> I personally don't like how it is socially fashionable to bash the majority with blanket statements that would be offensive when turned around the other way.
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> However...
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> What started all this was the proposed T-shirt statement "Boys Are Silly." It's a frivolous comment, not particularly derogatory, and one that I think it's best not to be brittle about and get offended about. I think it's funny. "Girls Are Silly" is funny. "Silly" is funny. Hey, I'm silly.
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> "Boys Are Jerks" is edgier, but, come on, that wasn't a serious proposal but another gag in the running line of fairly "silly" typo gags. (I debated posting a message in that series that said, "You misspelled, 'Sam RULES RULES RULES.'") Sometimes women cope with hurt and frustration involving the opposite sex by chewing out the lot of us and thereby blowing a little steam. Men do it, too, but in a different way. I don't believe statements such as these to be *actually* harmful: what causes them are natural misunderstandings resulting from the differences in the way men and women approach relationships, or, in some cases, by actual "jerkiness." Either way, the true problems only start when what *causes* one to need the occasional releases never gets sorted out. The statements themselves I don't see as any big deal. Which is not to say that, if someone said, "All men are jerks," to my face, I wouldn't pipe up in support of my gender and try to redirect that negativity to a more rational target. My point (finally) is that such natural statements as "all men are jerks" are prevalent enough just due to the stages of intergender relationships naturally go through, that it's not at all just a big deal to bandy about those statements in jest, as was done here. So boys are jerks and girls are flaky. Yay for us!
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> Sitcoms and commercials, on the other hand, do tick me off. The women are always on the ball, and the men are big dumb brutes. That's not progress.

I agree. Most of that sexist stuff is funny and that's what it's usually intended to be. But how can I break my wife of saying, "It's a guy thing."? It lost it's humor after a couple of hundred repetitions.
(Note: I realize that ."? in that second sentence is not used correctly, but if I had used the ? in the right place, it would have put the wrong inflection on her statement.)
Howard