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Comment by tome | Hacker News Reader

Confusion is the result of giving two different things (being playful and being hurtful) the same name (teasing).

There's significant gray area there, and plenty of room for confusion.

The confusion comes from the fact that "playful" and "hurtful" are, to a great extent, properties of the teasee rather than the teaser.

Fabienne [Pulp Fiction French Girl]: A pot. A pot belly. Pot bellies are sexy.

Butch [Bruce Willis]: Well you should be happy, 'cause you do [have a pot belly].

The net result of that conversation is NSFW in a positive way (here is the script http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/7606/pulpscri.htm).

I've had a similar conversations, and it doesn't always go so well. In retrospect, I believe the reason is that Fabienne considered herself beautiful and knew Butch was merely trying to get a reaction from her. Previous ladyfajitas didn't all feel the same way about themselves.

It's worth remembering that Fabienne reacted the way she did because that's what Quentin Tarrintino wanted her to do.

I realize that. But I've also had positive reactions under similar circumstances. The movie quote just refers to a scene most of us can easily picture.

Another example; I'm a bit homophobic, and I get teased for it occasionally. A friend of mine from years ago also behaved homophobically, but reacted badly to the same teasing. He came out of the closet last year.

His bad reaction was due not to the input, but his own internal state.

Ah yes, this is an example of 'Wareing's Law' (which I named after someone I went to college with) who when asked why any event happened in a film (usually because someone was incredulous about the way a film was progressing) he would reply: "Because it's in the script!"

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