Re: SmellyWerewolf.com perfume & make-up discount
On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 09:01:32AM +0100, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:
> * Noah Slater <nslater@tumbolia.org> [2008-11-23 22:07]:
> > Please quote from the original email explaining to me how it is sexist.
>
> Well, I found the parody very offensive to men, in general.
Heh, heh.
Parody, satire, and pastiche humour are designed to take a view point, such as
racism or sexism, an activity, such as golf or football, or something else such
as advertising standards, and exaggerate it to the point of ridicule.
We are meant to point at this stuff and say "oh my, how inappropriate this would
be! thank goodness this is humour" and then laugh a little.
An intelligently crafted parody of racism is funny precisely because racism is
horrible and the joke is poking fun at the people who are genuinely racist. To
proclaim that it is racist is to entirely, and horrendously, miss the point.
The same thing goes for sexism, political policies, sports, news, &c
> At any rate, given the precedent with Andrew Suffield and the kissing
> lesbians, sending the joke to d-d-a was certainly a faux-pas.
Absolutely. Parody carries with it the unfortunate consequence of
misunderstanding. When this happens, people are generally offended. This type of
humour should not have been sent to a place where people could have
misunderstood it and I think we can all agree on that point. Can we please just
leave it at that though, instead of perpetuating a terrible misunderstanding of
the mechanics involved in parody and satire.
The email wasn't sexist, but it was inappropriate. Slapped wrists, &c.
Best,
--
Noah Slater, http://tumbolia.org/nslater
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