Gun in Hand
This is a birthday card a female friend sent me. We both love black humor and she usually sends her cards unsigned so that I may pass them on. I’ve shown this to a random sampling of friends and most of the women flip to the inside for the punchline (it’s all on the cover) because they don’t see the gun. Admittedly it is much obvious on your computer screen where the clutter of life is mostly absent but still … .
Now you went overboard the other way. (Not ambiguous enough.) Leave out “because they don’t see the gun.”
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have seen the gun before looking inside. I doubt I would have seen it even knowing there was nothing written inside. So is that really a gender thing? Is it because it’s a gun (women aren’t as tuned in to the shape of guns) or because women are more verbal and assume words will be there and be interesting.
That said, a BIRTHDAY card?
Comment by jennifer — July 19, 2005 @ 8:17 am
But is it in her size … ?
This card tradition sounds like a well thought-out dodge/rationalization for avoiding the task of writing (and reading) ritual piffle.
Comment by adam — July 19, 2005 @ 8:49 am
Ritual piffle? RITUAL PIFFLE?
Birthday cards are sacred–at least from family. I still have every birthday card, many hand made, sent to me since 1978. They’re carefully stored in the den, somewhere in that array of dusty shoeboxes. Piffle, indeed. That’s the last time I ever send Adam a card.
Comment by rakkity — July 19, 2005 @ 9:38 am
I love the New Yorker cards. I like the one I sent you better 🙂
Comment by peeping — July 19, 2005 @ 9:47 am
The card sender thinks it means that men are more in touch with their anger than women.
She told me that DianeÃs temporary inability to recognize the word has become a classic story in their womenÃs group. For the record, Diane asked me one day, a long while back, ìWhat is ìannger ( pronouncing it with a soft ìgî)? I canÃt remember the context (book, newspaper, love letter), but I had to tell her the word was anger.
Peeping, I donÃt believe I received that card.
I canÃt wait to someday use ìRitual Piffleî as a blog title.
Comment by michael — July 19, 2005 @ 12:40 pm
I handed it to you and you’ve already posted it on the blog. Silly Michael.
Comment by peeping — July 19, 2005 @ 2:20 pm
That’d be the card at mainecourse.com/mt/archives/image/nocamp.html would it?
Comment by reader — July 19, 2005 @ 4:11 pm
That would be the one my camping friend.
Comment by peeping — July 19, 2005 @ 9:32 pm
But that’s not black humor.
BTW, my sister just took a workshop at a Quaker gathering on anger for women only. Do you want me to check in with her about women and anger? One thing she noted was that the women in the workshop who seemed the angriest to her also seemed least in touch with their anger. I guess my point is that women vary a tremendous amount in their anger and how in touch they are.
Comment by jennifer — July 19, 2005 @ 10:38 pm
Point well taken, but for the sake of stirring the pot, I’m all for gross generalizatons.
Comment by michael — July 20, 2005 @ 6:33 am