71–80 of 111 posts
Some ideas of why it could be found offensive: 1. Misogyny. Why? Flight attendants are women. Rich CEO's are men. A CEO that loses a bet and has to work as a flight attendant, also has to wear a skirt, stockings and lipstick. To clarify: It's a stereotype, and stereotypes can be found offensive. Imagine if he had painted his face black instead. 2. Transphobia. Why? Men dressing up as women are supposed to be silly. H…
Some ideas of why it could be found offensive: 1. Misogyny. Why? Flight attendants are women. Rich CEO's are men. A CEO that loses a bet and has to work as a flight attendant, also has to wear a skirt, stockings and lipstick. To clarify: It's a stereotype, and stereotypes can be found offensive. Imagine if he had painted his face black instead. 2. Transphobia. Why? Men dressing up as women are supposed to be silly. H…
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Is it punishment? He's not under any kind of duress.
Perhaps punishment was too strong. But it was a forfeit on a bet, and the implication of having to dress up as one of the female cabin crew as a forfeit is distasteful at best, however innocent the intention.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayoralty_of_Rudy_Giuliani#Dra...
That being said, you have every right to be offended.
However, It seems a bit rich tho that you need to justify your offense by quoting some 3rd party "explanation" and then trying to sell other people on it. You're not selling your own view, in that case IMHO.
Some ideas of why it could be found offensive: 1. Misogyny. Why? Flight attendants are women. Rich CEO's are men. A CEO that loses a bet and has to work as a flight attendant, also has to wear a skirt, stockings and lipstick. To clarify: It's a stereotype, and stereotypes can be found offensive. Imagine if he had painted his face black instead. 2. Transphobia. Why? Men dressing up as women are supposed to be silly. H…
I lived with someone who tried to commit suicide and suffered from deep depression. Laughter was the one thing that helped.
It's pretty clear that RB is having a laugh and inviting others to join in at his own expense and not at the expense of any of the examples you give.
We must rigorously defend humor from the humorless, less they try to make sense of complex humor as in "What does it mean?" or "I don't get it therefore I must try to sound intelligent in the wake of my ignorance."
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Perhaps punishment was too strong. But it was a forfeit on a bet, and the implication of having to dress up as one of the female cabin crew as a forfeit is distasteful at best, however innocent the intention.
Dressing up in drag is a time honoured tradition for comedy sketches. In places like London or New York city (that have strong arts and theatre traditions) this is a completely normal thing. Nobody would beat an eyelash at a transestite or a drag queen. The Mayor of New York used to do it all the time.[1] By turning this bet into a comedy sketch, branson is just displaying some wit, and he pulls it off. > https://en.…
Then I come to this thread on HN and absolutely no-one had commented on the controversy (at the time of my original comment) - I figured this was down to the skewed demographics of the site. So I raised it as a point of discussion, to see what the community thought, and to try to provoke a bit of discussion of the apparently overlooked aspects of this piece.
I agree that he pulled it off with great humour, but I can't help but wince at the insensitivity of a rich straight guy losing a bet and having to dress up as a parody of his own female flight staff (who earn 1000x less than him) ...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_%28clothing%29
There's a big difference between wearing drag for theatre, personal empowerment, kicks / w/e, and being forced to dress like a woman as a punishment or forfeit.
This bet was attacked by feminists (rightly? or too sensitive?) : the idea of it being a humiliating punishment for a respectable businessman having to dress up like a woman and serve other men. So it was my understanding that Virgin backed away from this bet and tried to downplay it. I'm a bit surprised by this picture cropping up on the website. Am I being hypersensitive? No-one else seems to have picked up on this…
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Dressing up in drag is a time honoured tradition for comedy sketches. In places like London or New York city (that have strong arts and theatre traditions) this is a completely normal thing. Nobody would beat an eyelash at a transestite or a drag queen. The Mayor of New York used to do it all the time.[1] By turning this bet into a comedy sketch, branson is just displaying some wit, and he pulls it off. > https://en.…
That's very true, it was just simply that I had multiple friends (feminists and LBGT+ individuals) that were offended when the original pictures came out - this was the first thing that came to mind when visiting the 404 page. "Oh, I remember this, it offended lots of people". Then I come to this thread on HN and absolutely no-one had commented on the controversy (at the time of my original comment) - I figured this…
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As a community with a vastly skewed gender divide (both HN and tech in general), I think it's our responsibility to try to be sensitive (even over-sensitive) to the needs of those that are underrepresented. I'm just talking about the male / female divide - I've no idea what the level of representation of the LBGT+ community is on HN, but it's probably not very high.
As a trans person with several other trans and lesbian/gay friends, I can assure you everyone here is being insanely oversensitive. It's as if everyone here understands that they're supposed to be supportive of the LGBT community, but don't actually know anyone in it themselves and so completely misfire with their attempts at being PC
Basically, apply your statement but as a general case and it still holds, in my opinion.
Some ideas of why it could be found offensive: 1. Misogyny. Why? Flight attendants are women. Rich CEO's are men. A CEO that loses a bet and has to work as a flight attendant, also has to wear a skirt, stockings and lipstick. To clarify: It's a stereotype, and stereotypes can be found offensive. Imagine if he had painted his face black instead. 2. Transphobia. Why? Men dressing up as women are supposed to be silly. H…
Do you actually believe suicide can be caused by someone playing dress up? Your post demonstrates that you have no firm opinion on the matter and that you are "covering all the bases" as opposed to saying something meaningful based on your personal experience. I lived with someone who tried to commit suicide and suffered from deep depression. Laughter was the one thing that helped. It's pretty clear that RB is having…
Now that is offensive. He even provided a linked reference FFS.
Being alienated from your own physical body is not "playing dress up."
Transgender people don't put on the clothes of the other gender for fun. You're thinking of transvestites, who are (sort of) doing it for kicks. Very different thing.