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On the train home from work today I was sat near a group of six or seven young women, all of whom seemed to be either university or sixth form college students. They were loudly talking and telling jokes, which due to the volume of they’re conversation I had no choice but to listen to – then one of them came out with the joke below. Well I say joke – because that’s the context it was used in, but it really, really isn’t.
So there’s these 3 women, and they are trapped on an island and they can’t find a way off, and they are looking around and one of them finds a lamp. They rub it, and a genie comes out – and he says I will give each of you one wish. The first one says alright I want you to make me ten times cleverer and ten times stronger. So the genie does it. The second one says I want you to make me a hundred times cleverer and a hundred times stronger. So the genie does it. The third one says I want you to make me a thousand times cleverer and a thousand times stronger. So the genie turns her into a man, and she walks over the bridge and gets off the island
Half of them laughed, and none of the others objected. Now this abomination of a ‘joke’ stirred up a whole bunch of feelings in me. Not least among them the desire to scream and possibly to try to get off the moving train. But also fairly confusing and conflicted feelings – I mean had it been a group of guys I probably would have felt a fairly uncomplicated urge to hit them very hard (I wouldn’t have done, because, well, one doesn’t, but I’d have wanted to). But it being a group of women, I kind of more wanted to cry a bit. And that sort of worried me as much as the ‘joke’ itself. I mean was that a sexist reaction on my part? I mean I don’t think it was – I mean I don’t feel that women should have any greater responsibility for not sexist idiots than men, but well I suppose the reason why I reacted differently might have had something to do with seeing the absolute lack of enlightened self interest on display from the group. I mean in my opinion it seemed like those women had been completely fucked over by the education they’ve received from our fucking patriarchal society if they think that ‘joke’ is anything to be laughing at in public, and probably fucked over far more absolutely than a group of guys who think the same thing. I mean I think that’s what I think, but I’m still quite confused and self-doubty as to whether my reaction isn’t itself almost as bad bollocks as the ‘joke’ itself. |
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