MetaChat - How would you read a username that appeared as "therapistboy"?

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24 August 2012

How would you read a username that appeared as "therapistboy"? I came across a profile with this username on OKCupid recently. I literally felt sick at the sight of it. I thought about it for a few days and got more and more outraged by it. →[More:]The tonight I clicked it intending to report it, but it turned out that the guy meant it to be read as "therapist boy" since he's well, a therapist. I had to laugh at myself for not thinking of that. I've just been running into too much misogyny lately. Still, though, dude should really change his user name. At least include an underscore to make things clear.

post by: Orange Swan at: 20:06 | 18 comments

Yeah, he might want to fix that one. It's easy to make mistakes like that. I still think it's funny TheKnot.com did a wedding blogger feature with some of us back when I was getting married, and called us "The Knottie Bloggers". Say that one out loud a few times.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 24 August | 20:23

At first I was just all "what in the world were you thinking?" and then I remembered the joke I reused to a prof of mine about "why is it spelled 'the rapist?'"
My go to was therapist, so I was just super confused for a few minutes. And here I thought I was living in the land of blatant misogyny.

posted by ethylene 24 August | 20:27

I read it as "therapist boy" and thought he was either in training to be a therapist or the results of a therapist. But I agree that it's wide open for misinterpretation and he should change it.

posted by deborah 24 August | 20:32

Just saw another OKCupid username: niggarboy. (The profile picture showed a white guy.) I'm assuming there's no other way to read that one.

posted by Orange Swan 24 August | 21:07

How Tobias Fünke of you. But I remember seeing a gag related to that as far back as an ancient Benny Hill show; he was a sign painter working on a door in a medical building and he had such a naughty (Knottie?) look when somebody pointed out he put too much space between the "E" and "R" in "THERAPIST".

posted by oneswellfoop 24 August | 22:00

i read it as the rapist, but quickly figured it to be therapist . I would wonder about anyone using that nick that says they don't realize that it has the more sinister meaning. I'd keep my distance

BTW what's OK Cupid like ? Part of me keeps thinking about putting myself out there again. I'm just not sure how yet

posted by rollick 24 August | 22:08

I also saw it as therapist boy. But I have been in therapy and my doctor and I discussed the concept of therapist as the rapist. I believe it is a common thing. Perhaps more common as he told me, for females.

posted by Splunge 24 August | 22:22

I read it as therapist...but my experience with male shrinks has given me the conviction that most of them are assholes.

posted by brujita 24 August | 22:53

I read it as therapist boy as well. And me with my slavish Arrested Development devotion.

But it doesn't speak well to his situational awareness.

posted by gaspode 24 August | 23:27

I read that as therapist as well, and was wondering what the whole conflict was... until I figured it out.

Reminds me of the amusing www.penisland.net/ which is a totally SFW site related to pens.

posted by eekacat 25 August | 07:42

I reacted like eekacat, but I'm a therapist.

posted by Obscure Reference 25 August | 08:20

I read "therapist boy" as well, it took me a minute to figure out what was off. But yes, I can totally see it being taken wrong, especially on a dating site (wherein I ran across some .. unique.. individuals, to say the least.

posted by redvixen 25 August | 10:02

I'm married to a therapist, so yeah, "therapist".

posted by Egg Shen 25 August | 11:16

I read it as therapist, and didn't click the more inside for a while and spent a few minutes trying to figure out what was so offensive about that. I've been in therapy on and off like forever, so I actually came up with some pretty creative ways "therapist boy" could be considered offensive.

posted by Twiggy 25 August | 17:40

I saw it as 'therapist' too but, someone that can't instantly see the problem with that name the first time they lay eyes on it? Nowhere near smart enough for you.

posted by dg 25 August | 19:01

"I'll take The Rapists for 200"

posted by goshling 25 August | 22:07

Would probably not be inspired to date a guy who didn't know of/see the rapist in therapist. But I aspire to be a word geek.

posted by theora55 26 August | 14:02

Goshling: I just figured it was a reference to that SNL skit too. kinda like it was SUPPOSED to be read both ways.

posted by argentcorvid 27 August | 11:26

← I'd like to get me a nice big external hard drive. (Not a euphemism.) || Hello, Henry! →

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