"That awkward moment when..."

[ComeAlongPond]

Just seen this one facebook, for people to 'like'. Unfortunately, lots of my friends have already 'liked' it:

"That awkward moment when you get 'grabbed' and have to explain you're not a gypsy."

WTF?!?

"Oh, haha, isn't it funny when someone tries to rape you and you're put in that awkward position of explaining to them that unfortunately - how embarassing - but you're not one of the girls it's okay to assault. Awkward or what!"

I think I've come to the conclusion that lots and lots of people are idiots.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Oh they definitely are. :o

What can I say? Did you respond on fb?

[ComeAlongPond]

No... I know I ought to but I'm not very confident or brave. I wish I had the courage to confront these sorts of things but most of the time I just seethe quietly. I'm trying to improve at it but I find it quite hard.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

It is hard, especially when you feel uncertain of how people will react. I often wimp out about things, but then other times I think of really brave people, like the women marching for equal rights in Afghanistan, and I just think come on, they are under threat of their lives, what's the worst that could happen to me? People get a bit sniffy? Pah. :o

[ComeAlongPond]

True... well, only two people have liked it so far and they are the nutty housemates. If anyone else likes it tomorrow I'll say something. Or put some sort of passive-aggressive status up, more likely, but it's something.

[FlamingoBingo]

Oh Elephants! You're so right! I'm going to remember that every time I get wimpy about speaking out.

[HerBeX]

Also you know what I think? I am so sick of hiding myself, hiding what I think, what I believe, so that people don't dislike me and get annoyed with me. It's very tiring to constantly be on your guard not to say what you're thinking, it's a real liberation to say what you think and have people get used to that. I know some of my friends think I'm as mad as a box of frogs, but they've got used ot it and I think (hope! ) some of them respect the fact that I say it. I've also noticed that some people confide in me when they want some off-piste advice, the stuff they know they're not going to get from the usual suspects.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Yes HerBeX - I too get labelled as "the one to come to about feminist stuff or other oddball matters" :o

[wukter]

Yes, I'm that one too.
Also when my friends want to be told they are justified in their anger. It's funny, they already are angry but are hiding it. They want someone to say they're 'allowed' express it.

I'm a barrel of laughs in RL, plainly.

[LilBB]

That's awful!! In RL I sometimes worry about saying how I really feel. It depends how well I know the person if I speak out or not. I am getting to the point where i think these are my views and if you dont like them tough so I'm known as the angry opinionated one.

[StuffingGoldBrass]

Here's a comment to add underneath it:
'Please indulge me and explain who's supposed to find that amusing. Because I'm not sure who the butt of the joke is - idiot men who think that sexual assault is sexy? Or idiot men who don't bother to find out if a woman has any interest in them before making sexual advances?'

[BranchingOut]

Well, I challenged something similar on Facebook the other day, not by posting on the wall but by sending the person a message.

It did work because they put up a bit of a retraction shortly afterwards.

[JaneS]

That is horrible.

[breathtakingben]

Are they laughing at victims of sexual assault, or suggesting that it's okay to sexually assault people? I think they're laughing at a culture for treating women as objects and not as people, therefore the butt of the joke is gypsy culture( or the part of gypsy culture that make it acceptable to grab women).

[walkinZombie]

I agree its a tasteless joke,
however they probably want to provoke a reaction/ create attention fromit . They'll enjoy the shocked reaction from making this sort of joke.

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

Isn't it from the 'Big fat Gypsy wedding programme' where the boys 'grab' the girls and then they are betrothed?

Something like that...Not that it makes a difference, its a horrid thing to post and unfortunatley there are loads of nasty ones on FB.

[ComeAlongPond]

Yes, it's from there, Titsalina. The girl whose profile it was on came round the other day and mentioned she was disappointed that only one person had 'liked' it. (Seriously. Who complains that not enough people like stuff on their fb page?) I told her it was probably because nobody but her found that sort of thing funny. My (nice) housemate agreed with me, which was good.