Quote of the week
This month in Playboy, singer John Mayer steps on his schwanz. (The heavier steps have been reproduced all over the place, including the HuffPo.) Those who track the Zeitgeist more effectively than I do, which is almost everyone, seem to be split on whether Mayer is some sort of racist for disdaining black women and blaming it on the Little Head, or whether he’s simply an asshat with a Big Mouth.
Aaryn B. leans toward the latter explanation:
Honey, you are an affront to frat boys everywhere and that’s a damn near impossible feat. You are not smart. You are not cute. You are not deep. You are not intellectual or witty or cool or hip or dope or fly or whatever it is you fancy yourself to be. You have a small, small, small brain and a very big mouth. You are a self-important asshat raised to the 11th power, quadrupled by dickheadery, topped with three servings of phony and one heaping scoop of overcompensation.
I’m glad I didn’t piss her off.
Warning: That page from which I quoted incorporates some photos that some people — those with taste — may find disturbing.
Cindy »
12 February 2010 · 11:50 am
I somehow missed what he said, yet I still find this description to be accurate.
Jennifer »
12 February 2010 · 11:59 am
Note to self: Heed those warning. *shudder
Jeff Brokaw »
12 February 2010 · 4:24 pm
How about a third choice: who gives a hoot?
His choice of words was idiotic, but the basic idea is, he doesn’t like black chicks. OK, well, so what? I think he’s allowed to make that choice for himself, as an adult in a free country.
In other words, we are right to criticize his words and phrasing choices, but not the perfectly reasonable ideas they represent.
I fear that there are way too many millions of people who don’t understand the huge gulf between those two ideas. In fact, I’m pretty damn sure of it.
CGHill »
12 February 2010 · 5:05 pm
The problem, as I see it, is that hoots are occasionally given, whether there’s any good reason for it or not, and I persist in thinking that we are performing less of a disservice to the rest of the human race if we take the trouble to avoid looking unnecessarily stupid.
The real asshattery here, though, is not so much that he disdains the sisters (hey, that leaves more for me, right?), but that he spewed all this stuff about previous relationships. I don’t think that’s forgivable regardless of First Amendment considerations.
Lisa Paul »
12 February 2010 · 9:37 pm
The pulse I’m getting from Twitter is that White people are more upset by his comments than African Americans. And women more so than others, but they certainly have the right to be as his comments were much more misogynist than racist.
In fact, as one of my Black girlfriends said, “That whooshing sound you hear is the collective exhalation of Black women everywhere that they will never be hit on by John Mayer.”
And thanks for quoting Aaryn B. She’s a pistol.
CGHill »
13 February 2010 · 12:16 pm
In addition to all that, there’s a reference to “fags” in connection with Perez Hilton. The man is apparently an equal-opportunity asshat.