Ben Finney wrote: > Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> writes: > >> Ben Finney wrote: >> >> > sohcahto...@gmail.com writes: >> > >> >> I should have known better than to make a joke on this mailing >> >> list. Someone is bound to get their panties all up in a bunch. >> > >> > You should have known better than to make gendered slurs. Claiming >> > “it was a joke” doesn't alter the sexism of your remarks. Cut that >> > out. >> >> "You're asking a bunch of nerds for dating advice?" > > “get their panties all up in a bunch” is a gendered slur.
Ah, sorry about misunderstanding you. It wasn't clear to me that you were referring to that specific comment rather than the original comment. > It is implying > the person is female, as though the person should feel insulted by that. > It uses the female gender as an insult. Why do you interpret that as insulting to women merely on the basis of being *female*? Wearing panties/knickers is something anyone can do, of any gender and sexual orientation. "Panties in a bunch" (or "knickers in a twist") is a put-down on the basis of excessive sensitivity, not femaleness. It seems to me that far from challenging sexual stereotypes, mainstream feminist thought actually *reinforces* it: as evidence, you assumed that only women wear panties, therefore any reference to panty-wearing is therefore a slur on women. It's only gender specific if you accept the sexist gendered stereotype that all women are by definition thin-skinned and excessively sensitive. The women I know are nothing like that, and consequently most of them are quite happy to use "knickers in a twist" as a *non-gendered* put-down on the basis of perceived behaviour, not sex. It seems to my wife, and I agree with her, that mainstream feminism has lost its way and is no longer about gender equality, but is now about enforcing a neo-Victorian pseudo-politeness where nobody ever has to be exposed to anything uncomfortable or that threatens to disturb them out of their comfort zone. Hence the focus on codes of conduct, so-called "safe places", trigger warnings and the like. Once upon a time, a safe place meant somewhere where a battered woman could take shelter from her batterer. Now, it apparently means a way to ostracise an actor for his personal religious beliefs. (I'm referring to the Internet storm-in-a-teacup over Adam Baldwin at Supanova.) I do not buy into that philosophy, and neither do most of the woman I know. -- Steven -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
