Comments

1
Apparently Barbara Holm does not understand the meaning of the word "irony". Kind of ironic, actually.
2
You could have challenged him to a game of pinball. Been like, if I beat you, you have to shut up.
4
You know Dan Savage has an interesting theory about his column's success being in part due to not writing about himself. Barbara has quickly reached the point where I no longer believe that these fantastical things are happening to her every week. I am not saying she is making them all up, only that her need to create fresh first person content on a weekly basis is making it hard to keep on believing that it is all really happening to her.
5
One of my best friends is always like, "Why cause a scene? Why raise a conflict? Why can't we all just be chill and have fun?"

Let me guess, she's always saying that to you? Because you just scream "be chill and have fun."
6
This is a good column, I enjoyed reading it.
7
your column always entertains and delights me. and i appreciate your talking about sticky issues like racism, ally-ness and vaginas. <3 jenny yang
8
"Mansplain," eh? Ouch. Men, they're all just so, well, you know...
9
And now the trolls have reached a new low by nitpicking a column about white dudes saying the Nword is bad.
*slow clap*
10
barbera only tolerates gay racists.
11
COMMENT DELETED: You're this close to being banned, Frankieb. Use that language again, and it's bye-bye for you.
12
What is up my Nigerians?

I heard there was speak of a dark and mysterious vagina around these parts?
13
Hey guys, quick note. Lets say that Barbra is making up these circumstances that produced these articles? Who cares? We accept fictional circumstances for ethical debate all the time. Imaginary circumstances are sometimes the only way that we can make rational decisions on how we act in the future.

As far as the message of the article. It's wonderful and should be heeded. I'm pretty sure Martin Luther King Jr said "It is not malicious acts that will do us in but the appalling silence and indifference of good people." So if you don't feel like arguing with Barbra. Argue with the principles and ideals set down by Martin Luther King Jr. (I don't think you want to, he's pretty likable)
14
OH MY GOD. I CANNOT STAND THESE INSIPID COLUMNS. EVERY WEEK, IT'S JUST A NEW THING THAT EVERYONE ALREADY BELIEVES. JUST CALL THE WHOLE THING "BARBARA HOLM TAKES AN UNCONTROVERSIAL STANCE" AND GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY.

SERIOUSLY. YOU HAVE NOTHING NEW TO SAY. YOU ARE LITERALLY COMPLAINING ABOUT RACISM. NOBODY IS GOING TO DISAGREE WITH YOU.
15
Thank You Captain Obvious, Robert Piddle, you pompous ass.
16
Say, which part of my comment was 'this close' anyway? My my, aren't we fickle today?!
17
Ah Barbara your plan to craft a blog post that gathers all of the assholes in one comment thread was genius. Next stop, reddit!
18
Barbara, I started your next column for you, might save some time next week.

Recently three friends and I were playing pinball in their van at a rest area along I-5. My friends are in a band, kind of like the Partridge Family except that they wear balaclavas and they all have beards (but that doesn’t mean they want to be men, OK?). While I was scanning the surrounding countryside through my binoculars (or “swingsbothwaysnoculars” as I sometimes call them, so sue me!), I spotted a giant straight white male who I immediately suspected of also being a tall heterosexual Caucasian man (nothing gets by me, except for flying onion rings, not my favorite). Suspicious, I watched the hatty stranger (he was wearing a hat, just remembered that I forgot to mention that) and quickly realized that he was manhammering mannails into the feet of baby ducks in the middle of the freeway. Um, dick move if there ever was one, and I’m pretty sure there was. Pinball be damned, I quickly donned a balaclava and…
19
...immediately sprang agilely from the van forthwith, sprinted to the center of the freeway and viciously pummeled his partially engorged manmember. It seems this sleazy psychopathic slimeball experiences some sick sexual satisfaction from insane salacious sadomasochism of quacking scapulae and sodomized swans. Violence is never the answer except in exceptional circumstances involving rampaging behatted bastards of the Caucasian persuasion. Every sensitive feminine libido feels the filthy eye fucking of the fantasizing inappropriately height enhanced instinctively. The uterus quivers in revulsion at the thought of dirty mind fingers caressing its essence in the land of daydreams and makebelieves. Fertile effeminate flowers prognosticate the voracious appetite of the unclean and their desire to copulate with sundry woodland creatures. The Fallopian Queen clearly gleans the sodden dreams of the sacrosanct and the impure equally. It has given itself fully and freely to the duty of protecting the footsies of the unlucky duckling. Sometimes a cock must be soundly struck to stop a hatted male menace from fucking up a hapless duck. After the dirty work was done and the gratuitous groin shot left the goon groaning in the gravel I returned to the Mystery Machine-esque mode of transport and...
20
Seriously? Barbara is taking the stance that racial epithets are bad? Other than the KKK, who's not with her on this? This is boring as all fuck.

