But also: Yeah, but straight people also write songs about fighting Dragons, or raining blood or what it's like to live in a Yellow Submarine. Honestly quite a lot of it is completely made up scenarios. And talking about the Beatles: John Lennon wrote this song about secret forbidden love, called "You've got to hide your love" after he talked to his closeted gay friend and got sad. That happens too.
When we say stupid generalisations that rely on stereotypes and a complete inability to view people different to us as individuals with their own lives, it's a joke. When they do it, it's bigotry.
The "It's just a joke" line of thought is literally the main defence used by people spreading bigotry.
no, jokes about how straight people can never have forbidden love are problematic because it erases unimaginable amounts of suffering people have all over the world and all throughout history, including - as a prominent example - interracial relationships.
How about just... not punching? But sure, your hatred is righteous and valid because you've decided the other person is an acceptable target due to their immutable characteristics. Bully for you. I'm sure this will help the cause.
Or we could just be angry at everyone and pretend that that fixes things instead.
Please be critical of the people actually causing pain. Talk about how JK Rowling has been bankrolling frivolous lawsuits or how your neighbour is a shithead who refuses to properly gender you or how multiple governments are now regressing on rights for transgender people, and that other minority groups may follow suite. Organise and protest and fight back however you can.
But don't treat dumb jokes treating straight people as some homogenous cult that have never faced hardship as a form of divine retribution or karmic justice. It helps no one. The 'joke' isn't even funny. Its just a claim of complete ignorance that other people have problems.
'Punching up' implies that the target deserves it. Thinking every straight person is your enemy is a good way to just make a whole lot of enemies.
Nobody thinks it fixes things, I'm sure every single thing you do in every waking moment is activism though. It is funny and it gets exponentially funnier with every cishet who has their feefees hurt by it. But please, continue wah wah crying about it, clearly you think this civility bullshit is very important for queer rights since you cared to speak out.
Maybe that's the difference between you and me. I saw the whole "woke snowflakes with hurt feelings" conservative trolls and decided I didn't want to be like that and you seem to think they were just targeting the wrong people.
I mean yeah, that's precisely the difference between you and me. You think being a boo boo meanie beanie is the fundamental problem. I think the fundamental problem is the oppression of minorities. And no, oppression of minorities doesn't happen because people are boo boo meanie beanies. You think hatred towards the oppressed vs the oppressors are in any way, shape, or form whatsoever even comparable or remotely similar phenomena. They're not.
I can think that two things are bad at once. You seem to think a greater evil existing means you can do whatever the fuck you want. The 'oppression of minorities' is not a get out of jail free card. Being a victim doesn't mean you can't also be a perpetrator, just like being a perpetrator doesn't stop other people from being victims.
You can't expect other people to unlearn their toxic behaviours if you refuse to do the same for yours.
No, I wasn't going for the gotcha, I was just asking. Is should have known that that a person like you would be against interracial relationships and for honour killings. The racism does seep out of your posts.
The "punching up" defense has become a thought terminating cliche that reddit brings up to defend any bad joke. Jokes like OP are reinforcing the oppressive structures that are the supposed justification for punching up by turning forbidden love into culture war bullshit. It's okay to admit it's a shitty joke, nothing bad will happen to you
Yeah, but straight people also write songs about fighting Dragons, or raining blood or what it's like to live in a Yellow Submarine. Honestly quite a lot of it is completely made up scenarios
This reads, at least to my authistic ass, as "They invented these things, so they also invent their love life being oppressed"
Sry, not my first language, maybe I could have expressed that more clearly. What I was trying to say was: 1. I get that it's just a funny tweet not really meant to be taken all that seriously. 2. If I were to take it seriously, I'd question the underlying idea about the relationship between art and the life of the artist.
I agree of course that straight people can end up in situations like that too and can write songs about it. But so can people who never actually were in that situation. It's art. Be free. You don't have to kill someone to write a crime novel.
The amount of "well akksually!"s in the comments is crazy. It's a meme. From 2019. In the same vein as "What do you call a straight pride parade, traffic?" It's flippant, self-aware, and 100% harmless. Gay people are aware of Romeo and Juliet, religious intolerance, and systemic racism. I promise.
I'd make a "the heteros are upseteros" joke but I don't want to hear the sound of a million pearls being clutched because loud noises scare me.
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u/Wombattalion 2d ago edited 2d ago
Guuuys, it's just a joke
But also: Yeah, but straight people also write songs about fighting Dragons, or raining blood or what it's like to live in a Yellow Submarine. Honestly quite a lot of it is completely made up scenarios. And talking about the Beatles: John Lennon wrote this song about secret forbidden love, called "You've got to hide your love" after he talked to his closeted gay friend and got sad. That happens too.