did you hear about...

[Randall Twede]

the woman who bought a new computer? the next day she called customer service. they asked her what the problem was and she said the cup holder on the computer broke.

[Himanshu Gupta]

I know a girl who chooses her computer by its color. Last time she wanted a White one. lolz.

[Kaustubh G Sharma]

Hope technology is in safe hands

[Ryan McGuire]

Randall Twede wrote:the woman who bought a new computer? the next day she called customer service. they asked her what the problem was and she said the cup holder on the computer broke.

Dude. Really?

[Paul Clapham]

Ryan McGuire wrote:

Randall Twede wrote:the woman who bought a new computer? the next day she called customer service. they asked her what the problem was and she said the cup holder on the computer broke.

Dude. Really?

Snopes claims that's a "legend": http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/choke.asp.

[Pat Farrell]

Legend or not, it was always a joke, and a clearly sexist one. You could change her to a blonde woman, and make it a blonde joke, but its still offensive.

Kinda violates the Ranch's friendly place rule.

[Mike Simmons]

Well, the snopes link also gives the earliest version I heard of this, which is a help desk / clueless user story. The clueless user is simply identified as "caller", with no gender implied. I suppose it could be seen as offensive to clueless users, but that doesn't concern me so much.

But yeah, the subsequent modification to a sexist joke seems both offensive and lame.

[Guy deLyonesse]

Philosophical question: Why is the joke sexist in the first place? When I read it I didn't take it to mean that the fact that the caller was female was somehow integral to the joke. It could just as easily have started with "Did you hear about the man who bought a new computer..."

[Jesper de Jong]

It is obviously sexist because the joke tries to confirm the wrong stereotype that women don't know anything about technology. Likewise for Himanshu Gupta's joke, which does the same kind of thing.

Since there are no such stereotypes about men, it wouldn't be sexist if it would be about a man.

[fred rosenberger]

Mike Simmons wrote:Well, the snopes link also gives the earliest version I heard of this, which is a help desk / clueless user story.

Found an older version here from (allegedly) '97. Refers to 'dad'.

[Guy deLyonesse]

Jesper de Jong wrote:It is obviously sexist because the joke tries to confirm the wrong stereotype that women don't know anything about technology. Likewise for Himanshu Gupta's joke, which does the same kind of thing.

Since there are no such stereotypes about men, it wouldn't be sexist if it would be about a man.

Ah, so is the sexism in the creator of the joke, or in the reader?

If we read a joke about someone who foolishly thinks the CD tray is a drink holder, do we automatically assume sexism if the subject is female? Isn't that a form of sexism in itself? Is it that on some subconscious level we feel we must defend women by feigning outrage at sexism in a joke like this only if the subject is a woman? You said, it wouldn't be sexist if it were about a man, but is that only because people may subconsciously assume that a man would never be so foolish when operating a computer?

(I ask in order to make a philosophical point, not to troll I like to examine these things from alternative points of view. It helps promote out-of-the-box thinking.)