How about this?

But rappers say it! If they can do it, why can't I?

Lets at least have something to talk about in here.
21
…I found that the pinball machine (a rare ‘70s “Free to Be…You and Me” model) was now being hogged by a mustachioed gent (short for gentile? I don’t have time to Google) who said his name was Graham. Since Graham is an anagram of “hag arm” it seemed clear that he didn't respect the divine feminine (which has nothing to do with John Waters movies, thanks very much). I stood there palpating my balaclava (not a euphemism, guys), trying to make clear that I was next. And the guy. Kept. Playing. Can I get a Gundersonesque “I think I’m gonna barf!” from the, well, from whoever’s still reading this? Tune in next week, when we'll all drive to Eugene and mistake the statue of Ken Kesey for one of Norman Mailer.
22
This the one column that I regularly find myself hating while agreeing with the principles. Why is that? Is it the tone--- intermittently jokey and then serious about non-jokey things? Is it the cutesy, non-intellectual voice while espousing feminism? Is it the vague, anything-I-want-or-say-as-a-woman-is-awesome-because-I'm-a-woman but otherwise I am not really sure why it is awesome? This is tiresome.
23
please give Todd and JRR a column. It would actually be entertaining and original by the looks of things, which would be an upgrade.
24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fHMoDt3nSHs#t=220
25
I sure do hope we can make this comedian hate herself.
26
If you hate her column so much, why are you still reading it? I'll answer that for you, Barbara is an intriguing person. You don't have to like what she writes but the fact that you are getting riled up enough to post a comment about it shows that you care. Would any of you say this to her face?

The comments to this article are ironic. And look at all the attention this article is getting! She has written better articles but it's never wrong to reiterate how important it is to stand up for what you believe. Because obviously some people can't just be chill. If you stand up to assholes then you are a hero, whether it impacts them or not. Barbara is a hero.
27
There's like, WAY more idiots than usual trolling this comment thread. For a column about some racist asshole trying to defend his n-bomb usage of all things. I guess the n-bomb is dumbdumb bait?

In numerous other columns I've seen a bunch of people claim she's making her stories up, which means either:
a) they literally NEVER leave their home
b) they're the person she's writing about and they're trying to defend their horribleness in the dumbest way possibly

Because most of these columns, sadly, describe pretty common behavior. People are dumb. Leave your house and witness it for yourself. Or if you're the one she's writing about, go...I don't know. Away? I'm not very good at insulting people.
28
turbo-privileged hipster dorks get SO MAD. Y U SO MAD. NO SRSLY. Y.

...I'LL WAIT.
29
Those that comment that this article is about racism lack reading comprehension. It's about inaction. Apathy of rational people is at the core of almost all other social and political problems today. The mere fact that this article exists is a step to curing the problem.

Some of you should spend less time commenting and more time having some semblance of a constructive opinion whatever you might believe.
30
This column isn't about racism, it's about speaking up when you see something offensive happening, despite the likely outcome that "nothing will change".

If you're going to kvetch, at least give the column an accurate read, you fucking dorks.
31
Everyone rush in the espouse why you hate the column, while also reading the column every week. I try not to do things I hate every week, but I don't know maybe you're all extreme masochists or horribly unhappy. Let's all shut up, someone who is saying anything against anything by saying she's doing it wrong!

