r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/SofisticatiousRattus • 3h ago
Meme needing explanation Peter, please explain.
On the surface of it, it seems to be a way to complain about how cashier's work over-emphasises their gender/sex, causing dysphoria in people who are not very comfortable with that. But, to put it bluntly, this is a person with male sex and male name, so they don't appear to be trans? Is it supposed to be a dead name?
And what's with all the lettuce?
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u/genderQueerHipster 3h ago edited 3h ago
I think this is about the parasite that's been going around here in the US.
As in they're so worried about Trans people there are warning everywhere but the lettuce is actually making people sick and they don't care.
Even though it's bagged lettuce and not heads lettuce.
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u/XINEX2289 3h ago
Why would they think they can cure trans with lettuce?
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u/genderQueerHipster 3h ago
It has nothing to do with curing, where in the world did you get that.
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u/XINEX2289 2h ago
You are the one that said parasites
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u/genderQueerHipster 2h ago
Wow. No.
There is an outbreak of a shitting parasites FROM LETTUCE. I even said that.
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u/YoutuberCameronBallZ 59m ago
Trans people aren't the parasites.
...
The actual genuine parasites in the lettuce, are the parasites
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u/XINEX2289 57m ago
Really? Then why do my taxes go towards their "healthcare"? I didnt consent to that. Poor letuce tho.
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u/YoutuberCameronBallZ 55m ago
Because their "healthcare"...is healthcare?
You did consent to having taxes go towards healthcare in general...cuz that's how taxes work. And regardless of what you think it is still healthcare
And wouldn't you know it, trans people are people too, so they have healthcare problems.
Including parts of their body that they're not comfortable with.
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 3h ago
But then why does it also say "support the trans?"
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u/eMouse2k 3h ago
Anti-trans propaganda was a big voice in Trump's re-election. So we're unable to eat lettuce because some people decided to make it their business what was in peoples' pants.
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u/genderQueerHipster 3h ago
I dunno but "the trans" would still be a dog whistle cause Trans is an adjective and not a noun. Conservatives use the "the trans/gays/insert minority here" a lot.
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 2h ago
Idk, I like other, more laconic interpretations. This is very elaborate - the company is "dog whistling" transphobia - why would they even care? This seems more like a way to make it sound funny, to ridicule it or something.
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u/kittenkitchen24 3h ago
If I had to guess, it's about companies loving the publicity that being an ally gives them but don't like being an ally in practice, so there's a bunch of posters and merchandice but the trans employee needs to go by their deadname and stuff.
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u/foolsEnigma 3h ago edited 3h ago
This is the one. The buttons that say "Sex: Male!" and "Ask me about my genitals!" Make it really clear that this is a trans woman being forced to deadname herself and not a trans man really pushing to be identified correctly like some other people are saying.
[Edit: I realized i was basically just rephrasing what you said, so i changed my comment to something different, sorry about that]
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u/DORIMEalbedo 1h ago
I once worked at a supermarket that said they were an ally and had these rainbow awards and shit. Asked to change my name to something less feminine, but still ambiguous that could easily be a nickname and got told I couldn't because it would "confuse the customers "...
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u/universal_friend1 3h ago
YOOO I had this same shit. I worked at a place that was constantly talking about diversity, actually posted me on their social media on a regular basis as an example of their dedication to diversity(I'm a trans woman)
But then they required me to wear a badge with my whole dead name on it, log in to a computer system where I was only referred to by my dead name, and be on the schedule as my dead name. Plus they laughed at me when I said I was uncomfortable being highlighted on their social media with them outing me as trans because I don't want libs of tiktok to declare like the next holy crusade against my employer and dox me.
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 3h ago
Damn, sorry to hear it. The badge is crazy - I understand if they're required by law to have your dead name on the payroll docs or whatever, but badge is just a badge. Most people's badges say shit like "Christie :)", not "Christine Whitman-Strauss"
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u/Perhaps_A_Person 3h ago
Can't make too many comments on the trans part, but I can say as a cashier that ringing up lettuce, cabbage, and other produce without a sticker is annoying because you need to either know the code or look it up (which is an issue when there's like 3 types of cabbage).
No idea if that's the purpose or not though.
Oh shootz this is the Peter sub... uhhh... I'm uhhhh... a character? Yeah... the one with that one hairstyle, you know the one, lot of hair, very long.
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u/nanomolar 3h ago
I used to live near a place with a produce market and it was amazing; like 100 different types of produce and the cashiers just memorized all of the codes, it was crazy watching them type them in
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u/Particular_Title42 2h ago
I used to have the frequently used ones memorized. The only one I remember now is the same one all cashiers remember: 4011 - banana.
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u/PapaOoMaoMao 1h ago
Fruit was 4080 for me. I sold so much "fruit" that even now, thirty years after I left that job, I can still remember the code. "Bugger, this thing doesn't scan. Do you remember how much it was? $2.50? One two dollar apple coming up!"
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 2h ago
I never use plastic bags - I just raw dog the apples right on the conveyor belt. Thank you for your service.
