There’d be comments about how “harsh” and “shrewish” Clinton sounded.

But, yes, let’s just say there are a lot of sociological factors playing into how Minaj’s statement was received here.

In the past, this is something that everyone laughed about. I think it’s really funny that this is now being used in the way it is – probably because it’s a legitimate complaint if all you’re provided to drink is pickle juice, unlike having the wrong color m&ms ;)

But something that actually affects the work is a different story. Having shitty clothes for a photoshoot definitely counts, or having inferior recording equipment or whatever. To go back to the conference room analogy, being provided a small HDTV instead of a projector to give your important presentation is maybe equivalent. As grs said, the stale muffins really don’t matter; you might still get a little upset about it if you intended to serve them to clients or something but even then it’s not really worth getting upset about.

By the way I do realize it’s being used as a metaphor for the more insidious injustices against females in this and every industry. Taken in context it’s powerful, but it’s a silly and meaningless complaint otherwise regardless of who makes it. This has nothing to do with my opinion of the matter, which is primarily “guys are dicks, fuck them”.

I’ll give her one thing – she’s not creating songs from an algorithm designed to please everybody. She’s filling a niche. That’s a good thing in general, IMO, even if it sounds like shit to most people.

By the way that video has over 56 million views and has “275,635 likes, 587,594 dislikes” – never seen a split like that for a popular musician’s video!

A standard “ism” thought experiment:  suppose this was L’il Wayne in this video, complaining about what he goes through to get people to treat him the same as a white artist.  Would a comment thread full of “sounds like a child”, “I hate his music/his music sux”, “everybody has to deal with discrimination, man up already”, “no one can take him srsly unless he acts in a way I respect” be seen as anything other than blatant racism?

No, you’re not. But to someone, you will be. And who cares? Do your thing and stop worrying what other people think of you. That’s the big difference: “assertive” males, whether they’re just being assertive or are in fact being dickheads, don’t really care if other people think negatively of them, in fact they relish being feared and hated. Women should too. If you want to be “assertive,” know that being hated, called a bitch, comes with the territory. You can’t have it both ways. The dude in this video who is supporting her position is behind her back or maybe just in his thoughts fearful of her wrath and thinks she’s a bitch. As well he should. She compares herself to Donald Trump and Lil Wayne. No one in their right mind thinks those two are anything less than assholes. Newsflash: American culture celebrates assholes and dickheads. You want to be accepted for being “assertive?” You’re going to have to accept that it means relishing your role as a bitch. Like I said, own it.

http://acculturated.com/2012/07/09/music-festival-etiquette-nicki-minaj-vs-frank-turner/#more-3602

I’ve run into “assertive women are bitches” so, so many times. It’s not about behaving like bitches… it’s about if you are assertive in any way… like, oh my goodness, have an opinion(!)… you are suddenly a bitch. Or have PMS. I have personally run into this mostly on discussion forums. You can have guys discussing things, and then a woman pipes up… and suddenly her point is totally invalid because she is apparently on the rag.

It’s not so much about the woman as her opinion… to totally devaluate her opinion so it doesn’t have to be taken into account. Keep your eyes open… see how often you see somebody suggest that a woman must be on her period for something she just said or wrote.

Somehow men are allowed and expected to be assertive, even when they go waaaaaay over the top. Women that are assertive are apparently threatening… in some way… and need to be put in their places ASAP. Favorite ways: Suggest she has PMS, that time of the month, is on the rag… or, well, a bitch.

I’m so disappointed at the horrible comments here. I thought you guys were cool.

I remember early on in college a friend of mine referred to the girl I was dating at the time as Oriental.  He came from white as white can be rural nowhere and had never probably never interacted on a regular basis with anyone who wasn’t white in his entire life until college.  Instead of flipping my shit and ignoring his intent, which was utterly innocent, as you seem to suggest is the proper course of action, I calmly pointed out that Oriental was an archaic and kind of insulting term, roughly along the lines of calling someone a Negro.  He was like “oh, I didn’t know that”.  We talked about it a little without any sort of accusations or hostility and used it as a learning experience.  He then never used that term again. 

Treating someone who is offensive to you out of ignorance the same as someone who is offensive intentionally is just petty and stupid.  Unless you get some sort of masochistic joy out of being pissed off, you are doing no one any favors by willfully ignoring the good intentions of the people around you.

The pickle juice was, while probably literally true, more of a metaphor for being treated wrong and needing to stand up for your professional standards.