WHITE GUY DEFENSE FORCE GO!

[bunji]

This is opposed to what the comic is saying, which is that there is a group (and let's face it, a very large and vocal group) of white men who will scream loudly every time racism is brought up. They even have their very own news network! The comic was not a joke about white male stereotypes. If it was, it'd have touched on, I don't know, hillbilly cousin sex. There is a huge difference between an offensive stereotype and an actual reality. You, yourself, fall into that latter group.


And you just proved them right. Good job.

Hah, youre funny. Yes this comic makes fun of white stereotypes, like the overamped manlet, the fat mlp brony and the fedora wearing pseudo intellectual. There you have your stereotypes. I dont see how "fat, socially inept brony" is somehow less offensive than "lazy". Hell, I'm lazy, Ill even admit that. Its also even called "white guy defense force" so you cant really argue that it isnt specifically aimed at white men. They are also no more true for the average white male population than the lazy black guy. So so far everything you have said is just wrong.

The rest of your post is fairly bloated and in need of some editing. I suppose you mean to say that it is supposed to be baiting people into complaining about how it is always open season on white males? Well, touché, here we are.

That doesn't invalidate that claim in the slightest tho. It is the equivalent shouting N****R in harlem and then that somehow is making fun of the black people who would come out and ask you what the fuck.

 

[Karathos]

I laughed. I laughed so goddamn hard. I'm lying here on a Saturday morning (GMT +2) about to head to work, and could not be less enthusiastic about it. Then I decide to check the Escapist randomly and wham... best laugh in a good while. Unbelieveable! DDD

 

[bunji]

How about you actually read up on some stuff? Sure males have alot of privledges, but that comes at a price, like 93% of workplace deaths are males (i dont know how to source on the escapist), and dont come banging the glass ceiling without taking a look in the glass cellar.

Role theory, away!

Okay, this isn't religion and politics forum and you're not really trying, so I'm not going to make this too long. But this kind of thinking sucks because it's basically a conspiracy theory with no conspirators. The only form of "oppression" in this scheme is failing to meet the exacting standards of "society", society in this case having no relationship to actual human beings and being merely the effects of socialization.

The problem is that when you actually get out and talk to men who take on dangerous jobs, when you talk to men who join the military, when you talk to heavy industrial workers, you quickly realize that they aren't undervalued. They aren't detested by society, they aren't consigned to the bottom of the heap by society's deep loathing of men as a group. Actually they're often some of the most respected men within their particular cultural schema (which may not be the same as all of society) and men will compete to occupy these positions, even when confronted with the possibility of easier or safer work. Even if these positions do not entail much power or wealth they're often held up as paragons of masculinity and virtue, and part of this respect is due to the assumed ability of those men (and to a lesser extent men in general) to handle risk, to deal with difficult situations. This kind of high-risk behavior does not indicate worthlessness or disposability at all, it actually indicates effectiveness and competence, through the presumed ability to deal with risk.

In fact, isn't that pretty much what you're saying here? "Men deserve respect because they do all the hard and dirty work"? If this "glass cellar" was such a terrible thing, why would you say that? Why wouldn't you be wanting to help all the poor brainwashed men who have clearly become convinced of their own disposability at the hands of an evil feminized society or whatever? Oh right, because they haven't, and you know that really. They do these things because they are rewarding, because they grant genuine social legitimacy which, to some degree, all men benefit from. This isn't a reason why men are oppressed, it's a reason why men remain socially dominant.

I dont agree with that sentiment, there is no way anyone considers say a nurse (typical female job) in someway less than a garbace collector, a sewage pumper or a dockworker. In fact, its pretty much the opposite. Are you really trying to imply that even the fact that men get all the shittiest, dirtiest low income jobs is somehow a male priviledge? Thats kind of funny.

 

[lacktheknack]

Oh what the hell? What the hell is this comic? Seriously? You guys think this comic is accurate? That it's slinging hard truths? Are you really, by some unfathomable mental gymnastics, able to rationalize it as anything other than a strawman argument based on offensive stereotypes?

And for fuck's sake, stop bringing up "euphoric". The quote that came from was a parody to begin with.

Who said it was accurate and slinging hard truths? I've read the entire thread, but I started this morning so maybe I missed that part.

I'd say it takes a bit more mental gymnastics to think this comic was actually meant to be an argument as opposed to just mocking parody.

The comic is basically on the same level as this

I don't recall a calm and smart person in the comic.

The black guy.

For that matter, I don't recall there being any strong, controversial point

The black guy is defending a loaded question.

He said one thing, did no actual defending, and then tried to leave. That's not a true counterpoint to the White Guy Defense Force stooges.

And you know as well as I do that the subject that the black guy was talking about was NOT the point of the comic. To imply it was is to be entirely disingenuous.

Uh huh, it just happens to have a defense of "there needs to be more black protagonists/why isn't this a black guy" then for no reason people who disagree with that argument show up and act like idiots.

Congratulations! You found the point of the comic!

 

[lacktheknack]

And I brought up the drugs because the other poster thought Trayvon was on his way to see his friends. A bold faced lie when we know full well what Trayvon was doing. Trayvon didn't have any close friends in the area. He was brand new.

Sure. You somehow know exactly what he was planning on doing and that he didn't know anyone in the area. Wait...how?

No report ever mention him visiting a friend. Just buying the stuff and going home. In fact, the police would have found his local friends to create a timeline of what happened that night.

There was no friend. A friend would have stepped up to the police to help the investigation if that was true just like Jeantel did. All we have is Jeantel, who Trayvon was on the phone with. That's it. That's the only third party related to Trayvon there was: His girlfriend.

His texts were released, and it showed he was brand new to the area because his mother sent him to his father, because he was suspended from school. All his interactions with his friends were from the phone.

There is no evidence to support any claim that he was visiting anyone. There is only evidence he out to buy skittles and ice tea.

There is no evidence to support the existence of this imaginary friend. You might as well say he was on his way to talk to Jesus himself, Michael jackson's amusement park, or going to OJ's house. Because this imaginary friend is just as absurd as that.

No evidence, no friend.

But there's no evidence to support he doesn't exist.

Checkmate.

It's like creationism!

Wait...

 

[Terminal Blue]

I dont agree with that sentiment, there is no way anyone considers say a nurse (typical female job) in someway less than a garbace collector, a sewage pumper or a dockworker.

I don't agree with that sentiment. There is no way anyone considers say a garbage collector in some way less than a domestic cleaner, prostitute or single parent. See, I can make weird arbitrary comparisons too.

But, more significantly, would any of those people want to be nurses?

Being a nurse is a perfectly respectable job for a woman, it's traditionally seen as physically undemanding and reflects presumed female competences of caring and nurturing (though that is changing a lot). The problem is that being good at caring and nurturing doesn't allow you to be seen as a very effective human being.

You may look down in some level on men who do manual labor, and you may feel that they don't meet with your expectations of how men "should" acquire social value. That's normal, masculinity is socially stratified and far more varied in the range of acceptable expression than femininity (which, again, makes the notion of men being subject to generalized "oppression" incredibly silly). However, within a particular schema of traditional working class identity defining yourself through manual labor is often seen as something innately virtuous, as something which speaks of your toughness or virility as a man, and which is ultimately considered "more manly" than less physically demanding jobs. Moreover, most of us buy into this to some degree. Millions of boys who will probably grow up to have cushy office jobs spend their free time pretending to be soldiers in Call of Duty, there's a reason for that.

The feasibility of this has changed to a large degree in modern service economies, and it's generally what people speak of when they talk about the crisis of masculinity. Traditional working class ways of living have been largely wiped out in the past few decades by globalization, and it's caused a great deal of problems for working class men (and to some extent certain ethnic minority men) who are still defined by unrealistic expectations of the social legitimacy of dangerous or manual labor.

 

[Ramzal]

As an african american male, I'm starting--actually no, scratch that---I am very much offended by content like this. You want race to stop being an issue? Stop making it one. I honestly do not care if the character I'm playing as in a game is black or white. All I care about is if the character is interesting or not. It means nothing to me if my character has dark skin, nor do I really need someone "championing" a cause for me to bring more characters that have the same skin tone as I do into a game as the main focus.

Shoehorning race into any sort of medium to draw attention to a subject is pointless. Why? Because the experiences through skin color aren't very different in life. What actually divides people more often than not is economic differences in areas as well as education. This comic isn't funny, it paints a picture that no matter where I go, I'd have two choices:

1) Get pity from others because I am black, and I should be "accepted."
2) Get ready for a life of having my skin color be the main focus of what makes me an individual.

To be perfectly honest with you, I'd far rather deal with a moron who'd throw racial slurs at me than have to be "protected" or "understood" by a group that thinks I need their protection, or to be understood, or to be subject to tolerance. At the very least with a racist I'd have the chance to stand up to them/walk on my own two feet.

My skin color doesn't define me, and I really wish people would stop making cases where that's the most interesting aspect of myself. So thanks, thanks for putting up that shield in front of me that I really don't need. Oh, and about that Zimmerman crack? He's been found innocent in a court of law. Was it fair? I haven't the slightest idea, but it was justice and that's all there is to it. Let. It. Go. This honestly offends me worst than someone throwing slurs my way.

Edit: P.S. The sooner we all stop making an issue about the differences in race/how unfair things are for one race or the other and just TREAT others the same (I.E stop referring to each other as "Black" or "White") the sooner it stops being an issue. The only reason I did in this post was to make a point. In my every day life, it makes me sick at the thought of defining or placing another in a category by their race.

 

[Karathos]

On an actual serious note: never understood the needless complexity of the argument regarding character race. There's no need for anything more complex than "we wanted him to be white". The author, not the reader, chooses his characters. Changing a character's race, gender or what have you under pressure to appease group X is just as bad as anything else. I always find myself asking; if it doesn't matter that the main character is X or Y (in this case white or black) why can't he remain X then? It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

 

[Gizen]

How about you actually read up on some stuff? Sure males have alot of privledges, but that comes at a price, like 93% of workplace deaths are males (i dont know how to source on the escapist), and dont come banging the glass ceiling without taking a look in the glass cellar.

Role theory, away!

Okay, this isn't religion and politics forum and you're not really trying, so I'm not going to make this too long. But this kind of thinking sucks because it's basically a conspiracy theory with no conspirators. The only form of "oppression" in this scheme is failing to meet the exacting standards of "society", society in this case having no relationship to actual human beings and being merely the effects of socialization.

The problem is that when you actually get out and talk to men who take on dangerous jobs, when you talk to men who join the military, when you talk to heavy industrial workers, you quickly realize that they aren't undervalued. They aren't detested by society, they aren't consigned to the bottom of the heap by society's deep loathing of men as a group. Actually they're often some of the most respected men within their particular cultural schema (which may not be the same as all of society) and men will compete to occupy these positions, even when confronted with the possibility of easier or safer work. Even if these positions do not entail much power or wealth they're often held up as paragons of masculinity and virtue, and part of this respect is due to the assumed ability of those men (and to a lesser extent men in general) to handle risk, to deal with difficult situations. This kind of high-risk behavior does not indicate worthlessness or disposability at all, it actually indicates effectiveness and competence, through the presumed ability to deal with risk.

In fact, isn't that pretty much what you're saying here? "Men deserve respect because they do all the hard and dirty work"? If this "glass cellar" was such a terrible thing, why would you say that? Why wouldn't you be wanting to help all the poor brainwashed men who have clearly become convinced of their own disposability at the hands of an evil feminized society or whatever? Oh right, because they haven't, and you know that really. They do these things because they are rewarding, because they grant genuine social legitimacy which, to some degree, all men benefit from. This isn't a reason why men are oppressed, it's a reason why men remain socially dominant.

I dont agree with that sentiment, there is no way anyone considers say a nurse (typical female job) in someway less than a garbace collector, a sewage pumper or a dockworker. In fact, its pretty much the opposite. Are you really trying to imply that even the fact that men get all the shittiest, dirtiest low income jobs is somehow a male priviledge? Thats kind of funny.

Yeah, see, the thing about being a garbage collector, sewage pumper, etc., the reason why those jobs are looked down on has absolutely nothing to do with them being typically male jobs, and everything to do with the fact that those jobs are often very filthy. They're even looked down on by other men, as are most similarly dirty jobs, because nobody wants to do them. But people, often men, take them anyways, and usually the people who do take them know that they're being looked down on and don't really care. Do you know why? It's because while they're being looked down on, they're laughing all the way to the bank, because those 'shitty' jobs tend to be fairly high paying, specifically to entice people to come do them knowing that otherwise nobody would. They're also jobs that people will always need, so they have solid job security too.

A nurse meanwhile (which nowadays is getting to be less and less thought of as a female-specific job, as male nurses and female doctors grow more and more frequent), is specifically looked up on not because women are stereotypically the ones to fill the role, but because that job is actively saving their life.

 

[Overquoted]

Hah, youre funny. Yes this comic makes fun of white stereotypes, like the overamped manlet, the fat mlp brony and the fedora wearing pseudo intellectual. There you have your stereotypes. I dont see how "fat, socially inept brony" is somehow less offensive than "lazy". Hell, I'm lazy, Ill even admit that. Its also even called "white guy defense force" so you cant really argue that it isnt specifically aimed at white men. They are also no more true for the average white male population than the lazy black guy. So so far everything you have said is just wrong.

The rest of your post is fairly bloated and in need of some editing. I suppose you mean to say that it is supposed to be baiting people into complaining about how it is always open season on white males? Well, touché, here we are.

That doesn't invalidate that claim in the slightest tho. It is the equivalent shouting N****R in harlem and then that somehow is making fun of the black people who would come out and ask you what the fuck.

*facepalms* 'White Guy Defense Force' is not aimed at all white men. It's saying that those who pipe up with, "Omg, reverse racism," feel they are defending all white men. And they aren't. They are actually reacting to any challenge to the status quo. Turning a white character black is not simply trying to reflect modern day reality, it is a racially motivated attack on white men. That's what the 'White Guy Defense Force' is. It's a defense against an attack that never existed in the first place. (And again, I don't think most white guys notice or care about small, incremental changes like that. But for those who do, it is cause for an insane amount of vitriol.)

Is it a stereotype if most people don't recognize the reference? Is it a stereotype if it isn't applied to a group as a whole (as in, all white men are either fat bronies, pseudo intellectuals or frat-types)?

Is it a comic mocking those who scream about reverse racism by portraying them as egotistical bros, fat bronies and fake intellectuals? Going to go with yes.

Or, to clarify, you and the original poster I replied to, are not representatives of white men. You are the outliers. You are the ones seeing problems where there are none and then overreacting (like seeing a black man reaching for non-existent gun). There are a lot of you, sure, but there are just as many who'd laugh at you. But keep defending white men, brah. They are, after all, the most disenfranchised and discriminated against of all groups in America.

And really, that's what the comic is really about. In a country where an unarmed black kid gets murdered, and his murderer is walking free, the real issue is not the obvious and incredibly damaging racism (or sexism, if you want to talk of other issues) that exists. It's actually that a few white guys occasionally get called out for their crap or are sometimes made fun of. The horror.

Hate to break it to you, mate, but even if sexism and racism disappeared tomorrow, we'd all still be made fun of. The difference is in whether it's actually impacting your life. Are you suffering longer, harsher prison sentences? Do you die younger than other ethnicities? Do you suffer higher unemployment? Lower pay? Are you more likely to experience violence at the hands of others? Do you fear walking alone at night?

Nope. But a comic made fun of you, specifically (though not all white men). And that's cause for concern.

 

[Shadowstar38]

And I brought up the drugs because the other poster thought Trayvon was on his way to see his friends. A bold faced lie when we know full well what Trayvon was doing. Trayvon didn't have any close friends in the area. He was brand new.

Sure. You somehow know exactly what he was planning on doing and that he didn't know anyone in the area. Wait...how?

No report ever mention him visiting a friend. Just buying the stuff and going home. In fact, the police would have found his local friends to create a timeline of what happened that night.

There was no friend. A friend would have stepped up to the police to help the investigation if that was true just like Jeantel did. All we have is Jeantel, who Trayvon was on the phone with. That's it. That's the only third party related to Trayvon there was: His girlfriend.

His texts were released, and it showed he was brand new to the area because his mother sent him to his father, because he was suspended from school. All his interactions with his friends were from the phone.

There is no evidence to support any claim that he was visiting anyone. There is only evidence he out to buy skittles and ice tea.

There is no evidence to support the existence of this imaginary friend. You might as well say he was on his way to talk to Jesus himself, Michael jackson's amusement park, or going to OJ's house. Because this imaginary friend is just as absurd as that.

No evidence, no friend.

But there's no evidence to support he doesn't exist.

Checkmate.

It's like creationism!

Wait...

