I've decided that with today's blog post, I would like to compare some of readings and what I've learned, to personal experiences in my life. As you might remember from my introduction blog post, I am very close with my family and appreciative of them. However, some of my family can be very "old fashioned" and go along with many of the things mentioned in this week's readings. For example, I was so surprised to read the statement multiple times, "Why can't you take a joke." I have heard this statement so many times throughout my life, from the people who mean the most to me. Most of my family members are big jokesters so I've never taken much offense to that statement. However, after realizing that it wasn't just my family that uses this statement, I realized it has a deeper meaning and offense.
While I'm sure these family members aren't purposely trying to degrade me, or hurt my feelings, I feel as though it is almost natural for them to make comments as such. It also reflects a lot on how they were raised, how their parents may have acted or behaved, as well as the time period they grew up in.
I feel as though many other people are this way, as far as not thinking that deep into their comments. I'm not much of a touchy person and always try to understand the reasoning behind some people's beliefs or actions. I can sometimes be a passive person as well, not really up for much confrontation. Although, after reading some of these pieces, and becoming slightly more educated on some of women history, I would like to start sticking up for myself more in regards to some of my family members comments and inform them on the true offense that is taken with some of their statements. Nicely of course.
Another topic I would like to briefly mention is in regards to one of my classmates blog post. She mentioned a common stereotype of "angry feminists" in today's world. Agreeing with her outlook, I don't see much success coming from only being angry and attacking others to try to achieve proper respect for women, in fact, it may only make it worse in some cases. I do think it is important to always respect others, even when expressing your opinion. I believe all of the authors in the readings, especially Fey and Grey (more specifically mentioned in her blog post), handled their advocating for women very respectfully and well.
Overall, I was surprised yet excited to be able to relate to so many of the readings and experiences mentioned. I really enjoyed all of the readings and am excited to become further educated on women and their humor!
-Cara Minor
I like how you brought up that phrase, "Why can't you take a joke?" This is something I've heard many times in my life, but particularly during my high school days. This was between 2006 and 2009 so it was before social media, before people started raising awareness social justice, and essentially before people started becoming "woke" (or at least before "woke" was a common term). So a lot of the teenage boys I had encountered made very racist, sexist jokes and some even made jokes about rape and suicide. I always stood up for what I believed to be right and told them that this wasn't cool. I was always very upset by jokes like that and of course I was met with, "Why can't you take a joke?" But this is only because they were (white) boys. During this time period white boys and men could make jokes at the expense of women or brown people and if you didn't find that funny you didn't have a sense of humour. I'm so very glad that things are changing now and most people won't put up with jokes like the ones the teenage boys I went to high school with made.
ReplyDeleteI like this post, Cara, as it shows you making great connections between the reading and your personal experiences. I also like how empathetic and thoughtful you are in your thinking about why people do/say what they do.
ReplyDeleteRe: "angry feminists," take a look at my comment on Krista's post.