Why is domestic violence against men funny?

As a kid, I grew up hearing the following song-spoof:

Rudolph the Bow-Legged Cowboy
Had a very shiny gun
And if you ever saw it
You would turn around and run

All of the other cowboys
Used to laugh and call him names
They wouldn't let poor Rudolph
Join in any Cowboy games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
Rudolph with your gun so bright
Won't you shoot my wife tonight?

And this was considered funny. Kids in Ohio used to jump rope to it at Christmastime, if the ice wasn't too heavy.

I cannot hear the holiday song "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"--without thinking of it.

Danny has rightly pointed out that the current jokey-joke over Tiger Woods getting clobbered by the missus, is not cool. (In fairness: I owe the guys over at Feminist Critics one, for pointing this out to me.)

We now jokey-joke over men getting beaten up by women, the way we used to joke about women getting beaten up by men. It is understood, on some level, that he "deserves" it. If a man is cheating, he is considered by many to be fair game.

However, we can assume that many women-victims of domestic violence have been cheating also... and this would not be acceptable as an excuse for a beating, even if she was.

In addition: The prejudicial concept that "men are stronger" is rendered meaningless, when we are talking about women using weapons like golf clubs that serve to "equalize" us in physical disputes. The recent Saturday Night Live skit managed to be simultaneously misogynist and jokey-joke about domestic violence against men. However, it is also notable that it might be the first time I've seen any acknowledgment from the mass media that a man might actually be physically afraid of his wife.

I realized my own perspective had radically changed when I saw this again (caution, may trigger, etc):

Barbara Bain on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1963)



I hadn't seen this sitcom episode since childhood, and remembered it as patently hilarious slapstick (at which Dick Van Dyke always excelled admirably).

Now? No.

In fact, I was alarmed at how Barbara Bain's total viciousness is played for laughs. (In many ways, this is also misogynist, of course, portraying her as vengeful harpy.)

Your thoughts on domestic violence against men? Will we ever find it UNfunny?

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties

... in ohhhh, so many ways.

First, can anyone explain why I can't see any of my previously posted videos in Firefox, but I can see these same videos in Internet Explorer? Also, a few random widgets are missing in Firefox as well.

This appeared to happen right after I deleted Google's Adsense in a fit of pique, for putting "Osama Obama" ads on my blog. Then, I wake up this morning and can't see any of my videos. We'll teach you to diss Google, missy! Chastened, I put the Google Adsense box back, but it looks different this time. Also, I could not access my full layouts page (had to re-install Adsense through Internet Explorer, also). The bottom half of the Page Layouts (in Blogger) is gone, random widgets and links disappearing just like the videos did. The Template tab has also disappeared, along with my Dead Air Library widget. It was exactly like Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said, by Philip K Dick, the only logical outcome being that I would soon start disappearing, as well. There will have been no record of me OR my blog, and I will (necessarily) have to go around trying to convince people that I exist.

Like anyone else in such a situation, understandably, I did panic.

~*~

This hasn't been a good week. Two days ago, while my arms were full of (not kidding) dog vitamins, I tripped over a badly-stacked bottled-water display and ended up splayed out on the floor--SPLAT. (Dick Van Dyke redux, for you baby boomers.) I badly bruised both elbows and my left knee, but as my regular blog-readers know, I'm a well-padded gal of hardy peasant stock who ingests every supplement ever invented (and then some). I am relieved and grateful I didn't break anything, but if I had, I would have talked to a few bone-building supplement manufacturers and demanded an explanation.

Anyway, already a bit jarred, and then last night I watch Rick Warren and the presidential candidates engage in some depressingly predictable repartee.

My supervisor is changing jobs, as noted before, and will be leaving us this week. I ate lunch with her today; I am crestfallen over her departure and feel an acute sense of loss.

And then, I see that I am disappearing! Where's my videos?! ((screams))

~*~

Comically, I attempt to leave messages for the Blogger Help Group, which also advertises for ESCORTS from various warring countries. Gollee, I had NO IDEA! No, wait... that is SPAM that the Blogger team is too lazy to clean up. You figure a place that tolerates all of this sex-spam ain't gonna be much for answering my question. I dutifully type "disappearing videos from blog" in the little search box provided, and promptly find a dozen people with my same question, spread out over the past four months.

And not a single answer.

Why do they bother to tell us about a Blogger Help Group, if they have no intention of helping? Is this some new, creative form of postmodern torture?

Anyway, I apologize for being slack lately. I wanted to blast the Rick Warren follies good and proper, and may well do so. I have a tight schedule the next few days.

And I might disappear entirely by then.