First was a little March Madness in the form of the Kentucky vs. North Carolina game. Then followed by a tornado warning here in Columbus here complete with the municipal sirens blaring outside. (No tornado thank goodness, just some heavy rain) and lastly for a little "chaser", a fun little social media slap-fight over the Mayim Bialik rant about the use of the term "girls" when referring to women.
In case you haven't seen it.....
Mayim's rant video HERE
But I'm going to take exception with her comments.
First, if you watch the rant, notice that within the first 15 seconds or so, she refers to men around the age of 40 as "guys". Is this that much different than calling women "girls"?
Second, I'd like to know the context. If I said my wife is a "pretty girl", (which is very much true), is it in any way disparaging to her or to women in general? Does it imply that women are inferior to men? I agree that grown men shouldn't refer to pretty girls as "hot chicks". And for those that do, I'd say that those "guys" are disrespecting themselves as much as they are any woman by simply making the statement "This is how I talk".
Lastly, as my wife pointed out, do we refer to our significant others as "womanfriends" instead of "girlfriends"? How ridiculous does that sound? I've seen people in their sixties dating and referring to each other as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend".
I've got a major issue with people that throw terms like "sexism" around so liberally. When you do this, you undoubtedly are going to tag many of the wrong people with that accusation. "Sexist", like "racist" and "rapist" are all very serious terms that should be used sparingly only when absolutely necessary and never wielded recklessly at the risk of insulting those that are the farthest thing from it.
This happened to me on social media just last night. (the last chapter of my action filled Sunday) A friend on Facebook posted the video. No big deal. I assume in defense of Mayim's standpoint. He didn't make any comments for or against it. He's a better person than that. He just quietly posted the video. Again, NO big deal. I'll always respect is right to do that.
However once I made the relatively harmless comment about her use of the term "guys" as being a little hypocritical, one of his "friends" pounced by called me a typical "tRump" supporter (that's how he spelled it) and a sexist. It's sad how people like to use a friend's chat feed as a place to anonymously attack people whom they've never met, not much different than people did twenty years ago in AOL chat rooms. "Hi, since you and I will never meet face to face, I'm going to start cursing at you'. These are spineless people that lack the testicular fortitude to say these things directly to someone's face. So they hide behind their computers and throw mud pies from miles away.
(By the way, NOT a Trump supporter here)
And just to give you some perspective on the kind of socially awkward misfit this guy must be, he has action figures as his profile picture, his photo album consists of primarily his own pencil sketches of superheroes and villains and far less of his own family and wife, and the very first word of his first comment was "Fuck". If you have to lead off your post with "fuck" before ANY other word in the English language, you're most like not going to finish your commentary by winning over the hearts and minds of sensible people.
My favorite part is when he made a second comment casting blind aspersions about me and then promptly told me he was going to ignore me for the rest of the night, which lasted right up until 30 seconds after my next comment when he couldn't resist but to use "fuck" three or four more times. I regret not taking a screen capture of the conversation to share the joy with everyone. Not the main theme of this post but still wanted to share the experience for humor sake.
So wrapping things up here, I feel Mayim is just trying to find something to complain about and further expand this level of hypersensitivity that is becoming mainstream today. One quote I heard recently is "Just because YOU have no problem with something in society today doesn't mean that others do not." I will agree with that logic. But then you can't rationally disagree with the opposite logic in that "If there is something in society that most people have NO problem with but YOU do, does that mean it is a true societal issue?" I say both arguments are both partially correct and incorrect at the same time.
People like Carol Hanisch and Tip O'Neill explained the concept that "politics are local", meaning essentially any issue is whatever it means to YOU and it does NOT have to mean that to anyone else on this Earth. This is something we need to get over already. Lobby as hard as you want for or against any issue you feel. Just don't forget nobody is obligated to agree with you. And if you are all alone or at least in the pathetically small minority in the issue, you need to make the decision between continuing to be a pundit for micro-issues or rather redirect your energy toward something a little more impactful in society.
