posted September 27, 2007 04:20 PM         

Which reminded me of hearing about a "Dead Men Don't Rape" sign at a Take Back the Night rally. Some were taking it to mean that if a man attacks you, attack him back with lethal force. Sorta like the saying, "You can't rape a .38" or "rape's no fun when she has a gun." But others, especially men, were taking it as a "Kill them all, let God/dess figure them out."

Which also reminded me of hearing of a gun ad where a woman with a rifle is by the caption, "On the first date with a strong buck, I aim to knock it right off its feet." And I heard some saw this as hatred toward men, too, that she was essentially saying that men (especially her dates) were just target practice to her, whereas I saw it as a hunting ad (possibly even hunting WITH a guy she likes, but the buck is the game animal, not her date).

Not too long ago a guy was wanting to get the Thirteen DVD, but he feared being thought a perv as the cover had the pic of 2 girls with their tongues pierced. He saw this as overtly sexual whereas I saw it as a showing teen rebellion, not sexual intent or titillation by minors toward adults (since only adults can legally buy or rent the vid).

I generally think of myself as unusually cynical. I can be hopeful, and I like giving people the benefit of a doubt (when it's not dangerous to do so), but overall I'm more cynical than most.

But given how so many people seem to understand bumper stickers, signs, ads, and movie pix, I'm wondering if in actuality, I'm a lot less cynical than most people. To me, I think that a lot of people out there harbor a lot of paranoia to see death threats in what I see as mostly harmless messages, and pervy to see a pic of 2 teens with pierced tongues as trying to sell soft porn.

Or maybe I'm naive. Maybe the intent of the bumper sticker WAS to promise violence against those to burn the flag, maybe the sign at the TBtN rally WAS promising to kill men in preemptive strikes, maybe that ad really was about making men into target practice, and maybe the pic of the 2 girls with pierced tongues WAS meant to be overtly sexual.

posted September 27, 2007 05:40 PM         

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Most recently, someone viewed a bumper sticker as a threat. It said something like, "You'll burn the flag over my dead body." Two people saw that as a threat. That is, if someone were to burn a flag, the one who owned that bumper sticker would use violence against the flag burner (unless the flag burners killed him). But when I heard about it, my instant reaction is that what was actually being said is that Americans can burn the USA flag because soldiers defend their freedom to do so.

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quote:

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Which reminded me of hearing about a "Dead Men Don't Rape" sign at a Take Back the Night rally. Some were taking it to mean that if a man attacks you, attack him back with lethal force. Sorta like the saying, "You can't rape a .38" or "rape's no fun when she has a gun." But others, especially men, were taking it as a "Kill them all, let God/dess figure them out."

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Some were taking it to mean that if a man attacks you, attack him back with lethal force.

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quote:

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Which also reminded me of hearing of a gun ad where a woman with a rifle is by the caption, "On the first date with a strong buck, I aim to knock it right off its feet." And I heard some saw this as hatred toward men, too, that she was essentially saying that men (especially her dates) were just target practice to her, whereas I saw it as a hunting ad (possibly even hunting WITH a guy she likes, but the buck is the game animal, not her date).

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quote:

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Not too long ago a guy was wanting to get the Thirteen DVD, but he feared being thought a perv as the cover had the pic of 2 girls with their tongues pierced. He saw this as overtly sexual whereas I saw it as a showing teen rebellion, not sexual intent or titillation by minors toward adults (since only adults can legally buy or rent the vid).

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posted September 27, 2007 05:48 PM         

I would say that in most cases, people do interpret things within the realm of their experience, expectations, circumstances, background, and the emotional state.

As fayte mentioned, I may not be able to comment on the said bumper stickers or ads without actually seeing it (and the social situations where I live is way too different).

posted September 27, 2007 07:08 PM         

Thirteen is a flick about a girl that turns 13, makes another friend who's a bad influence and they become a bad influence on each other. It's a drama, supposedly based on the true story of the writer, though parts of it made me think the writer was trying to shock more than tell a story at times. IMO, it's pretty good, but nothing special, and it did annoy me at times. There's a wide range of thoughts and feelings on it. Some claim that as kids they saw it and imitated the really bad examples, while others said they were scared straight from watching it as they didn't want their lives to get that messed up.

Anyway, here's the pic on the DVD (as well as the movie poster) that I see as representing shallow teen rebellion but another saw as sexual titillation: