Not funny, thank you!

‘Blackie!’ , ‘Negro!’, ‘Homo!’, ‘Ladies!’, ‘Wear bangles if you cannot do such a simple work!’ , ‘Don’t behave like an eunuch!’, ‘That’s enough freedom for a girl!’, ‘Are you gay or what?’ , ‘I am okay with gay but they should not wear such loud clothes!’, and the list goes on where very casually and supposedly in a very funny way people pass their judgements and comments.

But, where does it come from? Why do we still not find topics funnier than casual sexism, racism and homophobia to play cool with? A world devoid of funny things things to talk about seems really gloomy but at the cost of what? A simple ‘Homo joke’ can push a person down the dark by lanes of tragedy, can push someone back to closet who for once thought of coming out and living life.

The woman who dares is slut shamed and the woman who is afraid is suppressed further, both sides do not sound enticing. When a whole gender is used to depict anything that is weak and feeble, a different style of misogyny and sexism is often seen which affects men a lot and that pushes men to the brim. Men have to be a certain kind according to orthodox rigid societal norms and as and when he does not fit into that he is called names, and names which are supposedly just identities and not cuss words but are used as cuss words. So, let me explain this, ‘Gay’, ‘Ladies’, ‘Hijra’ whatever be the words used are just identities; things as basic as sexual identity and gender identity so how can they be cuss words anyways?

So, there will be some people who might very well say that all those discussed till now is fine and if we keep those in mind, how can calling someone ‘Fat’ or ‘Black’ is wrong when it actually depicts the body type or skin colour of the person concerned? The problem is that as living beings or as society we are still very herd like and not fully evolved, people still worship fair skin and compare dark skin to ugliness, people still drool over slim and toned body and have abhorrence towards chubby and whatever that is not slim. Yes of course dad bods and things like that are slowly getting into the pop culture but again sexism seeps in quietly because when dad bods are considered appealing by many, mom bod is not an appealing concept at all. So, we still have a long way to go.

Hurting or not hurting is something that is so much under our control that we can press and release the button at any given time. Growing a bit of compassion and empathy has never harmed anyone and of course it won’t harm in a world that is full of anger and stress. As long as you are not paying anyone’s bill, you do not have the right to pass comments and even if you start paying bills, try putting your energy and time into something fruitful rather than calling names and trying to be funny at someone’s cost. The Generation Zs and Millennials are exposed to so many things that I feel it is easy for us to decide on which side we want to be on; an empathetic human or a pathetic bully so let’s choose our sides wisely. And, if you cannot be funny without being sexist, racist or homophobic, let us not try to be funny, that seems like a good enough option till we find a better solution.