Comments on: Hipster Ableism

By: Christina

Christina — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:55:21 +0000

Thank you for making me more aware of this. It is the type of thing I would not notice without being sensitized. Even having been on the receiving end of this type of behavior once or twice (chauvinist who pretended he was joking) I still did not notice the many forms that it can take.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:38:57 +0000

This is an awesome post, thank you so much. All these thoughts and concerns have been floating around in my head for years, but I just didn’t know how to explain why I found hipster -isms so offensive.

By: Octal

Octal — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:18:19 +0000

Drive-by comment (although I’m here quite late, I see)… I agree, and I am heartily sick of the phrase “politically correct”/”pc”, because I swear 99% of the time it’s used, the person using it is using it as shorthand for “Waaaaaaaah, but I WANT to be able to say shitty, hurtful things without getting called on it! Why should I have to actually consider my language or actions? Other people don’t matter; I shouldn’t have to hear about how my words or actions affect them! Stop oppressing me ” etc. “Political correctness run amok” = “being the least bit considerate is haaaaaaard”. “I’m so un-PC!” = “look what a shithead I am, isn’t it funny”.

By: Romie

Romie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:00:58 +0000

Thank you for this. It’s something I run into a lot more often than I should, and it’s good to see it set out so clearly and specifically. Thank you.

By: Madeline

Madeline — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:33:23 +0000

I am interested in whether or not you see humor as a means to resist or refute oppressive stereotypes within “oppressed” populations. This is a discussion I’ve had with some classmates/co-workers/comrades-in-arms. For instance, does the use of racial stereotypes in the Chappelle Show classify as racist when they are performed by a Black man, for a Black audience? Or does a disabled girl calling herself “cripple” among a group of friends count as ableism? Is it homophobic for queer folk to call each other fag? Do these things reflect an adoption of oppressive stereotypes among oppressed groups (psychological oppression)? Or can these be seen as a mode of resistance? I think that taking stereotypes away from the majority and refashioning them to be either ironic or images of empowerment qualifies as resistance. I suppose the question arises whether these images, when fed back to the majority, then confront or affirm the stereotypes in their minds. I know this is not exactly the topic of this blog post, but I would be interested in what you had to say on this topic. I only just found your blog, and was just having a poke around and found this post. Anyway…

By: JoB

JoB — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:40:28 +0000

I’ve not watched Glee, and I don’t particularly intend to, but I have read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and was terribly disappointed when what started as amusing went downhill so fast.

But I do have a thought about hipster-ism… more an internal niggling doubt. Because I don’t like that humour at all. But here’s a situation; I’m with a group of my friends, and somehow the lighthearted conversation turns towards race. And there is an opening for someone to make a racist comment that everyone will find funny. I know it is coming. I know that after it is said I will tell the person off and talk about respectful language and everyone will go “Yes, yes, we get it, we didn’t mean it, we’re sorry,” and it will be dismissed as Jo banging on about respectful language again and it won’t make much impact.

If I make the racist comment myself (and I have done this once, and I doubt myself over whether it was the best thing to do) there is an audible gasp. The conversation stops. Because they know how important respectful language is to me, when I say it it is not glossed over, it is not funny, it is commented on and the conversation can continue respectfully.

Of course this wouldn’t work if it was done often, and nor would I be at all happy with myself if it was done often. I would also not be likely to make the same approach with ablism, (perhaps hypocritically) because it’s an issue I’m a lot more sensitive about.

Though this was an old post, it’s the first I’ve come across which addresses this idea much at all… I’m still trying to figure out if my approach is an acceptable one by which to spark conversations or if I, too, am just perpetuating.

By: JoSelle

JoSelle — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:04:14 +0000

I find that 99.99 percent of TV is a mess of racism, sexism, ablism, LGBT-hate and particularly sanism/psychophobia and therefore virtually unwatchable. The fact that most shows I’ve discovered are dreadfully scripted, mechanically structured and only passably acted doesn’t help, either. So I have not watched nor do I intend to watch Glee (though I do like a few of the songs I’ve heard). Still, I find these posts excellent and highly informative, particularly since I can read synopses of the episodes or ask my Glee-watching friends to fill me in.

By: gudbuytjane

gudbuytjane — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:37:22 +0000

Great post, and definitely something I’ve been railing at for some time. It always frustrates me when people frame their -isms as transgressive comedy, when it is anything but. It is the most conservative, least-challenging form of humour there is.

By: meloukhia

meloukhia — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:07:18 +0000

Oddly enough, Matthew, The Guardian actually just linked to this post. I’m checking out the Carr interview and it’s rather interesting to see how it’s framed.

By: Matthew Smith

Matthew Smith — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:59:53 +0000

I think every kind of -ism has become cool recently, as well as jokes about rape. The Guardian in London did a feature on this type of "comedy" back in July (I blogged this response). The past couple of weeks, one well-known "comic" whose stock in trade includes rape jokes got into trouble when he told a joke in front of an audience in Margate, a rundown beach resort in east Kent: "say what you like about those servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're going to have a f***ing good Paralympic team in 2012". Anyway, there has been a lot of sanctimonious guff spoken about this incident in the popular press, with some people demanding that his career should be over just like that, and it's mostly from people who haven't complained about his jokes up until now. (He was interviewed for yesterday's Guardian; here's the result.)