tv shows, comedians etc all used lazy sterotypes to derive humour. the 'take my wife - please!' style humour was prevalent, normalised, and seen generally as amusing and fit for the likes of early evening tv and radio. as a result, those generations see it as amusing and funny. it's totally understandable when most of your generation's humour revolved around that.

currently, people see that sort of thing as offensive and rude. and yes, it is - especially if taken literally and out of context. the problem is that it's so hard to tell whether someone means that sort of thing as an attempt at humour, or if it's genuinely something nasty underneath it.

i often think that older generations in particular genuinely don't see any harm in their stereotyping or their out-of-touch joking and as a result think that people are just 'too sensitive' when people react to it. i'm also aware that the younger generations now are far more inclusive and supportive of one another than my generation - it's a lovely thing to see, and they expect that as standard. i can't wait for the carnage that'll cause in businesses in 10-20 years but the price of that inclusivity is that they will police othering behaviour far more strictly that we ever did.

i mean, to take another example, i've been informed at great length about the harm the walk-on girls do at the darts or the brolly dollies/pit girls at the motor racing do for feminism. i still don't completely get it myself, but i could at least take on the point that some people think of it as harmful on a societal level and understand why they think that. ultimately my objection comes down to 'i like looking at pretty women, and i want to carry on doing that' but i have to admit that really isn't a valid reason at heart, and even contains the sort of behaviour that they were trying to get me to understand in the first place.

my point is that while i grok this on an intellectual level, i still don't really see the harm in having pit girls or walk-on girls. i've been conditioned to them being everywhere as a normal, acceptable thing over several decades. so i don't see anything wrong with them, not really.

and that's the point i'm (longwindedly) getting to - there's no practical difference in someone laughing at a racist-stereotype-based joke and my attitude to walk-on girls. i get why my dad and his mates think it's okay to make off-colour jokes or comments, even when my dad's entire life has been a shining example of acceptance and inclusivity that i strive to live up to. we know it's wrong on some level, but we were raised with it and we think of ourselves as nice people and we don't mean anything harmful by that behaviour and other people like us agree so... [shrugs]

ultimately, nobody's perfect and judging people against a different society to the one they were raised in is going to cause these sorts of clashes. i do think we have to remember and be more understanding where we can, but we have to be careful to ensure that they know it's not acceptable and call out that bad behaviour wherever we can.