Bullying

IHM again managed to touch a nerve with this post. The post is about this image she received via forward email:

“Enough is Enough ! I’ve had enough of this! Now, just shut your damn mouth!”

Statutory warning : DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME.

A sexist joke. And as usual, it shows how a privileged section of society (namely men) makes jokes like these and think its funny. If someone from the unprivileged section object to it (namely women), they tell us that we shouldn't take "jokes" too seriously? Not read too much into it. It doesn't matter to them as the joke is not at them. Its on us. And for some reason, its always the unprivileged that are butt of such jokes.

For example, this picture. Let's reverse this and say its a female sparrow shutting the male sparrow. Do you think the joke would be on the husband or the bossy wife? Honestly, when have you seen a joke like this that has a man’s stereotype as its punch line?

Its very easy to laugh at things like these when you are in a privileged roles and undermine the unprivileged even further. Make jokes on them because, I guess, they deserve it perhaps? And if they object, silence them by saying that its just a joke. They need to relax and take it in good spirit. Well then why don't they make jokes about themselves and relax and take it in good spirit? Really? Instead of joking about women for whatever stereotype they were taught, let's joke about men stereotypes? MCPs? Has anyone heard a joke regarding that? Yeah right, they are not funny.

I work in male dominated field. I studied in male dominated field (only girl in my class). I have heard all this so often that it makes me cringe. I have heard it all: “how these jokes prepare me for real world” to “how I shouldn't take life so seriously”. The bottom line being, they all laughed at me from their privileged position and I wasn't even allowed to defend myself.  All because its just a joke! They were laughing at me, and I was supposed to relax and take it easy? This behavior is what they call BULLYING.

Every time someone tells you a sexist joke and tell you to take it in the spirit of joke, that's what they are doing: Bullying you. Telling you that you that you can't defend yourself and have to endure their nonsensical comments about how women are or supposed to be, is bullying. Whether or not they realize it (and trust me, most of them do realize and relish this. They love watching us squirm and react, and telling us off for being too sensitive. Very innocently, I might add), they are bullying us.

Jokes are best form of bullying, I guess. You can easily silence the victim and not get blamed. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt the victims. It does. Each and every time. We just don’t what to do about it. How to react to a nasty sense of humor? Any ideas?

P.S.: 1. No, I am not saying all men are bullies. Just some of them.

2. Thanks all for your concern. My hand is getting better but hasn’t healed completely.

Carpanal Tunnel Syndrome

Yep it got to me. No, I am not working too hard. I am just using a lot of computer, especially mouse. Both at work and home. But now you know why I haven’t been posting. Yes, I am taking care of my hand and hoping to return to posting regularly soon.

Don’t prank the Nerds

Remember Google’s April fool’s day joke? Well here is how the researchers at USC responded to it:

P.S.: I know I am behind in responding back to comments. Life have been a bit crazy lately. I will get to them really soon. Promise…

Weekend Fun: Brazos Bend State Park

Remember last weekend when I went to Brazos Bend Park and it turned out to be a disaster. Well, I tried it out again this weekend and it turns out to be tiring and scary but a great weekend. Why tiring and scary you ask? Well it’s a huge park (remember everything is big in Texas) which explains the tiring part and the park is home to alligators as well as poisonous snakes which explains to the scary part. Thankfully I didn’t see many poisonous snakes but did see few alligators. Here are few pics:

Did you notice how the reflection of trees are unbroken by the movement of alligator? Perfect predators.

Can you imagine how hard it would be to distinguish between the log and the alligator? Every log of wood I saw in water, I thought it was an alligator. Jumpy? Yes. But better safe than sorry.

Let’s move on to the “wonderful” part of the weekend, shall we?

I loved the crown of these flowers. They are small wildflowers growing in and around the park. They were pretty difficult to capture with the lenses I have but I didn’t give up.

 

I think this one is my favorite from all the photos I shot this weekend. It almost looks like a magical land, doesn’t it? The white bird is the Great Egret. She is extremely camera shy. Its peeping from behind its sanctuary here.

This is White Ibis. I think it his face resembles a red face monkey. What do you think?

And lastly, the lazy turtle snoozing on the rock on a lazy spring afternoon. He made me feel extra tired.

That’s all for today, folks.

P.S.: BTW, Congratulations on India’s victory.

Gmail Motion

I forgot today is April Fool's day. I think you know where I am going with this. I got pranked. By Google. My mistake: I didn't read the description of this supposedly new "beta" version. If I had, I wouldn't have fallen for it. It says:

The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed. Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology? Introducing Gmail Motion -- now you can control Gmail with your body.

Really? I mean its far-fetched even for Google. And me being the busy body I have been lately, instead of reading through the description clicked this button: 

(Click to Enlarge)

And no, I didn't even read the pointers below the button. I think I deserve to be pranked. And I did:

(Click to enlarge)

How did your April Fools day go? Anyone else got pranked? Or is it just me?