Overheard two men in the street

[TheWashingMachine]

I work in the Square Mile and feel like there are so many dinosaurs around but today I overheard this and it depressed me enormously.

Man one:"Last night I went to bed at nine o'clock." Man two sniggers: "That's cos you've got a bird not a wife." l Both men guffaw. Seriously, WTF ?

Perhaps the bird was a cockatoo?

No, it would be more likely to be a peacock.

I don't get it.

I don't get it.

If he continues with that attitude, chances are that he won't either.

It's probably an in joke between them and you don't know anything about it.

Oh come on. It's clearly a stupid sexist joke. Are we going to have a page full of people pretending it isn't and telling the OP not to "moan"?

I agree, OP, fucking depressing. I also saw a meme on Facebook today basically equating choking with sexual intercourse. Sometimes I wonder if we've got anywhere with anything.

Choking equalling sex are hardly the same thing as a joke about having less sex when you're married

Yep read football fans last night saying Barcelona were on their period etc. These men exist. I feel for the women who have to sleep with them and think a chunk of sex education for girls should be that you really don't have to.

sigh
I was just trying to say, to the OP, that I understood your feelings about the "joke" you overheard and I have felt a similar heart sink about a "joke" today myself.

That's all.

Misogynistic men talking about the relative performance of their domestic appliances. How unpleasant.

Can’t see the problem with this ?

Are we going to have a page full of people pretending it isn't and telling the OP not to "moan"?

No, but it's hardly breaking news on a feminist forum that men make stupid sexist jokes, and as far as stupid sexist jokes go it's about as tame as it gets.

Well Bird is certainly kinder than mistress whore poa or any other expression. I don’t find it insulting at all weirdly.

I'm just worn out with everyday sexism. It's just the whole attitude to wonen here in the square mile. Until recently I just hung out in my north London bubble with mainly women and I thought maybe feminism was getting l somewhere. Then I went back to work and here I see loads of men spilling out of pubs, beer in hand at lunch, often talking about "birds" and "shagging". It's totally outdated, when I worked in more female friendly areas, like Clerkenwell I wasn't so aware of this behaviour.

What's the male equivalent of "bird" Knitclubchatter? When do you hear two women in the street talking about their male partners like this?

No clue at this moment, but talking about raunchy sex and night out partying isn’t the exclusive domains of men. Or bemoaning mundane married life.

There isn't an equivalent, that's why you can't think of one. It's men who have invented these dehumanising terms for women. Generally women don't talk about men like this - reducing them to their sexual usefulness - either.

Stud?

Nope, not derogatory like "bird" is. Stud bigs up a man's sexual prowess. Bird doesn't do anything like that. And when did you last hear a woman talking about her partner as a stud?

Erythromycin, just watch that God awful loose women if you want to see horrible females talking about men in derogatory fashion.

Sorry got your name wrong, fat fingers x

I think the real problem with that joke isn't that it is sexist, its that it isn't really funny.

I really don't see this as something that's very particular to men. Listening to women talk about their homes lives on the bus doesn't tend to feel all that enlightened either. But I think it's a way people deal with the stresses of married life, which are real and often not particularly reflective of woke or romantic perspectives.

There isn't an equivalent, that's why you can't think of one. It's men who have invented these dehumanising terms for women. Generally women don't talk about men like this - reducing them to their sexual usefulness - either.

Yes, they do, quite frequtly, and it's been a minor bugbear of mine for a long time. I see it mostly on Facebook, by younger members. Women drooling over men in kilts, hinting at what's under them. Women saying "I'd do him in a shot!" about a handsome man. A photo of David Beckham's ass, together with his arm, along with the slogan, I just love David Beckham's.... watch! hahaha! and loads of comments of women agreeing. Older women encouraging other older women to get a toyboy, or going on about their own toyboy. The very word toyboy.

Let's not pretend it doesn't happen. It may have started with Sex and the City, that idea that women can and should have sex the way men do.

I've never commented on any of this before -- I know I'd be regarded as an old prude; I don't really care, but it's not important enough for me to step in and give my opinion.

Which is, women behaving in the shallow way of men, regarding other humans simply as sexual playthings and their body parts as things to drool over, is not exactly liberating. I think we should be better than men, not descend to their level. We didn't like it when men did it to us and talked about us in this way. I personally don't like to see women do it; it grates on me. But free speech and all that. I won't ever try to correct them.

It may have started with Sex and the City

I don't know. I remember "ladette" culture, which just seemed to be that women now started talking about wanting to "shag" and "do" men, in the way that men talked about women.
Just seemed like a race to the bottom (no smutty pun intended).