Quickies
Skepchick: Bigfoot erotica, bad bar signs, and bird names
- I read Bigfoot erotica for research – I’m just glad someone’s doing it so we don’t have to…
- Texas bar ignites outrage with sign – A sign saying, “I like my beer like I like my violence: domestic.” From Courtney.
- Snapchat CEO “mortified” misogynistic frat emails were leaked – From Michael.
- A little bird either learns its name or it dies – On the “password notes” that birds use. From Mary.
Featured image by Flickr user JD Hancock.
I think you left some context out of that domestic violence bit. The sign actually reads:
“I like my beer like I like my violence: domestic <3"
There's a heart at the end, which totally makes this cutesy instead of a scathing indictment of the acceptability of spousal abuse in our society.
But seriously. WTF?
30 grand a month with no further effort required? Sounds like a sweet deal. And compared to some things people do for rather less, like taking jobs on Fox News, writing bigfoot porn is not even the most shameful way to make a living.
“I read Bigfoot erotica for research” Okay, if you’re into that sort of thing. I never got the whole mythical bestiality porn thing.
The Snapchat one worries me a bit. Not, like, because I personally have anything to fear or because I think the Snapchat CEO should be let off the hook, but it opens up some wider issues of privacy.
Consider all the stupid things teens say and later come to regret, having moved on with their life. Obviously, in this case, I seriously doubt he has moved on, changed his views, or whatever and it should be something he owns up to, but where is the line drawn?
For instance, I (shamefully) submit that when I was younger and religious, I had some backwards views on gay people. I didn’t have proper guidance or information at the time, and when I began to uncover more about the truth I had to reexamine my views and my life and change. I reached out to people I knew and let them know that I would support them. This was well before it became personal and I began to understand that I myself wasn’t quite as “straight” as I thought I had been.
Young people are indelicate, rebellious, and often do stupid things. It’s a natural part of our development (see: Nat Geo a year or so back, also most teenagers.) That shouldn’t necessarily lead to a lifetime of consequences.
Just to reiterate, though, this guy was a frat boy in college and he should have god-damned well known better. Not to mention, his comments aren’t as simple nor as understandable as a barely pubescent kid’s religiously-blinded views. Let him have his licks, he’s earned ’em.
I think in the case of a college frat environment, it can lead people to say and do things they otherwise might not. A lot of what happens in frats is men “performing” masculinity for each other and it leads them to do grotesque things to seek approval from their “brothers.” Some of the things that fraternities did when I was in college were cartoonishly racist and sexist to the point where it was hard to believe that young, mostly liberal men in modern times could seriously do such things and think it was okay. I think probably many of the individual people in those frats wouldn’t have done those things on their own, but something about the fraternity environment made them contribute to dickish behaviors because they were trying to be part of the group.
While I agree that people say and do stupid things when they are young (and I think his extremely reasonable response to the release of the emails reflects that he is one of them), I think that this incident is a good example that just because you’re among people who act in an asshole-ish way, it doesn’t make it “safe” for you to indulge whatever impulses you have in that direction. Maybe knowing that their words might come back to haunt them will motivate the more decent guys in frats to, instead of giving into peer pressure to act a certain way, will instead stand up and say “that’s not cool” when it starts to happen around them, which would be a great thing if it did happen.
You make excellent points. I wasn’t involved with fraternities, personally, but I witnessed from afar how the environment was exceedingly toxic. I can well imagine that in that environment you’re in a constant struggle to “prove” yourself to your frat mates, and the long-term consequences of such actions are rarely clear, especially in supposedly private matters.
Did he actually act on any of his statements? Did he encourage anyone to act on them? Did he tacitly ignore acts? Those are all vital parts to consider.