See. This guy actually gets what's going on.

 

[SidheKnight]

The problems with this comic:

1) It libels George Zimmerman, who has already been found not guilty by a jury.
2) It's offensive to bronies, fedora-wearing atheists, fat people, and white nerds in general.

I do however agree with the points raised by the young black man in the comic.

And I do get pissed when white gamers use the "political correctness" argument to keep the medium as un-diverse and exclusive as possible.

As for white straight males being the only demographic that is still legally able to be discriminated against, it's true. You can relativize the importance of this problem, but you can't deny it's existance.

Again, this doesn't justify the actual discriminating crap minorities and women have to endure in videogames everyday, and it's our responsibility to make this medium as inclusive as possible.

Other than that, I laughed a lot with this comic.

If you think I am mistaken, please let me know.


P.S: If you get banned in this site, do they tell you the reason why? Something tells me I might get banned for this post..

Well they link to the post that gets you banned at least.

Just don't call people names, post 'first', try to advertise (this includes making a topic about a video you made) or post a response that's only a few words (even if it's responding yes to a yes or no question) and you'll be fine.

I mean you can act condescending, call their ideas stupid and talk down to them but just don't insult them.

Thanks for the advise =)

Oh and since you don't seem like a jerk, why does anyone consider diversity amongst game characters an issue? And more importantly why do people complain about this by going after people who make their characters a white guy (or just a guy).

I don't think I understand the question.

Why is diversity amongst videogame characters important? Because gaming is a wonderful medium, and it's a pitty that a large portion of the playerbase can't play with characters they can identify with. It'd be as if all movies always had white male protagonists. The question I'd ask is the opposite one: why do all gaming protagonists have to be white males (Here I'm excluding "customizable" characters a la Sheppard or non-human protagonists like Sonic)?

I recommend this video a lot, it's by our very own MovieBob (from Escape to the Movies and The Big Picture) who goes by "The Game Overthinker" in his gaming blog, here's the vid:

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please add spoilers to your videos!

 

[Overquoted]

On an actual serious note: never understood the needless complexity of the argument regarding character race. There's no need for anything more complex than "we wanted him to be white". The author, not the reader, chooses his characters. Changing a character's race, gender or what have you under pressure to appease group X is just as bad as anything else. I always find myself asking; if it doesn't matter that the main character is X or Y (in this case white or black) why can't he remain X then? It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

Well, I briefly worked in the publishing industry and I still follow news and scandals to a degree. And from what I recall, there was (and may still be) an issue with book covers. Specifically, the characters would be described as non-white, and then the covers would have white characters. The idea being that if non-white characters were on the cover, the publisher would sell fewer books.

So, there is an economic imperative now (nevermind during the time period in which many comic book characters were initially created) to adhere to a white ethnicity. So sure, changing a character's race can, in a vacuum, seem like appeasing one group over another. But it's more about recognizing past and current racism that has created the idea that only white characters are profitable (and therefore only white characters are created).

Baby steps, dude. Change a few characters to black, prove the comics/movies still sell just as well, and maybe publishers and movie studios will be more willing to be race-blind themselves.

 

[Abomination]

As an african american male

Do you know what the most hilarious part of this whole thing is? One would hope that saying such as I quoted shouldn't carry more weight. The scary thing is, for some reason, it does carry more weight.

I would hope the value or impact of someone's opinion on a subject not be determined by their race, gender, sex, sexual preference, religion, nationality, age or socio-economic background - but unfortunately in some scenarios it is... and often it does nothing more than perpetrate the very issue. In this case it isn't your fault but the fact that stating you are black makes your opinion carry more weight than any other is also insulting*.

*This is not saying you are insulting anyone - far from it. The situation surrounding how your opinion is received by others is the insulting part. Your use of it I feel is not insulting either, and I can not blame you for doing so as I feel it also highlights the point you are making even more.

 

[Gizen]

On an actual serious note: never understood the needless complexity of the argument regarding character race. There's no need for anything more complex than "we wanted him to be white". The author, not the reader, chooses his characters. Changing a character's race, gender or what have you under pressure to appease group X is just as bad as anything else. I always find myself asking; if it doesn't matter that the main character is X or Y (in this case white or black) why can't he remain X then? It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

It doesn't need to be anything more complex than "we wanted him to be white", except most of the time that's not what it is. Quite often, it's something even simpler and stupider than that. A large portion of the time, the character being white isn't even a conscious decision of the author, so much as it's something the author never put any thought into at all. The author is white, his friends/co-workers are white, he's making up a character and just makes the character white because that's the default they're used to and they never even considered the alternative.

