Interesting that there are no votes on this.., Maybe they are right. Everyone IS afraid of women who breastfeed publicly.

Edit: I'm going to remove the T word from the title and see if people are not scared off by it.

Nope. Sorry. Being pussywhipped is not the same as violent sexual assault. And men making fun of men for being pussywhipped is REALLY not the same thing.

By the way, @Shepppard, you do know that we aren't talking about the same thing, don't you?

I completely understand your impatience with "humor police." I actually have a terrific dead baby joke. I'd love to share it with you.

The problem is that violence against women is so endemic to patriarchal society, it is so essentially accepted, that unless you have a pretty good level of empathy, unfortunately you can't understand what it is like to hear these "jokes."

I am trying to lead the discussion into a different area -- that of empathy.

You can laugh at some things as long as you are distanced from them.

I was trying to close the distance.

Besides, it really is true. If men were as afraid of women physically as women are afraid of men, AND WOMEN KNEW IT, the playing field would be more level.

The real truth is -- women have to empower themselves. Policing humor isn't empowerment. Playing tit for tat isn't empowerment either -- you make a rape joke? Ha ha, we can make a cut off your penis in your sleep joke. Not really funny, any way you slice it.

Ha.

I have thought for years that women need to emulate some aspects of male culture. Develop a thicker skin. Tease more. I have also thought that men need to emulate some aspects of female culture - develop some empathy and not be so fearful of their feelings.

Of course, I am talking bell curve here. Plenty of tough women, plenty of empathetic men.

Besides, all this sensitivity towards rape jokes will go away when women stop feeling physically threatened, and the majority of men no longer put up with the implied violence that women live with and call it out.

That's all this is going on here. Attempting to shift the paradigm and heal things. It's possible, says my inner optimist.