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Respects is Earn: A meme is born

respectsbig

Brianna Wu — game developer, #GamerGate target #3 — got a Tweet sent to her yesterday announcing that “respects is earn not shrilly demanded.”

Mangled grammar aside, this is an “argument” we hear a lot from misogynistic men as a way of explaining away their lack of respect for women as a gender. Wu thought this inadvertantly lollcatty version of this cliche was too good to let vanish in the internet ether, and suggested that the phrase “respects is earn” be immortalized in a meme.

And so it was. The cat above is @RobIsAWriter’s interpretation; here (after the bump) are a few more.

https://twitter.com/iateacat/status/534168547757268993

https://twitter.com/beforeyouknowit/status/534168901559390208

https://twitter.com/CaelynEllis/status/534169962328236032

https://twitter.com/hoodieripper/status/534170518241284096

https://twitter.com/eddyapplesauce/status/534171231742730241

https://twitter.com/hoodieripper/status/534181430419415040

https://twitter.com/themojowire/status/534185910779133953

https://twitter.com/chaicube/status/534176480801349632/photo/1

Obviously, Aretha Franklin needed to be a part of this:

Even if we set aside the misogyny for a moment, it seems to me that “respect is earned” is a rather backward way of looking at it. Shouldn’t the default be respect instead of not respect? That is, shouldn’t we treat everyone with a basic level of respect to begin with, downgrading this only if the person in question says or does something that makes them less worthy of respect? And even then give them at least a minimal amount of respect for simply being human?

Oh, and before any #GGers get indignant about it, the @GGer who Tweeted “respects is earn” is clearly a native speaker of English; go through his timeline to see.(In some of his Tweets since this meme got going he’s deliberately using lolspeak.)

H/T — r/GamerGhazi

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pallygirl
pallygirl
10 years ago

Actually, changed my mind. JB is Miss Piggy.

Karalora
Karalora
10 years ago

I can’t believe you guys are slamming the Muppets by identifying them with manospherians. The Muppets, people!

maistrechat
maistrechat
10 years ago
Reply to  Karalora

@Karalora

Ueaj. (Pronounced “yeah”)

Total agreement here.

leftwingfox
leftwingfox
10 years ago

Yeah, If you’re going to compare the MRA to puppets, compare them to The Feebles.

ryeash
ryeash
10 years ago

Mr. T PITIES THE FOOL WHO DON’T EARN NO RESPECTS

ryeash
ryeash
10 years ago

https://twitter.com/weirdwoods/status/534764383814316033

This is why I love my partner. “How did you NOT think of Metalocalypse??”

friday jones
friday jones
10 years ago

Stops copyings me!

rumundtopf
rumundtopf
10 years ago

http://i.imgur.com/owW4U6e.jpg

First thing that came to my mind xD

Michelle C Young
Michelle C Young
10 years ago

Respects is Earnie made me laugh out loud!

And, David, you’re absolutely correct. According to Miss Manners, we are supposed to tread EVERYONE as ladies and gentlemen (or in other words, with that basic amount of respect), until they prove themselves to be otherwise, and undeserving of it.

Now, actually respecting a person, in particular? Yes, that is earned. But we TREAT people with basic respect, whether we know, love, honor and respect them, or not.

Someone who has earned our particular respect gets treated with EVEN MORE respect.

This rule is what keeps us from walking down the street, shouting insults at everyone, popping them in the nose, just because we don’t like the shapes of their noses, and grabbing at any body part we do like.

It is, in short, the basis of civilization, as we know it. Without basic respect for all people, we are no more than animals. Not wolves, mind you. No matter how often the MRAs like to compare themselves to wolves, wolves have respect for other members of their packs, as well as other predators.

No, without that level of basic respect for humanity, in general, we are non-pack animals. The kind that eat their young, have no leadership or cooperation and basically no brains, and accomplish nothing.

Guppies, maybe.

Arawhon, Beast of the Matriacholypse
Arawhon, Beast of the Matriacholypse
10 years ago

Oh God, that CoD one is perfect. Was smiling like crazy at the silly, then that one made break down into a giggle fit.

Also Hi, lurker of about a year, trying out my new wordpress account.

Falconer
Falconer
10 years ago

@rumundtopf: Have you ever seen one of those videos where the weather reporter has worn a green outfit, and the chroma key device turns them into a floating head and hands? That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw your photo of Ali G. It kind of hurt my eyes. That and all the yellow.

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