Quote of the night

[jchrisobrien]

"The only thing stupider than a man with an erection, is a woman in love."

Author's name witheld to protect the innocent.

Comments

[futurenurselady.livejournal.com]

Wow...

Profound and true! Tell "anonymous" a woman said so.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

It's all about the context.

[shnells.livejournal.com]

yep. i think i can relate to that :)

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Love makes fools of us all!

[cris.livejournal.com]

wow, that's pretty tasty.

You should add a poll asking your friends to guess the gender of the author(ess)

[silas7.livejournal.com]

I may have gotten in enough trouble just by posting this. Perhaps I'll look into the poll function and see what I can come up with.

[heresiarch.livejournal.com]

nothing like reifying gender stereotypes! :P

[heresiarch.livejournal.com]

and just to be clear, i didn't make those anonymous comments below! i'm man enough to own up to my feminist humorlessness :D.

[nepenthedreams]

Heh, did you see that article where the guy was writing that women are incapable of being funny?

I guess he missed Saturday night's Oddville Vaudeville!

[silas7.livejournal.com]

I can safely say, that the author of that article should have been in my shoes last night, and he would have to eat his words. :)

[heresiarch.livejournal.com]

i saw the broadsheet blog post about it on salon... so ridiculous! ::rolls eyes::

[ivy-crown.livejournal.com]

and here I thought I was the only humorless feminist who suffered the "hooray gender stereotypes" eyeroll on this one.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Ivy, you should know me better than that!

Where's the stereotype, really? Men and women can do stupid things when their emotions are involved. If I had written "Love makes fools of us all" would you have been up in arms? It's pretty much the same thing.

It was the punch line of a sad story: woman falls in love with a guy who treats her like dirt, and she takes all the abuse because she's in love. The story was preceeded by a guy who married a girl within 2 weeks of meeting her, and later regretted it.

[ivy-crown.livejournal.com]

The statement "men and women can do stupid things when their emotions are involved" is true, and in no way detracts from the humor of the stories involved. By defining the stupidity of men as having to do with their penises, and the stupidity of women as having to do with their emotions you're reinforcing stereotypical gender views of how men and women function, and what is important to them.

"Love makes fools of us all" would, in my opinion, be a much better way of describing these two things without bringing up any kind of gender roles. So yes, I would have been happier if you said that, because it doesn't define women as emotional or men as hormonal. If that's the case in these two circumstances, I have no problem with the specific individuals being described with these characteristics, but generically referring to "men" and "women" as being stupid for different reasons because they are men and women is re-stating traditional gender stereotypes.

/humorless feminist rant

[silas7.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I don't understand that, all the blood has left my brain. :P

[talesinsdaughtr.livejournal.com]

A second comment of yours to which I have to say (a rather sad) "Amen, brother".

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Tis not always the case, but in this (sad) instance, it was true.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yay, another sexist blanket statement. Just what we need.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Oh, another humorless, cowardly commenter. Though, perhaps I will give you the benefit of the doubt, as you may not have a livejournal.

[(Anonymous)]

Because hey, women aren't ever horny, and men are just walking cocks who can't love, right?

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Allow me to elaborate: There was a story being told, about a woman who was deeply in love with a man who treated like utter, complete shit. And she took it. Every word, every abuse, every dismissive gesture, and she stayed with this man. Because she was in love.

If you know me at all, you'll know the second part of your comment isn't true. And I know from experience that the first part isn't true either.

I respectfully ask you to relax.

[nepenthedreams]

It kills me but I think it's true. And driven by the same biological basis, probably. You know, women have that hormone released in our bodies when we have an orgasm that makes us think we're in love and should stay attached to the person who was with us when it happened.

Besides, I've seen myself and friends do stupid stupid things. But then again, some of those friends have been men in love. Eh, love makes us stupid all around, I guess.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Remember: all stereotypes have their root in truth! Otherwise, they wouldn't become a steroetype.

Love makes fools of us all. One just needs to keep a sense of humor about them.

[etrinao.livejournal.com]

I'm going to spread the gospel.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Heh heh.

[lindau-nemesis.livejournal.com]

Yup, I totally forgot it.
You win!
You got quite the jump on me, as this was posted some hours before I even left your apartment : )
This morning is not my friend.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

I am a dirty cheater, that's why. :)

I actually made it to the hotel on time, set up the projector, and got a tasty breakfast out of it. I'm also ready to crawl under my desk and take a nap, too. *looks at clock, groans*

Here's to stolen naps!

[hellocatgirl.livejournal.com]

Hahaha!
So true! :)

[silas7.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that people can see the humor in it!

[(Anonymous)]

Hehehehe - you didn't have to withhold my name. I'll take credit for it. And I'm very amused that some people assumed it had to be a man who said it.

-Sara

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Bad, bad Sara! You're such a sexist woman! *smacks hand* :P

I'll admit, it's possible to read into such a statement, and it's easy to make a knee jerk reaction. It's pretty weak that people who know me think I've turned misogynistic all of a sudden though.

Save your ire for the people that deserve it, folks.

[ivy-crown.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

Repeating gender stereotypes does not make you a misogynist. Nor does it mean you're a man. Hell, I have speech pattens that rely on gender stereotypes (I'm trying to quit.) And I won't deny that it's a mildly amusing quip. By my amusement was tempered by my irritation at the stereotypes being used.

And now that I've sat here and thought about it, it's also a little frustrating that this particular statement also indicates that women, based on their gender, can be stupider at their stupidest than men can be at theirs.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

All the amusement comes from the context of where it was used. I short changed you by not repeating the accompanying stories, but I don't think even the context would have made you feel better about the phrase. Sara's beliefs are different than yours (though she's certainly not lacking in the feminism dept.)

I'm sorry if it raised your hackles. I didn't want to turn a punch-line into a big deal. I'd rather save that for my post about Hard Candy!

[heresiarch.livejournal.com]

what she said. i think the joke is partly irritating precisely because it is funny -- but its humor comes at the expense of breaking down gender norms which i find problematic. i think the fact that so many folks can relate to the sentiment reveals the process by which the stereotypes are reinforced -- situations come to mind that fit the paradigm, in which men want sex while women want love. of course, i can think of plenty of times when women act stupidly out of horniness and men do the same out of mushiness, to say nothing of transgendered and genderqueer folks who are just left out of the binary entirely.

ok, i'll stop now. so, how come you live in oakland yet know many of my boston friends?

[ivy-crown.livejournal.com]

I lived in Boston for 8 years (upstairs from spitcurl and with morbidiqua. And with couplingchaos in hideously close dorm conditions in college.) Took up residence at Quimby Heavy Industries in July. So I'm still a new kid in the Bay Area.

[fusion-waste.livejournal.com]

Because she is my extra-special friend. We should hang out when you are in town next!

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Obviously, transgendered and genderqueer folks are out the binany because they are not stupid when it comes to emotions! :)

The reserve of the quotes can work just as well (woman acting hormonally, man acting emotionally). There you go!

Just 'cause I can.

[sirendipity.livejournal.com]

I find the quote pretty freakin hilarious, although I think the comparison is off: men are equally retarded when it comes to their penis.

*gasp* I used the word retarded. I hope no one is offended....even though guys kinda drool and the light shuts off in their eyes when they think/have/see/hear/smell/want/dream/just had sex..start talking in one syllable words, too.

At least girls can still *do* stuff while in love...like clean, cook, take care of kids...those sort of girl things....Hmmm, maybe guys *are* "stupider"?

;)

Re: Just 'cause I can.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Well, we can't multi-task as well as you girls can. :P

*ducks*