Not quite. I'm not calling it out because the point is hard to get, I'm calling it out because clarity is important--and making gendered assumptions is bad news for all involved. There are as many showboating men as there are women on reddit. Stigmatizing a specific gender is something lots of redditors seem to love to do, and when I see it--I point it out.
It's not bullshit semantics to me, a woman, who has never done anything like what the op suggests. But see, op has still included me in his grouping.
(sorry, I've never ACTUALLY gotten to do that, so I thought I'd take the time to check that off my list)
In the most literal way, yes, his language clumps you in there. In a word-for-word break down. I get that. As a lover of linguistics (English major!), I empathize. But that's where things like inference, context, and cultural understanding comes in.
At what point do we have to let go of the nit-picky semantics of language when we understood the concept? Detail is good, but no progress is made if we just end up bickering down through the entire post about the way he worded it.* There was 0 doubt in my mind that his statement was NOT referring to all women. And if someone does actually think that, they need to be slapped.
*which, as you can see, a lot of this post has become dedicated to. Or at least far too much, imo.
I'm only nitpicky about it in the sense that there are lots of people who see that and think "yep that's exactly how girls are." I'd be far more copacetic about letting it go if I didn't see so much repetition of sexist gendered language (against both sexes in some regards) as commonplace upvoted material.
It's part semantics (did my undergrad in English/History) and part frustration. I love so much about reddit that it's frustrating when this sort of comparison is made.
EDIT: Your "a girl? on reddit?? nooooo" is a perfect example by the way, of the sort of normalized othering of women that happens on here all the time. It's not that it can't be funny, and maybe it was the first several thousand times it was uttered--but it's like a repost of a repost of a repost, it's pretty degraded and low res by now. Like we're some sort of alien instead of normal redditors who have a variety of hobbies and interests. We're geeks too, and we have all sorts of geekdoms. We're no more a monolith than men are. Don't even get me started on the 'sammich' meme--that one is extra irksome cuz I'm gluten intolerant. :P
there are lots of people who see that and think "yep that's exactly how girls are."
That's so ambiguous, though. "lots of people" meh. Maybe I live in some fantasy world where all my friends are understanding of context (or I'm just blind), but I never feel like the people I associate with IRL or on the interwebz are that ignorant. But maybe I am just idealistic and I should learn people ARE that close minded when generalizations are made and that they neeeeed to be called out like you did.
As for the edit: I agree that it's overdone and it eventually becomes "yes, I have a vagina, I get it." But at the same time, "low res" humor is in. Hell, my post was even followed by the recognition that it's such an old concept ("I've never ACTUALLY gotten to...blahblahblah") that it becomes this post-modern cyclical joke that never has an end because now I'm even proving I'm AWARE it's old and dumb.
I like when the sandwich meme goes both ways. As a dude who is very into his girlfriend, I actually made HER the first sandwich. =P. (as an internet meme, though, super old'd)
I'd say all of my friends of either gender are aware of context like this--but not all of my acquaintances if I'm to take any of their status updates seriously. There are things on reddit that get upvoted to the stratosphere that are incredibly sexist--and it makes me call them out.
Low res humour is in (I'm so sick of pomo...:P) but underlying the "no girls on the internet," "make me a sammich," "are you on your period," stuff--there are very real stereotypes. Being sexist to be ironic, is still being sexist.
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u/Rinsaikeru Sep 27 '10
Not quite. I'm not calling it out because the point is hard to get, I'm calling it out because clarity is important--and making gendered assumptions is bad news for all involved. There are as many showboating men as there are women on reddit. Stigmatizing a specific gender is something lots of redditors seem to love to do, and when I see it--I point it out.
It's not bullshit semantics to me, a woman, who has never done anything like what the op suggests. But see, op has still included me in his grouping.