“How noble the law, in its majestic equality, that both the
rich and poor are equally prohibited from peeing in the streets, sleeping under
bridges, and stealing bread!” -- Anatole France
Until I looked it up just now, I mis-remembered this quote. I
thought it went something like “The poor and the rich have an equal, guaranteed
right to sleep under the bridge.” The point being that it satirically presented
sleeping under the bridge as a venerable privilege that the rich simply choose
not to exercise (but could any time they wished), and hence, the poor have
nothing to complain about. For their own reasons, poor people choose the bridge
(as opposed to the street, or to a mansion if they felt like buying one, which
they apparently don’t). Fairness in action.
I want to draw a strained analogy between this and bigotry,
especially bigoted humor, such as the infamous sexism of the recent Oscars. Some
people suggested that the avalanche of sexist jokes was just equality in
action, and feminists were guilty of granting women a right over men, a right to never be the target
of a single joke. The problem with this argument is that, like the argument
about bridges, it’s made in a vacuum that ignores the reality. Just as we do
not see rich and poor people in equal (or even proportional) numbers deciding
that tonight would be a nice time to sleep under the bridge, so too do we not
see any kind of parity in the insulting-humor department. Yes, in principle,
Seth MacFarlane could have made digs at men for being men, which has
occasionally occurred on Family Guy. But he chose not too; big surprise.
Additionally, when men are
the targets of jokes, it’s not really the same thing, and no, this isn’t a
double standard. Suppose you managed to temporarily relocate Warren Buffett to
a bridge as his shelter for the night. Is he really going to have to sleep
there? Even if so, is he not going to bring an electric blanket? And does he
not have thousands of lines to call on, other homes, friends and relatives to
help? There’s no sting in the bridge-“giving” action. Likewise, you can’t sting
me with the usual words and jokes and comments, because I am shielded by white
male privilege To actually hurt you have to get more personal – this is a
weakness common to all humans, so it being my only weakness (in this context) clearly puts me a
leg up. It means I can expect to get thusly stung much less often. I don't even have to worry about ever having to "grow a thicker skin"!
Ugh.