People on both sides of the issue frequently give creators too much credit. People who are tired of seeing everyone in comics/movies/video games being a white man and ask for it to be different. The creator's defenders come to proclaim that that's what the creator intended and how dare anyone challenge their creative vision. Everyone fights, while the truth is that the creator has no problem making the character black, or a girl, but the thought simply never occurred to them.

One side proclaims racism, the other side defends bold creative intent, when the truth is often nothing more than simple laziness during the character design process. Hardly a source of bigotry, but neither is it something worthy of defense.

And then sometimes it's not even the creator, but rather it'll be marketing people being stupid, and seriously, fuck those guys.

 

[Overquoted]

The author is white, his friends/co-workers are white, he's making up a character and just makes the character white because that's the default they're used to and they never even considered the alternative.

And then sometimes it's not even the creator, but rather it'll be marketing people being stupid, and seriously, fuck those guys.

This. 100%. Default or marketing. >_O

 

[Overquoted]

As an african american male

Do you know what the most hilarious part of this whole thing is? One would hope that saying such as I quoted shouldn't carry more weight. The scary thing is, for some reason, it does carry more weight.

I would hope the value or impact of someone's opinion on a subject not be determined by their race, gender, sex, sexual preference, religion, nationality, age or socio-economic background - but unfortunately in some scenarios it is... and often it does nothing more than perpetrate the very issue. In this case it isn't your fault but the fact that stating you are black makes your opinion carry more weight than any other is also insulting*.

*This is not saying you are insulting anyone - far from it. The situation surrounding how your opinion is received by others is the insulting part. Your use of it I feel is not insulting either, and I can not blame you for doing so as I feel it also highlights the point you are making even more.

*stares* Maybe it carries more weight because he's actually experienced the world in a different way and it's relevant to the situation? Kind of like if a fast food worker expresses an opinion about working conditions in the kitchen of a Mickey D's...their opinion would carry more weight than someone who has never worked fast food.

So...his opinion doesn't carry more weight in every situation. He probably wouldn't even bring it up in other discussions. But I suspect you were trying to get at something more anyway. Maybe that his opinion counts more cuz you're a white dude and he's not? *goes back to banging head against the wall*

 

[bunji]

Its kinda funny that you people actually think that it is somehow both a positive male image and male priviledge that men take the worst jobs out there. And I dont know how it is in the US, but where I live, garbage collectors make far less than a nurse, have a lower social standing, and his jobsecurity is horrible because everyone could do the job if they wanted to replace him. And thats not just an arbitrary anectdote, its an example for gods sake. What do you want me to ramble of every little job possible?

It was also just one single example on how reality is alot more complex than MEN OPRESSOR WOMAN OPRESSED, but I guess a nuanced worldview isnt really the forte of most people.

 

[Abomination]

*stares* Maybe it carries more weight because he's actually experienced the world in a different way and it's relevant to the situation? Kind of like if a fast food worker expresses an opinion about working conditions in the kitchen of a Mickey D's...their opinion would carry more weight than someone who has never worked fast food.

So...his opinion doesn't carry more weight in every situation. He probably wouldn't even bring it up in other discussions. But I suspect you were trying to get at something more anyway. Maybe that his opinion counts more cuz you're a white dude and he's not? *goes back to banging head against the wall*

Yeah, I mean, it's completely logical to consider the opinions of a black man more than the opinions of a white man when discussing the notion that white men can be discriminated against.

If I was to ask a black man if they had ever been discriminated against because of his race and/or sex/gender and he replied that he had an I valued his opinion less because he's not white that would be racist.

Yet in this scenario when introducing the idea that a white man can be discriminated against because of his race and/or sex/gender a white man's opinion is valued less because he is a white man... but that's somehow NOT discriminatory?

The entire point of the argument is that non-white males are not exclusively discriminated against. Yet in that very argument the white male's opinion is worth less than a black male's opinion... which just proves the argument.

This is simply a case of someone eating a cake and having it too.

Edit - changed "simple" to "simply".