A friend posted a nasty little joke photo to Facebook. No, not the one on the left, which is just one of many anti-Michelle Obama images I found on the net. His showed Lucy and Ricky facing each other with caption balloons above their heads. Lucy: “The doctor says I can’t have sex for six weeks.” Ricky: “What does your dentist say?”
There was a time I’d have chuckled at that, but today it repels me. I thought we had agreed, at least in non-Republican circles, to quit depicting women as nothing more than sperm receptacles, even in jest.
I left a comment, telling my friend I didn’t see much daylight between his joke and rape-based humor of the “lie back and enjoy it” variety. I know he has a higher opinion of women than that. His defense? A woman sent it to him first and he was merely passing it on. Later, sure as hell, a woman chimed in, saying she didn’t find it offensive at all.
Maybe I’m being an oversensitive PC bluenose and should lighten up. But then I hear the chairman of the Republican National Committee compare Obama to Captain Schettino (because campaigning for a second term is just like knocking women and children aside to get to the lifeboat), or learn about the latest Photoshopped image of Barack as Rastus and Michelle as Mandy, sent by some Republican state senator to his entire constituent email address list, and I can’t help thinking that Republicans are, in general, the first of the two kinds of people in the world.
Oh, you haven’t heard my Two Kinds of People theory? The first are those who burst out laughing when someone slips on the ice. The second are those who gasp.
Plenty of educated, liberal, progressive people laugh at hurtful, belittling humor. If the joke’s outrageous enough and hits you right, you can’t help it. I’m certainly guilty. But generally it’s conservatives who are attracted to stereotype-based sexual and racial humor, and can never seem to get enough of it.
John Stuart Mill had it right, way back in 1866:
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.
J. S. Mill is one of my favorite philosophers, and, arguably, the most important philosopher of the 19th Century. The Conservatives he was referring to were a far different breed of cat than today.
They were C of E, imperialist, royalist, and anti-Darwin. Also, he made the statement in the H of C where scoring coupe in debate was more important than being correct. They did have tons of fun in those days. Where goode olde J.S. would fit in today’s political spectrum is problematic, but I imagine he would be closer to Libertarian than either Dem or Repub.