Another elevator joke for you all:
So Pierce Harlan of the False Rape Society blog gets into an elevator ….
Well, OK, not a joke. In his latest post, Harlan offers a reaction, of sorts, to the whole atheist elevator incident –- by relating an anecdote of a recent elevator experience of his own.
EDITED TO ADD: Harlan has now deleted the post in question. It can still be seen, at least for now, in Google’s cache of the original page, which you can find here. Grab screenshots! Back to the story:
Seems he was riding a hotel elevator with a sweet old lady. Neither one said anything to the other (Harlan apparently hates talking to sweet old ladies) but when he got off the elevator – well, let’s let him explain:
I glanced back at her and saw that … she was immobilized with fear. In fact, she was practically cowering in the corner. Her eyes couldn’t have been wider if I had whipped out my dick and lathered it up with Grey Poupon. Hers was the face of utter, unbridled fear, and she was watching me like the scardest of scared deer. She said not a word but her demeanor practically pleaded, “Please don’t rape me, sir!”
Now, Harlan seems to have what you might call a taste for overstatement. He describes feminists as “screeching banshees” and “extremist loons allied with the sexual grievance industry.” I doubt he could describe a chicken-salad sandwich without resorting to angry hyperbole. (That was a little bit of overstatement on my part.) But let’s just assume that there is at least a kernel of truth here: this woman was creeped out by Harlan.
So what was Harlan’s response to this woman’s obvious discomfort?
[N]o one has more empathy for his fellow human beings than I do. The first thought that came to my mind in response to the obvious fear on the face of this pathetic, sweet looking, older woman — who probably never hurt anyone in her entire life — was fuck you!
Obviously we are supposed to ask just what it was that drove Harlan – the self-described world’s most empathetic man – to say something so seemingly callous? Well, as is usually the case with those we write about here, it all comes back to man-hating ladies and their male allies, with their evil insistence on sexual assault education (sorry, “indoctrination”) and their callous demands to “’take back the night,’ although the night has always been theirs.”(I don’t quite know what that means, but it sure sounds selfish of these women to want a whole extra night just for themselves.)
Ours is, Harlan says, “a culture marked by crass, hysterical fear-mongering about male sexual predation and violence.” (Evidently some guys haven’t gotten the memo on this.)
But all this evil misandry seems to have left poor Mr. Harlan in an uncharitable mood towards, well, almost everyone — though he directs his worst opprobrium at sweet old ladies.
Fuck them all. The paranoia of the woman in the elevator is her problem, not mine. Ironically, the elevator, the hotel itself, the car she rode in and the roads she rode on to get to the hotel were all undoubtedly conceived, designed, and built by men — men she’d fear just as much as me if they were standing in that elevator with her. I felt no guilt or shame or bewilderment over the fact that she fears me because of my birth class. Let her fear me. I can’t change it, and I have too much to do to worry about it.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s good that some people fear us. Maybe we should exult in the power we wield by reason of their paranoia. One thing I know: I will never do anything to alleviate their paranoia. In fact, I’m just fine with it, thank you very much. If someday, my riding the elevator causes some old woman to have a heart attack, that, too, is not my problem. Blame it on a culture that I don’t approve of. Blame on sweet looking, older women who give in to the paranoia.
Truly the world’s most empathetic man.
Harlan goes on to talk briefly about the Rebecca Watson elevator incident. Needless to say, he adds nothing interesting to the discussion.
Assuming that his story is true, what could Mr. Pierce have done to make this old lady more comfortable/fear him less?
Not had a ragesplosion inside his head–and then, publicly, on the Internet–about it. Maybe her discomfort was something he couldn’t control, but whether he interpreted it in the worst way possible was.
(And before you say “ha ha, you sound like the people criticizing Skepchick,” the difference is that in this scenario, she was the one feeling uncomfortable.)
A polite smile can do wonders or since he apparently was working at the hotel make a random comment that he hopes she likes the hotel as he designed it.
Then they could have gone back to the room and had mad passionate coffee.
Like I said, a kind smile.
No, could be interpreted as creepy. Anything else?
Ion; Just give her space.
In an elevator? I’ll assume he wasn’t pressed up against her to begin with.
Anyway, he’s right in that he really doesn’t have to do anything to make her more comfortable.
Ok then.
Purposefully making her more uncomfortable would be an extremely dick move
He did nothing of the sort, though.
The problem I personally have with his post is that he has so much vitriol for a woman who dares act in such a way he does not like. That’s just…. i don’t even.
I didn’t see it as directed at her personally, so much as at the general attitude that women must fear men, which is in fact being spread by feminists. I might disagree with the tone and the particulars, but can’t say he is altogether wrong.
Pierce, I apologize for the poor wording. I wasn’t referring you you saying “fuck you” out loud to the woman in the elevator, but rather to the quoted paragraph you wrote. But obviously that was not clear. I reworded the sentence.
filet, I’ve never seen him explicitly endorse violence,.
