Do you actually believe suicide can be caused by someone playing dress up? Your post demonstrates that you have no firm opinion on the matter and that you are "covering all the bases" as opposed to saying something meaningful based on your personal experience.
I lived with someone who tried to commit suicide and suffered from deep depression. Laughter was the one thing that helped.
It's pretty clear that RB is having a laugh and inviting others to join in at his own expense and not at the expense of any of the examples you give.
We must rigorously defend humor from the humorless, less they try to make sense of complex humor as in "What does it mean?" or "I don't get it therefore I must try to sound intelligent in the wake of my ignorance."
>> Do you actually believe suicide can be caused by someone playing dress up?
That's not what I wrote at all.^ I even provided a link for you.
I didn't state my opinion, as it's not very interesting (I really don't care about how RB dresses).
What I tried to do was to try to answer the people that asked why anyone would be offended by this ("This bet was attacked by feminists (rightly? or too sensitive?)"). I'm not offended, personally, so I tried to take a look at it from a birds-eye view to get the discussion going.
So far it's quite disappointing. I'm not sure if people are actively trying to misunderstand me or if I'm just not expressing myself very well. (Is there a name for this?) The general consensus seems to be that I'm a humorless, anti-intellectual, silly PC police that should just get over myself^^. Which I actually find quite funny. :D
Lastly, I wonder why this make people so emotional. I wanted to avoid labeling anyone as "sexist" or things like that. I don't think RB had these intentions, and he's probably a great guy...
^ This is misrepresenting what I wrote to the point where it just sounds absurd. A kind of straw man fallacy, I think. I am actually surprised to see this kind of argumentation techniques used at HN.
^^ Ad hominem, anyone? Sure, I might be any/all of these things... but it doesn't prove your point.
Do you actually believe suicide can be caused by someone playing dress up?
Now that is offensive. He even provided a linked reference FFS.
Being alienated from your own physical body is not "playing dress up."
Transgender people don't put on the clothes of the other gender for fun. You're thinking of transvestites, who are (sort of) doing it for kicks. Very different thing.
I believe you have misunderstood your parent comment. The question "Do you actually believe suicide can be caused by someone playing dress up?" asks whether suicide can be caused by Richard Branson playing dress up.
The question does not appear to confuse "transgender" and "transvestite", nor does it use "playing dress up" to refer to either.
I lived with someone who tried to commit suicide and suffered from deep depression. Laughter was the one thing that helped.
It's pretty clear that RB is having a laugh and inviting others to join in at his own expense and not at the expense of any of the examples you give.
We must rigorously defend humor from the humorless, less they try to make sense of complex humor as in "What does it mean?" or "I don't get it therefore I must try to sound intelligent in the wake of my ignorance."