Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[von Boom]

A while ago I got a notice from Gollancz that I was going to receive a copy of Simon Ings' new book Wolves to review. I've been wondering why it never showed up when I just realised today that they had my old address from last year. *face smack*

[Goaty]

I have a cold.

So this can be usefully after;

[Tiplodocus]

I didn't say anything about flu. Or it's sexist "man flu" variant. I just have a cold.  It's a minor impediment.

[Hawkmumbler]

I always thought man flu was just a silly term for common cold. I've used it myself quite a few times over the last few days (horrible coughing fits and completely blocked sinuses).

[TordelBack]

I always thought man flu was just a silly term for common cold.

It is. It's a sexist term mocking of men for their supposed (and undocumented) inability to work through minor or imagined illness, fully embraced by the advertising world. Inexplicably it has been co-opted by men to describe, even celebrate, their own illnesses. 

There are few modern coinages or repurposings that annoy me more, 'retarded' being the only one that springs to mind.  'Belieber' is actively witty by comparison.

[Dark Jimbo]

I heard someone say, sniffling, 'I've caught a bout of man-flu.'

Me: 'Er... you just mean you've caught a cold, I think.'

'Yeah, it's man-flu.'

'...But you don't actually mean man-flu. It's not a real thing. It's just something people say to make fun of men when they have a cold. You can't describe yourself as having man-flu - it's like admitting you're making a fuss over nothing.'

'What? Fuck off, that's not what it means. I'm a man, I've got flu. So fucking man-flu.'

I didn't bother trying to argue the point any further.

[Hawkmumbler]

Actually I can see where he's coming from. Men have always been more susceptible to minor illnesses so I thought it was just a gimmicky name. Hell, I had no idea it had such a discriminatory background. 

[radiator]

'Man Flu' is one of those kind of prefab 'jokes' for people who don't have a very developed sense of humour. So much of this tedious 'humour' revolves around the alleged differences between men and women.

[Professor Bear]

You can't have a go at reverse-sexism, lads, that's 50 percent of the modern advertising executive's toolbox (the other 50 percent being theft).

[Hawkmumbler]

Been giving it (perhaps a bit to much) thought and I actually think this makes a lot of sense. I always believed that the double standard in sexism was insane but I never realised that it was so deep set.

[mogzilla]

imagine the flak if the diet coke ad was a girl being ogled by blokes...
  it is annoying though, even my wife bought me some "man flu" lozenges then they wonder why we won't go to the doctor and die.

[TordelBack]

imagine the flak if the diet coke ad was a girl being ogled by blokes...

That's the entire rest of society you're describing.

[sheldipez]

imagine the flak if the diet coke ad was a girl being ogled by blokes...

That's the entire rest of society you're describing.

I was going to say so like the Lynx adverts each with the premise set around a guy sprays some deoderant and he's covered in semi-naked women or those microwave food ads where the bloke "cooks" something to find out the girl on the couch has lost her clothes somehow. That's a quick example that comes to mind, if I wanted another I'd watch telly for about an hour and come back with some more.

[Jim_Campbell]

then they wonder why we won't go to the doctor and die.

Cheers!

Jim

[TordelBack]

If I could be bothered I'd list the thousand ads that explicitly target a wonderful saintly 'Mum' doing the shopping, cleaning, cooking, feeding, homework help etc., with not a suggestion that it might be Dad who does these things, which in my personal entirely anecdotal experience it frequently is.  The real problem with these ads, and the man-flu crap, and the Lynx ads, is not that they pick on men or women, it's that they reinforce sexism as an integral, even defining, part of our society - these are our roles, this is the language you should use, buy these products to clarify these imposed identities, deviate from expectations and be less.

However, while I see sexism itself as the enemy of us all, I've no illusions that it's not the female half that is the majority target, and the main victim.