fair criticism of Maher.
If a reasonable post about the offensive tweet which is not shrill, angry, doesn't call for his head, doesn't generalise men as dicks gets a "BooHoo grow a pair", then what exactly can women do to get heard. When women who write about gender issues in media or games get ridiculed by men (like The White boy), their opinion gets de-legitimised and overlooked.
I am tempted to call The White Boy a dick and an asshole but as soon as I realised that he suffers from the debilitating illness of White man blindness, I am moved to sympathy. Poor fellow! he can't help himself. It is a genetic disorder and he has to live with this disability all his life.
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