when the status quo frustrates.

Oh, the Irony

I think I confuse them sometimes by being half-woman, half-engineer!, and that’s how I end up on these e-mail chains at work. Yes, I did say “AT WORK.”

Subject Line: FW: WOMEN AS EXPLAINED BY ENGINEERS

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 1:43 pm and is filed under If I have to suffer you have to suffer, Wankers, What Patriarchy?, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

28 Responses to “Oh, the Irony”

  1. MH says:
    June 17, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    The most surprising part, to me, was that you got this at work. Do your coworkers not worry about getting in trouble for this kind of stuff, especially on company property?

  2. half man, half biscuit says:
    June 17, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    sigh, engineers do really let themselves down sometimes.

    Did you get any good libertarian stuff following that? I loooOOOOOove the libertarian stuff from the members of the “I’m all right Jack. Get off my lawn” party.

  3. Esme says:
    June 17, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    “Hi! I’m Lisa. As you might have noticed, Lisa is a female name. So you see, the above is an insult to me. In future, do not include me on these lists, as they contribute to a hostile work environment. I would direct you to our company’s sexual harassment polict (link), which is something you may need to consider.”

  4. Antigone says:
    June 17, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    The “proof” that women= trouble always pisses me off, because the exact same logic can be applied to men. So really, it’s just stupid. Beyond that, they’re all just stereotypes, that no one I know actually falls into.

  5. Jo Tamar says:
    June 17, 2008 at 5:23 pm

    Long-time lurker here, delurking to say:

    MH, I think that’s part of the problem. I would guess they wouldn’t conceive that they COULD POSSIBLY get into trouble for something like this. Can’t you imagine: “It’s just a joke, why are you acting like it’s such a big deal?” Then, muttered as you walk away: “Humourless bitch.”

    AND they would take any complaint as proof of the truth of it all.

    I still advocate for speaking out (a la Esme, although I think that would get the “it’s just a joke – see what I mean” response, too), and get frustrated with myself when I hold my tongue because I’m scared of the consequences if I do speak up.

    (relurking now ;) )

  6. derrp says:
    June 17, 2008 at 5:55 pm

    The first step is wrong, anyway. If it takes “time and money” to find a woman, the initial equation should be “woman = time money,” not “woman = time x money.”

    And WTF is the symbol supposed to be on the chemical properties sheet?

  7. derrp says:
    June 17, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    God damn it, that should be “woman = time money.”

  8. derrp says:
    June 17, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    woman = time PLUS money

    Apparently it was not I who fucked up the post, it was the filter.

  9. Cat says:
    June 17, 2008 at 8:29 pm

    That hazardous materials data sheet spoof is particularly vomit-inducing.

    But hey, get it? All women are unpredictable, stupid consumerist bimbos who take time and money away from decent hard-working guys, am I right (wink wink, nudge nudge)? Oh, and don’t get me started on the PMS stories!

    I need to go throw up now. ‘Scuse me.

  10. inkybrain says:
    June 18, 2008 at 1:18 am

    Ugh, I had no idea that ridiculous “Women=Problems” email was even still circulating. What’s next, jokes about the Hanseatic League? That’d probably be about as funny and accurate as all that crap above.

  11. Quin says:
    June 18, 2008 at 8:07 am

    That first proof is SO CLOSE. They’re on the trail of something real, I can feel it. Let me see if I can get us there.

    First of all, it’s not “Money is the root of all problems”. Nobody says that. That sounds stupid. Money is the root of all EVIL. Sheesh. Also, Antigone is absolutely right. The proof applies equally well to Men. And, derrp is also absolutely right. It should be Time PLUS Money.

    So:

    [Men = Time plus Money.]
    –>

    [Time = Money], so then we can remove Time from the equation to get [Men = 2 x Money], evidently indicating that Men can be acquired in no time at all if you double the asking price.
    –>

    [Money = Men x 1/2], so the original money can just as easily buy you a cowardly man. Or a hermaphrodite. I guess it’s just your choice– it doesn’t really matter which you choose for the purposes of the following proof.
    –>

    [Money = root of all evil], thus [cowardly men = root of all evil].
    –>

    [(cowardly men) squared = all evil], but since it’s “hip to be square”, [(cowardly men) squared = hipsters], thus bringing us to our final result: [hipsters = all evil].

    Finally, the mathematical proof is in. HIPSTERS ARE ALL EVIL. QED.

  12. Kristin says:
    June 18, 2008 at 8:17 am

    Delurking to say that I get the same shit at work – I’m a lawyer, and one of the partners (whose name is in the letterhead) sends me various e-mails talking about how great it would be if we could all go back to the olden days when bitches – excuse me, women – knew their place was in the home so that they could cook and clean and have babies while their big strong manly men went out and worked. His e-mails aren’t illustrated though, so you’ve got that going for you.

    relurking now.

  13. Lisa KS says:
    June 18, 2008 at 8:30 am

    Showoff. :D

  14. syfr says:
    June 18, 2008 at 9:37 am

    When I got the MSDS on “women,” it was followed by an equally stupid and insulting MSDS on “men.” At least the stupidity was evenly spread.

  15. MissPrism says:
    June 18, 2008 at 10:19 am

    I was trying to apply some electrical physics equations to “What a piece of Work is a man”, and then shoehorn in “Resistance is Futile”, but it didn’t become funny. Bugrit. (Neither is the women=evil thing funny, of course.)

  16. Laima says:
    June 18, 2008 at 10:23 am

    Lisa, Don’t know how you put up with all of it. I’m not an engineer, but have been a scientist, and male scientists can be fairly clueless about the crazy sh*t they’ll say, completely oblivious, about women in mixed company. But at least they knew better than to send emails, with illustrations! That blows my mind.

