kaitlynthevegan:

You know what the fuck I’m sick of? Men telling me that sexist things they said are “a joke” or to “calm down”.

No, I won’t. Because it regardless of it was a joke or not, comments like that reinforce stereotypical gender roles. Some people actually believe that. Joking about certain things does…

My housemates do this all the time (I had to sign the house contract with them when I barely knew them due to local student landlord regulations) and they just don’t seem to understand that something being ‘just a joke’ doesn’t stop it being hurtful, offensive, and damaging to the self-esteem and mental health of the girls in the house. 

It makes me furious when I hear them making sexist comments about the latest ‘mess’ of a woman who has shown the audacity to be on television without being appropriately sexy or titilating for them. My female housemates’ reactions to it are painful - you can almost see the sexism being internalised. 

People don’t seem to realise that not only is sexist ‘banter’ (the acceptable face of assholery) not funny, boring, offensive and hideously unattractive, but it actually affects people in much the same way as out-and-out sexism does. Veiling prejudiced and limiting ideas about gender, sexuality and appearance under a veneer of ‘humour’ does absolutely shit-all to mitigate its effect on the way people view themselves. 

It is perfectly possible to have a ridiculously hilarious time without needing to be sexist, homophobic, transphobic or prejudiced in any way. If people need to resort to offensive crap like that, maybe they should leave the jokes to other people.