ICYMI last month, activist Zarna Joshi attended a protest in Seattle against the new "bunker" precinct the city proposed to build for the police. While at this protest, Joshi intended to get the view of a man who had been interviewed by a film crew about why he was #ProBunker.
Well it ended up blowing up in the camera-face of a poor iPhone, because upon asking for the man's name, Joshi received the answer "Hugh Mungus". Now, anyone can recall this joke from middle school days (or is that just me?), but Joshi took it the wrong way. She assumed it to be a sexual innuendo, and then proceeded to shriek how the jokester has sexually harassed her.
Joshi's reaction was way overboard. And I say that for three reasons:
1. She was there to protest the proposed police precinct design. Her "sexual harassment" claims took away from the reason why she was there. I can guarantee you that any ground the protesters gained that day was lost to her antics. What's worse is that she goes 0 to 60 on her reaction to Mungus's joke, but she also goes 60 to 0 at the end of the video when she starts to talk to the cops, presumably showing them the moment she caught Mungus's gross demeanor and jail worthy actions on the video.
2. There are actual sexual harassment victims out there. She cried wolf more times in one minute than a crying child asks for ice cream, and she has no place to make as big a fuss as she did. There are people out there (of all genders) that have received legitimate sexual harassment, and Joshi is not one of them. She turned a mole hill into a mountain, and made a fool of herself in the meantime. She was not a victim, and the fact that she claims that she was is insulting to people who actually are traumatized from real sexual harassment.
3. This paints feminism in a bad light. Feminism is already mocked and still struggles to be taken seriously in all parts of American society today, and this doesn't help. Many people tend to stereotype feminists into people with Joshi's reactions, essentially a woman who wants to be treated like a queen and acts like a brat. The truth is most people are feminists (if you support the equality of all genders, congrats, you're a feminist), but radical feminism's bad moments (like this one) are the only thing that ever seems to make the news. And we wonder "why"? Because it is ridiculous, and people like that.
I will play devil's advocate and say that Mungus should have reconsidered making a joke that could be construed in a perverted light, but that doesn't excuse Joshi's behavior. There are jokes that you can make when with a company that will more or less be adjusted to an individual's personality. This wasn't really the time or the place for a "dad" joke.
My hope is that a situation like Mungus's won't be making another showing for a while.
