Boy: Dell i7 processor 2.2 GHz with LED display 4GB RAM 1TB hard disc and 2GB NVDIA graphics card. What laptop do you have?
Girl: A pink one.
Internet is full of such jokes. With the rise of the power of social media, a joke one invents reaches to million in no time, no matter how insensible it is. This particular joke had almost 22 thousand likes, meaning that all those who pressed the 'Like' button found it funny and approved of it.
Every day, we encounter such jokes on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking platforms. If you have been regularly using any one kind of social networking site for some time, then it's likely that you come across at least one of such jokes every day. Some find it funny, so they like and share it, and others who are offended by the joke will simply ignore it. But, until when will you ignore these stupid sexist jokes? Are girls really that stupid? Does being a girl have anything to do with stupidity? Are all those 22,000 people that liked the joke are intelligent?
Deeply offended by the insensitive joke, I checked the list of the people who had further shared it. And (no points for guessing), all of them were men. What's more, they added their own little justification and "profound quotes" to reinstate the point that "girls are dumb."
I have an 11-year-old brother, who loves and respects me. I never had an idea that he considered women "stupid" until recently when he shared a sexist joke on Facebook. I confronted him immediately after seeing the post and asked him if he thinks girls are dumb. Without thinking for a moment, he confidently nodded, saying, "Yes. They are."
"Look at me. You know I'm not dumb. You know I know about a lot of things, right?" I asked him. He then said, "You are not dumb, but other girls are. The one who gets first position in my class is a girl, but she is dumb. Girls gossip, worry unnecessarily, watch mindless serials...and that's why they're so stupid. But boys are into sports and are interested in sensible things, so they are more intelligent."
Yes, this is what an 11-year-old boy told me.
My dad's generation believed girls are ignorant and witless. My generation admits about not being sexist and enthusiastically promotes equality, but in reality, consciously or subconsciously, they consider girls empty-headed. When I tell someone that their sexist jokes offend me, they casually reply that it's just a joke and that they don't really mean it. Everyday millions of people say it online—post it, share it, reshare it, and when confronted, they simply say they don't mean it. It's just like pelting stones at a person and asking them not to get hurt.
Recently, one of my friends posted an anti-feminist joke to which I left an offensive comment. He then nonchalantly replied, "Only girls who are actually dumb will get offended by such jokes."
Internet tells me not to get offended to something which is really offensive. But till when? How much is too much? How long should we wait till we can feel insulted? How many more jokes? How many satires? What is this generation teaching the future generation through social media? An 11-year-old is convinced that girls are stupid. Shouldn't we do something about it? Do we really think gender dictates intelligence (or the lack of it)?
Social media is a really powerful tool. It can shape the way you think, act, and behave. It plays a special role in shaping the minds of today's children who rely on social media for every bit of information. Little girls grow up thinking they are less intelligent than boys, and little boys will grow up thinking girls are stupid anyway.
Is this the message we want to relay to our children? When will we be sensible enough to not belittle anyone based on their gender? Or caste, color, creed, and religion for that matter?
Binuja is an undergraduate student of Civil and Rural Engineering at Nepal Engineering College in Bhaktapur.
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