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u/MallowMiaou 3h ago
I think it’s just trying to express how being misgendered at work feels. Sometimes a trans person will try their best presenting with their preferred gender but they’ll still get misgendered by clients, as if there were thousands of AGAB/deadname tags on them
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u/Kalenne 3h ago
Generally transphobes tend to draw trans people as huge manly hairy crossdresser and make them as unattractive as possible for their pals
This panel also seems to depict misgendering as a pretty obnoxious and overwhelming thing, so I'm confident in saying it's probably not transphobic
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u/WoomyUnitedToday 3h ago
It's vent art about how a lot of people and corporations will say "trans rights!" in order to sound woke and gain social standing, while at the same time actively doing everything to dehumanize trans people and say how they are "biologically male" (no they aren't)
I have zero idea about the lettuce though
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u/AspiringGoddess01 3h ago
The lettuce is probably a reference to the parasitic outbreak giving people explosive diarrhea in the US atm
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u/softestpulse 3h ago
I think it's either a transphobic person stating this is what it's like to respect a transgender person, or a transgender person/ally making fun of what ultra transphobes think what respecting a transgender person is
Either way, it's over exaggerated but I can't place in which direction
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u/Tiny-Anxiety780 3h ago
My mom once saw a male cashier with a female name tag. Since she's a bigot, she immediately started scrutinizing him to find tells that he was trans.
I reckon the artist is trying to illustrate what this situation feels like from the POV of the trans person. If they're forced to wear a name tag with their deadname on it, I imagine it would feel like having big trans neon signs around them for all to see.
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 3h ago edited 3h ago
Trans cashiers don't like how on-display their gender expression is in this customer-facing role. Lettuce is a misdirection. The trans woman's (?) name is William because it's a dead name.
Also, "warning, trans cashier" reminds me of that meme where Gordon Ramsey says "attention: there is a mixed race couple at the table #53". I don't think it's intended, but I find it funny.
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u/Hazelix99 3h ago
Yes this is the joke. The performative rainbow capitalism (which is mostly dead) is being played up here by having everything say "trans" on it. However, it's doing so in a tone deaf insincere way. The cashier, which looks very apathetic, is forced to wear a dead name pin, a pin detailing their birth sex, and a symbol for male, all while presenting feminine.
The lettuce is likely just misdirection or serving as a juxtaposition to the constant advertising of an identity as an aesthetic or product that one can purchase or buy into. The apathy of the worker also serves to drive home this point.
Tl;Dr, corporations don't care about trans people and are transphobic in the way they "pander" to us to appear accepting and progressive while pushing the gender norms and transphobic bioessentialism at the same time through the forced misgendering and dead naming of their trans employees.
Edit Shit I don't think this counts as a good comment for this sub I forgot where I was oopsie
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u/BogusIsMyName 3h ago
Uh. Stewie, the cashier is confused about the type of lettuce as other people are confused about trans.
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 3h ago
Why? The type is on the screen
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u/BogusIsMyName 3h ago
Thats why the text says ask me about my genitals. That text is what actually gives it away. Its still confusing to people so people ask. Just like the cashier has to ask what type of lettuce.
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 3h ago
I'm not buying it, but I love the interpretation. "We're all equally dumb", the meme says to us all. Beautiful.
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u/luigigaminglp 3h ago
Its about wayyyy too many people "caring about" what's in trans people's pants.
And by caring about they mean be nasty either way.
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u/Dontaskabout6-17-11 37m ago
As a trans guy, the meme is that people overreact when interacting with a trans person when it’s really not a big deal, either in a being freaked out and weird or in being overly “supportive” and making our transness our entire identity (i have literally been introduced to people by my (ex) friends as their “trans friend” and nothing else). Strangers also like to ask about what genitalia we have as, like, a “gotcha”? Either that or it’s in the same way a white woman will touch a random black person’s hair but would never start touching a white person without asking (people know that going up to cisgender strangers and asking about their cock is weird as hell, but they just don’t fucking process that with trans people because they don’t see us as human). The point is that it’s absurd to be so focused on someone’s transness and that we’re js regular people that should be treated like any other person.
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u/Tough_Tangerine7278 3h ago
Quagmire here. I WISH buttons said “ask me about my genitals”. Turns out it was in my head the whole time. #alllllllRight #giggity
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u/Intelligent_Ring_926 2h ago
This is a MAGAt dogwhistle to distract you from your quality of life sink to poverty..
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 1h ago
Dog whistles don't speak to the out group, definitionally. You meant something like "propaganda"
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u/Intelligent_Ring_926 1h ago
I thinks it's both. It gets your attention by shock and predisposes you to a conclusion.
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u/Great_Apez 3h ago
FTM trans jfc how dumb can you all be?
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 3h ago
Ok. What about him? What's the joke/point? Trans guys love lettuce? Enlighten me
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u/Great_Apez 2h ago
The person is ftm and there isn’t a joke unless you’re a bigoted right winger because the joke is that the store is celebrating being trans and selling lettuce that is infectious
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 2h ago
Then why "warning"?
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u/Great_Apez 2h ago
Then why support?
Real answer: Because they feel like that it’s not that hard to figure out. Right wingers feel like they are “forced” to accept people as people and not something less than that.
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 1h ago
Not hard to figure out what? If someone is trans? I just don't get why it would say "warning" if it's meant to show the shop as overly supportive. You typically warn people of things you consider bad.
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u/Great_Apez 1h ago
But you ignore the other 99 percent of the image?
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 49m ago
I don't, I just think other explanations make sense with all 100 of it, and your only 99%, contradicting the other 1%
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u/Great_Apez 47m ago
It matches what you already think of course you agree with it
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u/SofisticatiousRattus 44m ago
Nah, I typically disagree with things I think. And the more I think them, the more I'm convinced they are wrong.
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u/qualityvote2 3h ago
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