Wirey
Fartist
So since the Orlando shooting I’ve been thinking about Marc Lepine. For those of you who don’t know who he was, he was a maggoty little reprobate who, because he hated women, went in Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal on December 6, 1989, and murdered 14 women students who he claimed were stealing jobs that were traditionally male. In Canada, it was big news. It also started a conversation about misogyny, and how seemingly innocuous jokes and remarks reinforced the idea that women were somehow less valuable than men, a patently foolish idea, but one that still never got through to Lepine.
After the shooting I took a long look at my wife, my three year old and new born daughters, and the world I was building for them. I decided then that I would never again partake in humour specifically designed to ridicule or minimize women. I know I joke around a lot with the RF ladies (how you doin’), but I also hope it’s apparent that I try to do it respectfully. I’ll fake hit on them, or claim I have a rash, but I never, ever denigrate women as a group. It would be wrong and I like being on the moral high ground.
And now this valueless little pecker shot up a night club because he didn’t like gay people. I’ve told gay jokes, never meaning any harm by it. Hell, my oldest daughter turned out to be a lesbian and I’d happily take a bullet for her. But you know what, for all the true homophobes out there, I accidently reinforced their hatred. My jokes may have let someone who is truly, damagingly homophobic feel like his stupidity was acceptable, was somehow main stream. I may have accidently encouraged someone like the Orlando shooter, after I swore to myself that would never do that to women. If I can’t treat all people exactly the same, what does that say about me?
So, here I am asking you to do me a favour and help me out. I swear from this moment going forward, I will never again tell a joke that uses homosexuality as a punch line, and I won’t allow anyone who tells me one to go unchallenged. If you catch me slipping or doing or saying anything that could be construed as homophobia, please call me out on it in the meanest possible manner. Thanks.
After the shooting I took a long look at my wife, my three year old and new born daughters, and the world I was building for them. I decided then that I would never again partake in humour specifically designed to ridicule or minimize women. I know I joke around a lot with the RF ladies (how you doin’), but I also hope it’s apparent that I try to do it respectfully. I’ll fake hit on them, or claim I have a rash, but I never, ever denigrate women as a group. It would be wrong and I like being on the moral high ground.
And now this valueless little pecker shot up a night club because he didn’t like gay people. I’ve told gay jokes, never meaning any harm by it. Hell, my oldest daughter turned out to be a lesbian and I’d happily take a bullet for her. But you know what, for all the true homophobes out there, I accidently reinforced their hatred. My jokes may have let someone who is truly, damagingly homophobic feel like his stupidity was acceptable, was somehow main stream. I may have accidently encouraged someone like the Orlando shooter, after I swore to myself that would never do that to women. If I can’t treat all people exactly the same, what does that say about me?
So, here I am asking you to do me a favour and help me out. I swear from this moment going forward, I will never again tell a joke that uses homosexuality as a punch line, and I won’t allow anyone who tells me one to go unchallenged. If you catch me slipping or doing or saying anything that could be construed as homophobia, please call me out on it in the meanest possible manner. Thanks.
