In EU we like to joke around, tease each other, and not get fired over that.
When we tell a sexist joke with a woman present, you will get a witty reply from them, not a call to HR.
I hope this US bullshit stays in US.
Seems that EU women are not victims but can stand their own ground.
Jokes around "haha women are less smart and do the dishes" are not OK. A joke about moving your birthday because you're a woman, not so funny but wow so not sexist.
"Be nice" is the long forgotten good rule of Internet behaviour, and "if you meant to be nice but weren't, apologise" a close second.
Otherwise, we enter the field of “elective equality” - “equality where it benefits me, favoritism elsewhere”.
Like documenting a “shrink” function with “men won’t use it for fear of having their willies shrunk”.
If you’re making a joke about something, make it more funny than offensive. A very unfunny joke has a low tolerance on offence :)
I personally love offensive jokes. Book of Mormon is one of my favourite shows, and I can't really think of a group/sect/principle they don't offend.
If the person you offend laughs as opposed to being angry, it can't be that bad.
Imagine for a moment that your name was Seymour Butts and then imagine how bored you'd feel by the people that continued to make the same lame jokes about your name, as adults in a professional environment.
All joking aside I can only comment very generally obviously, but just because people will tolerate a particular aspect of someones personality doesn't mean they actually enjoy it.
Remember that 30 years ago in the Western world lots of women got patted on the ass at work and the normal response was to nod and smile because that's just how the world was.
I once met someone in Australia whose best friends all called him some racial slur as a nickname (I forget which one now). In a short moment alone I asked him if that was actually okay for him and he answered "No, but that's just the way people are around here."
I obviously have no way of knowing how close you are to these women but you should probably at least be open to the possibility that there is a similar dynamic at play here.
Personally, I have a unique physical characteristic that causes even strangers to approach to comment or joke about. I've got a pretty good catalogue of witty retorts by now and one of them in particular is so spectacular that I quite enjoy the opportunity to use it. I still think the people who make the jokes are boring idiots though.
You also have to know to whom you can say what. My close friends at work can be very brutal, and I return the favor ;). But you cannot do that to casual colleagues, or people you know that don't like such things.
My best friend is 2m tall, so I also know all those jokes. But that doesn't stop us from annoying him now and then :D.
It has been spreading to all corners of English Speaking Countries although mostly in Tech ( for Now ) and Open Source.
There are many signs it is growing in EU as well.
This depends heavily on where you work. It is not healthy for your career to assume this.
It's sexist regardless if woman are present. People are victims even if they stand their ground.
By this logic, you have to ban humor.
There is situation in which everyone mocks everyone. But the situation described here is that some people are valid target of jokes and others simply dont.
I am currently at an hotel with an international audience and was part of the daily 'show' a couple days ago. I made the entire audience laugh when I joked about not knowing how to sexually satisfy a woman (I am a white man if it helps).
Think it depends a lot on the general tone. Are women targeted for sexist jokes as much as men and the jokes are free for all? Probably ok. If 95% of the sexist jokes are about women, probably not ok.
But for example, I found that a lot of Eastern European men make sexists jokes that are mean and at the same time, can't take the smallest joke about themselves (or worse, their own sexuality).
Context and culture matters.
There's plenty of jokes about man-bun and skinny jean wearing hipsters floating around. There's plenty of jokes about white trash floating around. I'm not sure what a joke about white dudes in general is going to look like barring the obvious case where you generalize a joke about white trash or hipsters to all of them. It's going to be very hard for a group of mostly white dudes to joke effectivly about white dudes because as members of that group they all see that group in higher resolution than that.
Go to a comedy show and listen to how many black guys make fun of white vs blacks. Go to another one and listen how there are lots of jokes about husband vs wife, men vs women etc.
The problem is that there is a time and a place for those and a professional environment is simply not it. This is why I always have a problem with American culture of after work meetups and socialization.
As a woman working in Europe, those sexist jokes sux. It sux to be in a team where you have to listen to it in the regular. It is tiring to have to be constantly prepared with "witty replies", just because collogues are dicks and need to pick on my gender.
Yes, I tell them off or am witty depending on what I think harms me the least of the two. But the situation itself sux. Working in teams where I dont have to be on guard and dont have to waste time strategizing this is so much better.
It also sux that quite a few people really do want the message behind the joke to be true. Whether they fully believe or sorta kinda believe.
Most of problems with harrasment and reactions to it would disappear overnight. The USA does not dominate the contributions anymore, but it does absolutely dwarf anybody else when it comes to shitstorms.
A logic we should apply. It only seems fine to tie it all to moneny.