Blah. It's so youtube.

Barbara,

I enjoyed this. I'm glad you're standing up, and that you stand up for your friends.
32
I wish this would have read "we'll unlock the portal to fairyland and be able to return home, just after we Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker this fucker in the balls. Are you ready to go to jail? I'm ready to go to jail.

We can't change a bigot's mind, but that doesn't mean we can't kick the shit out of him and run. The End"
33
I'll chime in just because Barb inspires me to act when I see this garbage happen. The fact that the same dumb doods come in here EVERY WEEK and comment disparagingly on Barb's column about feminism is proof that we all need feminism. Did they do this to Ian Karmel when he had a regular Merc column? Well, sortof, because they are Mercury comment section trolls and that's what they do. But note the disparity, the viciousness, the repeated offense, the demeaning tone. Barb receives this criticism at this volume and length because she is a woman. This is undeniable.

The worst comment on this thread was where someone said Barb's tone is not "intellectual." There are two big problems with this idea: 1) it sets up a false standard whereby a person can be either intellectual or not, and where intellectual speech / writing is worth reading while non-intellectual words are not worth reading, thus ignoring the core argument instead of responding to it (an ad hominem, if you're keeping score) and 2) fully embracing the class structure as a component of one's argument, by essentially calling Holm uneducated. EVN IF HR COLMN WUZ ALL CAPS LOCK N ABBREVIATED IT WD STILL BE WORTH REEDING. Not to mention that bringing feminism to the Mercury blog through accessible language is a NET GAIN because poor and uneducated people need feminism, too.

Second worst comment: the guy who says "there's no way that an alert woman creature could be seeing ONE WHOLE INCIDENT OF MISOGYNY PER WEEK AND THEN WRITING ABOUT IT. She must be imagining / fictionalizing her life because that seems like way too much misogyny, way more than ACTUALLY EXISTS." You're totally right, dude, I can't imagine how more than 52 micro-(or macro)-aggressions could take place in our metro area per year under observation, so now I suspect Barb is actually... AAAH I CAN'T EVEN PRETEND TO AGREE WITH YOU IN A JOKE, DUDE.

In short: I'm glad Barb has so effectively continued using this space and I wish the moderators would ban about a third of the people posting comments because their perspective, pans out as "there's really nothing wrong with Barb's 'least favorite piece of misogyny,' it's all in her head." Die in a fire, trolls.
34
...What Shawn said.
35
I think we can all agree that everyone in this thread is literally Hitler.
36
If you have never seen Barbara on stage to know if she's bat-shit crazy, or really fucking funny and adorable, then just shut the fuck up already!

GO. TO. A. FUCKING. COMEDY. SHOW. BEFORE. YOU. FUCKING. JUDGE. SOMEONE. She's more then just a writer, she's your future entertainment.
37
Eagerly awaiting this week's "Don't be a dick, Todd"
38
I love the comment section of all of Barbara's columns because sometimes I start to actually give a shit about the human race and I need to be reminded why that is fucking stupid.

Thanks guys!

My misanthropy remains intact, all thanks to you.
39
YOU FORGOT THE BEST PART WHERE HE GOT KICKED OUT OF THE BAR FOR BEING A LOSER
40
"...if your words are clearly hurting someone, back the fuck up and think about what is happening..." I love you, Barbara Holm. And since you asked, http://www.reactiongifs.us/nooooooo-luke-s…
41
If you don't like her column, stop reading it. There is enough content on the Mercury to find something you DO like, and comment something remotely positive, instead of spewing your vitriol all over someone who is just doing her thang. Do you seriously feel the need to angrily express yourself whenever you read something you don't like or agree with? Do you not realize this is an actual person?
42
I love your column, Barbara! But I don't have the patience to wade through the dozens of douchey comments up there. Jesus, why do so many men (it really is mostly men) like to prove her very valid points in the comments?
43
"Oh, hey, a comment section! This seems like a great place to put all of this hatred I had lying around. Phew."

Please wait...

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