When did it start becoming okay for women to make demeaning jokes of men? 
I suppose they think they're getting their fair share, but the pendulum has
really swung in the opposite direction in some ways, and I don't think they
would dare tell the same kind of jokes about minorities, or anyone else you
can slap a label on.

This issue was addressed in an article of Gear, I believe.

9 responses total.

I have not heard of this before, can you give an example?

I was just thinking about that.  One of the button-slogans in the
Humor item in Agora is an anti-male joke.  It reminded me of a
recent column by Camille Paglia in Salon magazine on the subject.
Paglia says it started with Gloria Steinem in one of her books.  (?)

Everyone knows the "Why is a cucumber better than a man?" series.
(The cucumber doesn't go limp and fall asleep after one time, the
cucumber doesn't leave the toilet seat up, etc., etc.)  Those are
mild anti-male jokes, keesan.  Male-stereotype jokes often focus on 
such supposedly male qualities as never asking for directions,
never helping with the housework, or not knowing how to make a 
commitment.  

I can't work up any resentment over such jokes.  It seems to me 
that they spring from resentment.  The resentment is genuine, so
why shouldn't women make jokes about men?  African Americans
make jokes about whites -- same kind of thing.

If anyone has a list of such jokes handy, here's a good place to
enter it.  I believe there are increasing numbers of men who
envy women the victim status they've claimed in the past few
decades, and it'll be interesting to see how they react.

I don't so much mind anti-male jokes, so long as they're told by someone who
can take a joke in return. But if the person telling those jokes then loses
her temper at a man making an anti-female joke, I'll be a little ticked off.

I'm reminded of advice on noble & chivalrous conduct given in a C.S. Lewis
novel "...you should never mock a foe, save when he is stronger.  Then, as
you please."

Another such dumb joke is "Why are some jokes one-liners?"
"So men can understand them."

Good point about resentment, Michael.  The ironic thing is I'm tempted to
retaliate on the stupidity of it all because some women bitch and whine as
if all men were brute, crude, and thoughtless.  It pisses me off because they
flagrantly make such broad generalizations.  In general, if I catch a woman
whining that way, and I call her on it, she often decides to comment a little
on the taste of her foot, often because she knows I'm either not that way at
all or usually not so.

It's not the sexes that people have complained about-- it's gender roles, or
essentially social constructs.

For what it's worth, it really pisses me off to hear women (or men) draw
"broad stroke" generalizations about men and then harp on it, whether it's
intended to be "humorous" or not.

It makes me angry to hear anybody doing that about any group.  For everyy
stereotype you can name for a given group, there are many, many people who
don't fit the stereotype within the group.

Exactly.  And what makes such generalizations even more futile
is that to someone in the target group, they aren't even on target.
Well- kept male secret:  All those times you can't understand
why we don't stop and ask directions?  *You're* the ones who 
don't know where you are, not us.  We just don't have the heart 
to tell you, cuz you're so cute when you're confused.

<grin>

Pfff, even if that would be the case men too often are too stubborn to 
admit that they could be wrong on some aspect. Even it'd be losing 
direction when driving. Which, btw, is very easy for a European being 
used to traffic direction to state names of cities instead of 
roadnumbers, I was lost all the time, haha.

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