    Trivial nit-pick: it’s *love* of money that’s the root of all evil, not money itself.

  17. Kyso Kisaen says:
    June 18, 2008 at 10:24 am

    Common ore?!! Get it??!! Ore…it sounds like! Oh, god, that’s so funny! Find me the man who came up with that one, that I may sleep with him and hopefully claim some of his genetic awesome for my own progeny.

  18. Quin says:
    June 18, 2008 at 10:49 am

    “Resistance” is futile– HA! It’s funny already.

    Laima, damn it, you’ve gone and destroyed my life’s work in one fell swoop. Oh god, how I hate peer review.

    Kyso. Okay, I’ll admit it. The man who came up with it… was ME. Thank you for your kind offer, but I’m afraid I’ve tired of the thought of women altogether after expending too many bodily fluids thinking about what a real one must be like.

  19. Kyso Kisaen says:
    June 18, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    Thank you for your kind offer, but I’m afraid I’ve tired of the thought of women altogether after expending too many bodily fluids thinking about what a real one must be like.

    Here in Portugal they have some Ali G-type comedians, one of whom has a character called the Macho Gay Guy or something like that. It’s a sleazy-looking guy dressed like a stereotypical womanizer, with shirt unbuttoned halfway down the chest and lots of jewelry, running around a street hitting on guys, saying “I could take you to heaven” and groping random men. In between shots of him harassing people, he does interview type clips where he says things like, “Men are so much better than women, I could never sleep with a woman.” and “I love all men, they are all beautiful. Even the ugly ones, they are smart, so I sleep with them too.”

    It’s so simple, yet so brilliant. Hilarious.

  20. Lisa Kansas says:
    June 18, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    That’s awesome.

  21. Dee says:
    June 19, 2008 at 9:24 am

    I used to get stuff like that forwarded to me, too. Maybe they thought I’d be flattered that they considered me an honorary guy? I mean, these were men who referred to taking care of their kids as “babysitting.” I think that a reply to your company’s original sender with the simple words “You’re an idiot” is always a good response.

  22. zingerella says:
    June 19, 2008 at 10:04 am

    This? This is one of the reasons people stay in pink-collar ghettos. I don’t have to deal with this nonsense. I work on a team of six women, run by a woman. Interestingly enough, we don’t send around jokes bashing men, either. Of course, as an educated and trained, mid-career professional making a pretty good salary in the best-paying corner of my industry, I earn roughly two-thirds what I would earn as a computer programmer or an engineer with similar levels of education and training, at a similar stage in my career.

  23. Busted says:
    June 19, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Most jokes are offensive, because they “make fun” of something. This joke makes fun of women. Is it the end of the world? No, people make fun of everything from rape to the moon.

    If you don’t get a laugh out of it, it doesn’t mean people need to be disciplined. It means someone tried to make you laugh and failed. I doubt it was sent maliciously to make you uncomfortable at work.

    If this joke makes you uncomfortable, you must have been raised in a very sheltered environment. The first time I heard this joke, my 72 yr old grandmother told it to me; she thought it was a riot!

  24. zingerella says:
    June 19, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Busted, which joke are you referring to? Also, are you real and not just some machine-generated toll-subroutine that scans the progressive/feminist blogosphere looking for the keywords “humor offensive women” and spews forth some irrelevant fiction about a hypothetical grandmother?

    ‘Cuz that seems waaay more likely to me than the idea that you sat down as a thinking person and typed out that comment without stopping to think for even a moment that1) the fact that these jokes make fun of women is indeed the entire point, 2) rape is never funny, 3) we know that most humor (except for puns) is at the expense of someone or something, and 4) whether or not something is intended to a make someone feel uncomfortable doesnt change the fact that it can and does make people feel uncomfortable.

    Also, I cincerely doubt that your undoubtedly Internet-savvy grandmother “told” you any of those jokes. I’m not sure how anyone, grandmotherly or not, “tells” an e-mail forward. Peple “send” e-mail forwards, or “forward” them. Or are you familiar with that internet tradition?

    Turnip.

  25. Lisa Kansas says:
    June 19, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    Zing, you’re nothing but a humorless feminist yeti. Lighten up, please! Do I have to tie you down and make you watch videos of men getting nailed in the nads with steel plates again til you can tell it’s all just in good funny fun?

  26. zingerella says:
    June 19, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    Lisa KS

    THAT’S NOT FUNNY!!!!ONE!!!!SHRILLNESS!!!!!111!!!

  27. Lindsay says:
    June 20, 2008 at 9:26 am

    *giggle*

    Busted, you are quite right. I mean, when I was sexually harassed a few years ago by an old boss, I hated it, but he thought it was great, so why should he be punished for my lack of humor?
    He thought it was funny to call me names, and shove his hand up my skirt, but me, being a humorless feminist and all, couldn’t simply just take a joke.
    You have enlightened me to the error of my silly, humorless ways. The next time a guy wants to violate me like that, hell, I’ll just rip my clothes off to make it easier for him! After all, it’s all in good fun, right? Ha ha!

    Dickweed.

  28. Kyso Kisaen says:
    June 20, 2008 at 11:03 am

    Busted, there’s a time and a place for everything. These jokes are not only offensive because they’re sexist, they’re also offensive because they are old, bad, and at least in the case of the women = problems one, wrong. (The original version is women = evil, of course, which makes more sense. This one was obviously watered down for office use. Thanks for solving the problem with that one, anonymous photoshop hero!)

    Since Lisa got this at work, it would make a great piece of evidence to prove hostile environment, should any of the women on the listserv ever find themselves having to sue for sexual harassment. So in this case, these jokes, which are only new and funny and worth spreading around to you if you’ve only had internet access for 10 minutes of your life, are more actionable than hilarious.

    When viewed in that light, whomever sent them is an idiot.

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