08/07/02: Bitch.

[juju]

There are certain groups of people, mostly guys, who enjoy insulting each other for sport. Calling each other bitch, gay, or just giving each other a hard time. It's like a form of joking around, and if you're around a group that does this you'll find yourself called all kinds of names and made fun of, all in the name of good fun. I guess you could call it trash talking. The guys where I work do this a lot, and it's pretty fun. I do it all the time, too, and it makes the day go by faster.

But there are some guys who don't realize that some people just don't like this form of jest. They talk to women the same way they talk to guys. This is amazing to me -- they actually think that they can insult the waitresses and not have them get really pissed off and take them seriously. It's not just between men and women, though. Some guys don't get it, either. You have to have been a member of a social group that does it in order to get it. When I first started working there, I thought everyone hated me. It took me months to understand.

I think that this is a huge factor in social chasms between people. A lot of people just don't realize when to insult someone and when not to.

I also think this could be related to my earlier thread about parents insulting their kids. Some people learn to communicate in a certain way around their friends. But they don't make that social distinction between their friends and everyone else, and they just talk the same way to everybody. They call their friends stupid in jest, so why not do it to their wife and kids, too? Believe it or not, I think this seems very logical in their minds. One mind, one form of communication.

I just want to shake these people, and say, "You moron! Do not insult women, they do not get it."