From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!leichter
Newsgroups: net.women
Title: Re: a compliment (?)
Article-I.D.: yale-com.915
Posted: Thu Feb 17 12:45:44 1983
Received: Mon Feb 21 21:28:49 1983
References: burdvax.567

Yes, the audience does make a difference in what jokes or stories I'd be
willing to tell.  There are jokes I think are funny that might offend some
people.  That doesn't stop me from telling them - WHEN (1) there is no one
around who might be offended (2) I'm pretty sure the people who ARE there
will take it in the spirit that it is told - as a funny thing arising out
of a stereotype, not as an accurate description.  I would not tell a
racist joke to a black or to a racist - unless, in the case of the black
person, I knew him well enough to understand how he would take it.  Similarly,
I might feel offended if I overheard an anti-white or anti-Jewish joke, but
not if someone I knew well told it.

Many women are offended by sexual jokes.  It isn't my role to judge whether
they are right to take such offense or not; I simply consider it common good
manners not to offend people.  So, I won't tell such jokes in "mixed company".
That does NOT mean I won't tell them to women or in the presence of women -
provided the two constraints I mentioned are met.
							-- Jerry
						decvax!yale-comix!leichter