I made a mistake yesterday. I was going for a laugh saying I was going to “beat up some hookers” after my meeting last night (meaning I was going to play Grand Theft Auto IV), but it’s not sat well with me nearly since I wrote it.
I love jokes. May I never live a single day without laughter. Further, I love jokes that piss people off. Frankly, most of ‘em need pissin’ off, in my view. But as ridiculous as I frequently find our hypersensitive, neo-Victorian society, I believe some things are deeply unfunny. Violence against women is one of those things.
Of course, some might say I’m picking at a string here. I am enjoying a game that rewards sustained felonious activity, after all. However, based on my previous experience with Grand Theft Auto games, beating up prostitutes is one of the sideline, “sandbox” activities—like running over pedestrians on the sidewalk—in which you can choose to engage or not. It’s “leisure”; it doesn’t advance the plot.
And I don’t run around beating up hookers when I play the game. (Not to say I’m not an occasional john. Vicarious living, dontcha know.)
Perhaps that’s a wan defense, but I can live with it. After all, I love a good mob movie—which is, I dare say, a relatively socially acceptable cultural construct—and this is nothing so much as an interactive one.
In any case, I apologize.
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bigdave on 
Bo on 
BamaDan on 
Jack Eason on 
MrsDragon on 
Sweetie, I took it for exactly what it was. I’m pretty sure we all know you well enough to know that you would chew off your own arm before you’d raise it against a woman.
I love you for coming back here to muse about the comment, though. Really, let it go. It was funny and it was entirely appropriate in the context.
Thank you, Mrs. Chili. I appreciate that very much. (hug) I thought I might be overreacting a little bit with this post, but I’d rather err on that side.
When I reached adulthood, few things were such an awakening for me as the prevalence of domestic violence. I’ve been entrusted with enough firsthand knowledge of it to last me ten fucking lifetimes. I’ve developed pretty good radar for it, too.
The evil in denying a woman a safe feeling in her own home; the wanton abuse of the trust she has placed in a man; the continually reinforcing sense of hopelessness she feels; oh, WOW. There’s a special place in hell.
ya worry too much…
Do they even have hookers in your town?
I occasionally revisit things I’ve said online. I have found the internet to be a humorless place where, for the most part, the first instinct of people is to think the worst of one. I attribute that to two things: we live in fearful, cynical times; most people are not up to the intellectual level to understand my snappy repartee.
We do live in fearful (like Bo said neo-Victorian) times. My first thought, actually wasn’t about domestic violence. It was actually, “Why is Bo worried about offending the hookers who read his blog?”
I’m offended. Write me a check. Maybe I won’t be offended anymore.
Oh,one more thing… what town DOESN’T have at least one hooker?
We have hookers. I mean, a friend told me that we did.
Good thing you have more friends then just Bo.
I’ve got a lot of “friends”. I consider you one.