You can tell a lot about a person by the jokes that they make, particularly the context in which they make them.
There’s an old joke about a married couple that’s asked about their hobbies and interests. The husband says he’s focused on “important things” — like the federal budget, health care reform and peace in the Middle East. The wife says she’s focused on the “small things” — like their household budget, their children’s health care and keeping peace within their family.
The Republican women of the House of Representatives have united to issue a
bold statement to the women of America. And, when I say “united”, I mean fourteen of the twenty-four Republican women elected to the House have actually put their names to this two page assertion that there is, indeed, no “War on Women”. And, nothing gets the ball rolling on presenting evidence to this assertion quite like a joke, you know, to break the ice.
Now, anyone who’s been to a corporate event, motivational speech, or wedding reception knows the value of a good opening joke. The opening joke is designed to grab the audience’s attention, relax them and open them up to the message that’s to come. And, as opening jokes go, I’m sure the Ladies of the GOP thought they'd picked a zinger. I mean, they would be the first to point out to you that it’s a little in-joke amongst us girls, right? Their joke says we sweat the “small stuff” – the stuff that really matters, while the men folk busy themselves sweating the “important things” – the things that really can’t be fixed anyway. (Never mind the obvious question: Why not call them "small things and big things"?)
But, is that really what this harmless joke means? I don’t think so. I think it’s an “old joke” from the “good old days”. The very “good old days” the men folk of the GOP are so desperate to revive. The days when the little lady knew her place. And that place was in the home, barefoot and pregnant, doing the cooking and cleaning. It reminds me of the old argument against giving women the vote: politics is too ugly for women to be involved in. It’s subtle, but they get you to thinking, “See, we get to think about the things that really make a difference,” instead of believing that women should be fee to spend their time thinking about whatever the hell they please. Why does it have to be either or?
Yes, there are women who choose to be homemakers. And, there are women who work outside of the home and still do all of the work of a stay-at-home mom (Who else will do it for them?). And then there are women who have the choice and choose a career. But each of these women should be thinking not just about their household budgets and their child’s healthcare, but also the federal budget, healthcare reform and peace in the Middle East, because all of these things affect her life. And because maybe, just maybe, these problems wouldn’t be so damned hard to solve if we threw a few more women at them! And, if there's one thing we women have proven over the past 70 odd years in the work force and holding our homes and families together it is that we are uniquely qualified to multi-task.
Bad jokes like these may seem harmless. But, they are actually just another way of desensitizing the public to an extreme point of view. If you can get people to laugh, or in the alternative, not call you on your offensive, poor excuse for humor, you can keep making the same claims, in less and less humorous and satirical settings, until, WHAM, you’re making your absurd assertions… And, no one is even protesting. The underlying proposition is already accepted.