Work Place Homophobia (Thread Rip)

[jayseven]

Diageo, you know that people won't think you're inferior for being gay, but you know that there are plenty of people who will think that way about deafness, blindness, gingerness, welshness.

 

You've not encountered the issues that come with being disabled. So herein, we're on equal footing.

 

My point stands. I wouldn't go to ireland and make jokes like that. I wouldn't go to a sauna and make gay jokes. I wouldn't go to a remembrance service and make jokes about the army. I wouldn't go to a nursery and make jokes about dead babies.

 

Because that's stupid.

 

And that's not the point, surely, of this thread?

 

Mr_Bogus makes the point of 9/10 people laughing at a joke at his expense, because 9/10 people don't know that it's a joke at his expense. That's an entirely different circumstance, as nightwolf so correctly states.

 

My point is that if you're offended by a joke, but the person making the joke didn't realise they were offending you, then you can't blame them as much as you think you can. People primarily make jokes for the response - for the laugh, not because joking is their primary way of communicating their bigotry.

 

I'm trying to stress how easy it is to define external events with your own internal dictionary of meaning, and how that can be dangerous! Without knowing someone's intentions you have to question your reaction. If something does offend you then why are you afraid to say so?

[Diageo]

You're right. [About all you said there]

 

In my surroundings handicap jokes are sparse, or maybe I just don't notice them.

 

I forgot exactly what were debating over here.

[jayseven]

You're right. I wouldn't consider ginger/deaf/blind/welsh/juggler to be predominant butts of jokes, but then they're the ones I notice. I suppose that we are all sensitive to certain jokes more than others, but I concede that in my experience, Sexual and racial stereotypes are at the fore. But I'm arguing about the role of jokes, rather than the target of bullying, which I think is what the OP's article is primarily concerned with, in one form or another.

 

With jokes, I may just be of a certain composition where it doesn't bother me - my philosophy of intention of offense guides that. Bullying, however, is where harm is intended, where it is a joke at someone's expense or - even worse - actual harassment. I speak about someone silently sitting there, nodding/doing nothing at a joke at their expense because in their minds they may construe the joke as a bullying tactic when, in actuality, the joker has no intention of doing such a thing to them (repeated words sorry) - but in the mind of the 'butt', it is hard to trust that person to have a liberal opinion if they're making such jokes.

 

But the OP is more about the fear of oppression or bullying or unacceptance at the workplace. I'm a firm believer in outing oneself and being honest with those you come into contact with. Put the ball in their court. If they choose to be ignorant then you can be the bigger person and tell them to fuck themselves, knowing you're in the right.

 

Blur of words. Blurds.