Sexism is not funny, let's stop laughing

Where does sexy end and sexism begin? I too am against sexism (who isn't?), but most Americans appear to find women in limited amounts of clothing sexy; take a look at most women's magazines in the grocery store next time you're there (or, better yet, look through a bunch of Cosmos at some point: someone suggested I do it, and I found the experience highly educational). Sexism in tech and the workplace are real problems, but I don't think a slide with a woman in underwear is a good example.

Comparisons between the U.S. and France are often dubious, but reading Elaine Sciolino's La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life made me rethink some of the issues Koll describes. Sciolino writes, for example:

The game of the sexes also extends deep into the workplace. In the United States, the mildest playfulness during business hours and in a business setting is forbidden; in France, it is encouraged. In American corporations, men are told routinely that they cross the line when they compliment a female employee on the color of her dress or the style of her hair. In France, flirtation is part of the job.

(I wrote more about the book here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/la-seduction-how-th...).

And her experiences in the French workplace appear to be mostly good. It might be that the U.S. and France are too different to compare, but I also don't think that the asexual approach implicitly endorsed here is right or even practical.

There's a big difference between making race/sex jokes with people who realise you are being ironic + actually have no problem with it (I emphasise actually!), vs. when you are actually demeaning someone and they are __in the room__ at the time.

There's definitely a big problem with sexism in our industry (+ elsewhere too clearly.)

A thought experiment: somebody gets up on stage and presents a slide saying 'so simple that even blacks can use it!'

There's a degree to which in any society where it's ok to make 'jokes' or comments with an edge, when the group in question is to some degree subjugated. That still remains the case with women to a large degree, far less so race (at least openly in the west), and 100% is the case with weight. It's worth stopping and taking a look at that.

The fact is, it's always possible to be offensive no matter what the actor does.

Anecdotally however, playing a character of a given background becomes offensive when the actor portrays a caricature of the background or the actor speaks or acts in a way that takes away the character's humanity. Therefore, it's typically okay to play a character of a specific background, as long as you stay true to how the character thinks or acts as a human, and not as a caricature or cartoon.

The problem arises when sexist jokes aren't regarded as intentionally offensive, and the discourse is internalized to the point where sexism is regarded as being funny, because it's sexism.

I don't see a lot of "funny" racism - if any - in the industry, and I think it's because we've come much farther, when it relates to race - and to some degree sexuality as well.

Comedian Stewart Lee is good at describing this mentality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgABbHPdwH4.