Ion | July 18, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Ok, here’s a question: Assuming that his story is true, what could Mr. Pierce have done to make this old lady more comfortable/fear him less?
Maybe nothing. We have no idea what’s on her mind. (this goes back to my Kobiyashi Maru post in my blog xD) We dun even know that she’s scared, or why she’s scared if she is.
She could be scared cuz his t-shirt is reminding her of a situation that was scary. Or she could be scared cuz she just watched a scary movie. xD It’s like if I don’t smile at somebody… who knows why not? There might not be ANY way to have made me smile in that situation, or w/ what’s on my mind.
I think ppl don’t feel that he MADE her scared (at least I’m not) but the issue ppl here have is what Mr. Pierce was writing xD
I remember being worried about the person who was on the elevator with 13 and I when I went to LA for my birthday and 13 is not a little guy.
Just because you have no reason to be scared of the person does not mean you should not be aware of your surroundings.
“the issue ppl here have is what Mr. Pierce was writing”
Yeah the whole “fuck you! let them be scared!” crap was a bit childish.
What really happened, I bet, is that this dude got on an elevator with an old woman, who maybe took a step or two away from him. And then the rest, the crippling fear and overt paranoia that Harlan describes is just a product of his imagination.
Bingo. This sounds like the kind of guy who fantasizes about being tough enough to scare an old lady. Man, wouldn’t that be something to brag about? Mind you, some old ladies are hard to scare. You should meet my grandma.
MRAL, of course no one is forcing you to do this or that. If you want to behave in a way that you know scares people and makes them avoid you, you’re free to do so. However, you can’t behave that way and also whine whine whine ENDLESSLY about how girls don’t seem to want to be around you. (Well, you can–it’s a free country–but don’t expect it to do much good.) If you deliberately act off-putting, your fellow human beings will be off-put, and women, believe it or not, are human beings.
I think this is the part MRAL has trouble with.
And Sharculese, if I wanted to get angry about something really petty, I’d focus on you. But, see, I didn’t.
did you just, i-know-you-are-but-what-am-i me? lmao.
” If you deliberately act off-putting, your fellow human beings will be off-put, and women, believe it or not, are human beings.”
Yes! I hate this feminist/MRA bullshit. If you have been denied a basic human right by the opposite gender it is your right as a HUMAN, not a male or female, a human to defend yourself. This war of the sexes is bullshit. You cannot generalize an entire gender just because you met a few bad eggs in your time. When will people grow up?
Maybe she wanted to invite him to her room for coffee but missed her chance…
I know Ion-that is why I said “mad passionate coffee.”
“Purposefully making her more uncomfortable would be an extremely dick move
He did nothing of the sort, though.”
Nope, he didn’t! I didn’t mean to imply that he did. I’m just saying that if someone in this kind of situation WERE to do that, well, that be dick.
And the way I read this was that he was railing about women being uncomfortable or frightened of strange men. And I don’t think that is right at all.
Am I the only person who started reading the initial post, only to be disappointed when the little old lady didn’t corner Pierce Harlan in the elevator and invite him up to her room for coffee?
Ah, Ion beat me to it!
Countdown to when you tell us we should “discount what you said” ’cause you “just couldn’t control yourself”…
I’m not usually worried about being attacked in an elevator, but if I was alone in an elevator with someone and I spontaneously developed psychic powers and read in their thoughts anything remotely like Harlan’s vicious hatred for that poor little old lady, I think I would suddenly be terrified.
Maybe Little Old Lady did have psychic powers and knew that Harlan was an MRA and that’s what scared her. The elderly, they are wise indeed.
Looks like Dave has been banned from FRS.
Maybe she wanted to invite him to her room for coffee but missed her chance…
Nice, old ladies prefer a cup of tea. An invitation for coffee would be bad game. 😉
His first name keeps making me think of this.
“You’re nothing to me. I will not hide in my house so the entitled Her Holy Highnesses will not have to gaze upon my hideous male visage and be discomforted by my presence. Fuck that. I have just as much right to walk around outside, to enjoy myself, to go in elevators, as any female, and not be shamed into changing my behavior for no reason other than gender. I will exercise that right, and if you have a problem with that, that’s TOO FUCKING BAD.”
@MRAL: Just checking; does this accurately represent your opinions? Are you sure you don’t want to cool off a little bit and reflect on the issue? Have you been spending enough time away from MRA blogs before commenting here? Because if you’d like to retcon this statement away, please do it before too many people reply to you.
I had to ask when is it actually okay to be scared as a female of a strange guy-is it when you are a small female, old lady, or have a history of violence?
No, I think this accurately reflects my views. I will not be shamed into hiding or changing my behavior because my existence apparently offends the Her Holy Highnesses of the world. Fuck them.
And you know it offends them how? Did you ask?
“Hey, I know you seem to think I suck but can you tell me why?”
You might find the answer illuminating.