Let's Talk About Channing Tatum's Sexist Joke

So Channing Tatum, along with the cast of the upcoming Magic Mike XXL, presented the MTV Movie award for Best "Scared As S***" Performance at the 2015 ceremony. That all sounds like good fun, right? Well, it was — right up until Channing decided to lead with a deeply sexist joke that, naturally, didn't exactly go over well with the audience, or the viewers at home, for that matter. Here's what he said just seconds after he stepped out on stage: "To all the men out there, let's get serious for a minute. Look, we're living in some seriously scary times, right? Because women are taking over."

Seems innocent enough, right? It was met with cheers from women in the audience, because honestly, we're the tits and we should be taking over the world. But his costars couldn't leave it at that, because what's an awards show without rampant sexism, am I right?

Adam Rodriguez chipped in with a hilarious, "Can I just say, ladies, my eyes are up here?" and Joe Mangianello threw in his two cents with, "I don't feel comfortable walking by construction sites in my mini skirt anymore." Har har, Joe. Har har.

I'll just say what we're all thinking: These kinds of jokes aren't funny, they never were funny, and they never will be funny. I get that they were saying them from the standpoint of starring in a movie about male strippers where objectification is a pretty big thing, but that's fiction. This is real life, and making light of sexism and cat-calling is just never the way to go. These kinds of jokes just perpetuate the idea that making light of real sexism is OK. And really, these jokes are essentially the same as cat-calling. Channing may have just meant what he said as a simple joke, but, like The Daily Show's Jessica Williams has said about street harassment, it doesn't matter what he meant. Whether or not the joke-maker means well doesn't matter, because as Bustle writer Maitri Mehta pointed out, that implies that men have the right to cat-call or, in this case, make sexist jokes. And they don't.

Intent doesn't matter when it comes to belittling women—harassment is harassment, and sexism is sexism. It's 2015, people. It's high time to move past this whole thing.

Image: Getty Images; Giphy