What is actually wrong with Labour?

[ArabellaScott]

https://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1781285090032509415

I think most posters get the intended ‘joke’, and recognise the meme. The issue is the representation of a woman obsessed with her man, and a man with larger concerns and independent thought. Pure misogyny. And the fact that this is being put forward by the labour party as something representative of them.

@Boiledbeetle

Thank you for your kind words.

I have vowed to twirl my hair around my finger, and practise my pretty little head tilt until it is just so, all evening and without guilt. I might even work on my giggles 🤭.

This! The meme was always wank playing on patriarchal tropes about women being insecure and jealous and men having Big Important Thoughts

it’s not funny and any political party that uses it clearly doesn’t understavd sexism

I think the fact that some people seem think this is about us not understanding how memes work demonstrates the size of the problem.

Yay. Roll on the abolition of all women’s single-sex rights, aka gender self-ID.
😟

@LauderSyme So what, re cheating threads? People hate being cheated on. Women and men. Why does that excuse this shit? It doesn’t.

That’s like saying women are only interested in fluffy topics like fashion because of the existence of the Style and Beauty topic.

Absolutely!

I've actually just today been discussing legislation relating tangentially to this topic, in which the man I was talking to made a lewd joke, which I was obliged to laugh off as to tell him to shove it up his arse would have been professionally Not the Done Thing.

This Shit Is What Women Have To Deal With Every Fucking Day You Fucking Creeps. GET TAE FUCK.

Self-ID is not Labour's policy.

In July 2023 Annaliese Dodds confirmed that a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria will remain a requirement to access a gender recognition certificate.

And in real life that is the opposite of my dh and I. I'll be lying in bed thinking about brownfield site or how to afford the welfare state, and he'll be wondering if he''s got enough energy left for sex....

They also want to make getting a GRC as easy as buying a bus ticket.

So defacto Self ID.

The original meme is more benignly and even-handedly sexist. The joke is that the woman is thinking about the relationship while the man is thinking about something ridiculous and trivial, like star wars or something uninformed about dinosaurs or the roman empire. Sometimes quite funny, although definitely stereotyping and overplayed. This is not that! This is saying women are thick as shit and men are deep. Yet so many men on twitter the same bloody age as me saying ‘hur the old women don’t get it cuz meme’.

Indeed. I expect the pornsick interns who posted it, assume the same thing.

We know nothing, we understand nothing. We have no sense of humour.

FGS. The stereotypes get wheeled out all the time because people aren't even aware they buy into them.

But they still leave it up knowing how many women are offended (and men on women's behalf too). If they'd used a meme that backfired and offended any other group would they have ignored the complaints? No. It's the same reason they haven't apologiused to Rosie Duffield. Labour just hate women.

Its a very old meme. Some versions of it were funnyish/had an element of truth in it. e.g. when men in a particular group I was in were obsessing over a really specific unimportant technical issue someone posted a version of that. Its often used in a self-deprecating way implying that the man (men) is worrying about somethings so utterly esoteric/trivial as much as it is about women being jealous. Its also not a huge deal if people online are sharing jokes that mildly stereotype male and female behaviour in an amusing way. Tis humour.

What's cringeworthy and annoying is both that labour (or whoever created the image) have completely misunderstood the original point of the meme and just pasted their political opinion where the man's thought goes. In doing so they managed to imply that the difference between men and women is that men have important political thoughts and women think about their men. That's also a problem with political parties trying to be with it and down with the internet kids while getting their point across. And when they fail utterly they refuse to see why.

TLDR - the left can't meme

Agree with all the previous points about how this meme is often used and how it's usually even-handedly stereotypical.

This version comes across as a) offensively sexist and b) in shockingly poor taste considering Labour's relationship with women.

They could have chosen any other meme template. Maybe they could have even gone with one that's a bit more recent and hasn't been done to death already.

Or maybe they could have just, y'know, engaged with prospective voters as though they were adults.

See helpful image below

😅

I love that you were able to contribute that to this thread, boiled.

This is the exact problem.

Slight aside, but it makes me think about politics and humour. Years ago, I remember people on the left, in the media, arguing that conservatives could not do humour well. Conservative comedians, when you found them at all, weren't that funny.

I remember reading several different articles trying to tie humour directly to left wing politics or liberalism.

I don't think that's true any more, not in the same way. A lot of left wing comedy is pretty bad. I think there are too many sacred cows, to many ideas it's not ok to explore, to many lines you can't risk crossing.

What it says to me is that the current incarnation of the Labour Party regrettably cannot read the room and are not to be trusted at a basic level when it comes to comms.

Tories have got the pensioners vote pretty much guaranteed.
Labour are trying to get the youth vote. Trying to appeal to them and get them into the booths.

They'd say anything they think will up the turnout of those that tend to vote labour. Students is a good example. Thats why they keep a keen eye on the current popular topics among the kids.

Tories are no different of course. They're currently pushing the benefits and immigrants bullshit. That's politics and politicians. Cynical and manipulative.

The meme was always wank playing on patriarchal tropes about women being insecure and jealous and men having Big Important Thoughts

If I’d been asked to guess what the photo was about, I’d have guessed at it being an advert about erectile disfunction treatments.

Or maybe an ad for a book about how to locate the clitoris.

Modern politics really is a race to the bottom. I assume they're going for the imbecile vote.

They'll win by a landslide if they get that fucker.

Actually, to me (& to anyone who's fought to protect open spaces) the guy is thinking dumb thoughts in the Labour ad, just as he was in the original meme. 'genuine green belt' is a dog whistle, & 'poor quality wasteland' is generally untrue.

I could go into details but I've just celebrated someone's birthday & am still post-Prosecco. I love you guys. You're my best mates, you are.🍾