1st September 2017

A man walks into the market looking to pick up women. He asks the village player for help. The village player says “Watch and learn.”
He walks up to a woman selling honey and says “Do you have any honey, honey?” The woman gives him honey and a kiss.He walks up to another woman selling flowers and says “Do you have any flowers, you rose?” The woman gives him flowers and a kiss. He then walks up to a woman selling sugar and says “Do you have any sugar, sugar?” She practically dies. Gives him sugar and kisses him twice.
He returns to the man “Your turn.”
The man walks up to a woman selling dairy and says “Do you have any milk, cow?”
This is an arabic joke but humour is universal.
This joke makes sense in arabic and french and english and in every language.
We call women cows everywhere.
There are many versions of this joke.
In one a man is looking to pick up women. In another he is looking for a wife. Another he is looking for himself.
There are four women in this joke.
In all versions none of the women speak.
I wonder what this says about us a a society.

Comedy is typically men joking about women. That’s how we get gems like “Why did the woman cross the road? Who cares! What the hell is she doing out of the kitchen?” and “Why hasn’t NASA sent a woman to the moon? It doesn’t need cleaning yet!” 

I know you’re probably thinking “Come on! You have got to get over it! Stop being so sensitive! It’s just a JOKE! There’s no real harm in it.”
But you’re wrong. Because there is. Jokes like these aren’t as harmless as you intend them to be and they certainly aren’t funny. They’re hostile. We like to pretend we live in this fairytale where there are good guys and there are bad guys and as long as you’re not one of the bad guys your job is done. And maybe you’re a “good guy”. Like, maybe you’d never actually MEAN those types of things. Or maybe you wouldn’t even say them. Maybe you’re a “good guy” and maybe you just laugh when you’re friend tells these jokes to seem “edgy” and “cool.” But the lines between “bad guys” and “good guys” starts to get real blurry when you say these things. Or when you say nothing.

Maybe you’re one of the  “good guys” tryna give your friends a laugh…but at what cost? Sexist jokes send a direct message to half the room that they are not wanted there.

I’m not saying that you’re a bad person for making jokes or that I hate you for laughing. All I’m saying is that these jokes have harmful consequences whether you intend them to or not.

These jokes normalise sexism and hostility towards women in a way that you may not even notice because these jokes are such a large part of our society.

But studies like an experiment led by a Western Carolina University psychology professor would prove otherwise.

 

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