The inhabitants of Reddit’s Men’s Rights subreddit seem to have developed a sudden crush on the authoritarian Chinese government. Why? Well, it seems that the lovable tyrants have decided to crack down on evil golddigger bitches. According to an article in The Telegraph, linked to in the subreddit,
In a bid to temper the rising expectations of Chinese women, China’s Supreme Court has now ruled that from now on, the person who buys the family home, or the parents who advance them the money, will get to keep it after divorce.
“Hopefully this will help educate younger people, especially younger women, to be more independent, and to think of marriage in the right way rather than worshipping money so much,” said Hu Jiachu, a lawyer in Hunan province.
The ruling should also help relieve some of the burden on young Chinese men, many of whom fret about the difficulty of buying even a small apartment.
Never mind that the lopsided demographics in China today — where young men greatly outnumber young women, making it harder for young men to find wives — are not the result of excess feminism, but the result of a toxic mixture of cultural misogyny and the authoritarian regime’s “one child” program. As William Saletan explains the logic in Slate:
Girls are culturally and economically devalued; the government uses powerful financial levers to prevent you from having another child; therefore, to make sure you can have a boy, you abort the girl you’re carrying.
The result? 16 million “missing girls” in China. Ironically, the skewed ratio of men to women gives young women considerable leverage in chosing whom to marry – and that’s what the Men’s Rightser’s seem to see as the real injustice here.
As Evil Pundit wrote, evidently speaking for many (given the numerous upvotes he got):
Wow. I’ve always disliked the authoritarian Chinese government, but for once, it’s done something good.
I may need to reconsider my attitude.
IncrediblyFatMan added:
China wants to become the next superpower and world leader. They aren’t going to do it by allowing the kinds of social decay that rot away at the competing nations.
Revorob joked:
If they brought that in over here, most women in Australia would be living on the street.
“Or,” Fondueguy quipped in response, “they could learn to work.”
At the moment, all the comments in the thread praising the Chinese government for this move (and there are many more) have net upvotes; the only comment in the negative? One suggesting that the Telegraph isn’t exactly a reliable source.
Speaking of which, here’s a more balanced look at the issue on China.org.cn that examines some of the consequences of the new ruling for Chinese women.
Let’s look at some of those. According to one Beijing lawyer quoted in the piece:
“[H]ousewives, especially those in the rural areas who have no job and are responsible for taking care of their families, will be affected most by this new change,” she said. “If their husbands want a divorce, they are likely to be kicked out of the house with nothing.”
Luo Huilan, a professor of women’s studies at China Women’s University in Beijing, agreed.
In rural areas, she said, men have the final say in family matters. All essential family assets, such as home, car and bank deposits, are registered in the men’s names, and women fill the roles of only wife, mother and farmworker.
“Their labor, though substantial, hardly gets recognition. Without a good education, they have to rely heavily on their husbands,” Luo said. “In case of divorce, a woman is driven out of her husband’s life, home and family, and finds herself an alien even in her parents’ home. No wonder the new interpretation of the Marriage Law has aroused concern among women.”
And no wonder it’s drawn cheers on the Men’s Rights subreddit.
I don’t know anything about how contracts work either. That’s why I don’t barge into conversations and try to correct people on the subject.
I love the part about how “Wikipedia is just some people’s opinions!” but holocaust denial conspiracy website are totally legit.
Spear I sign them all the time and I don’t know how they work. They just work. If one of us reneges then we can go to court to have a court appointed judge decide for or against us.
What I do know is I’m not going to hire the lawyer to tell us why slave’s visa card is in uppercase. I will however wonder why that is the only contract he’s signed in his life.
My, my, the IRS is onto this one:
The “straw man” claim is premised on the erroneous theory that most government documents do not actually refer to individuals. Users of the “straw man” theory falsely claim that only documents using an individual’s name with “standard” capitalization, i.e., lower-case with only the beginning letters of each name capitalized, are legitimate. These individuals erroneously argue that the use of the individual’s name in all upper-case letters, which is common in some government documents, refers to a separate legal entity, called a “straw man.” These individuals also erroneously argue that, as a result of the creation of a “straw man,” they are not liable for the debts, including the tax debts, of their “straw man,” that taxing the “straw man” is illegal because the “straw man” is a debt instrument based upon the labor of a real person and is, therefore, a form of slavery, or that no tax is owed by the real individual because it can be satisfied, or offset, by money in a “Treasury Direct Account” held in the name of the “straw man.”
It’s a scam, a garden variety tax evasion scheme–sold by hucksters and charlatans. i did a Google search, because I apparently have too much time on my hands, and this “theory” is pushed by Alex Jones and his ilk. Complete horseshit, but a lie repeated often enough becomes true…
Here’s another link from the ADL that references numerous cases in which the issue of all capitals is dealt with extensively.
http://www.adl.org/mwd/suss4.asp
I have done a lot of research into the issue of capitalization (it comes up occasionally at work along with a bunch of other sovereign citizen mucky mucky), as near as I can determine the development of ALL CAPITALS came because it made reading legal documents faster.
I am not the only one who has looked into this.
My best friend and I are constantly having to look up where some of this really esoteric stuff comes from because he has to deal with defendants who believe this stuff and get charged with crimes for using it. I have three “books” that have been published on the topics and I really need to start going to the gun shows to get more because I find it interesting to know why they are wrong. (Fun fact, the Moroccan/US Treaty of Peace and Friendship Treaty is the oldest unbroken treaty the US has. Yes someone used that as a legal argument as to why he could not be charged under Arizona state law.)
There also is the occasionally really funny appellate case involving these SC. The record clearly shows that the defendants are fools, but that is not the same as being incompetent… 😀
My marriage licence has our names handwritten with only the first letters capitalized.
Also, Brandon, you can write up contracts all you like, but if they are challenged in court, will they be upheld? Too many LGBT folk had their personal contracts set aside.
Finally, I realize now that I am doing feminism wrong. In my divorce, my husband (who made double what I make) walked away with the house, the cars, and all our savings. This was what I wanted, because he was in a position where he needed those resources more than I did. But anyway. I learn now that I failed at feminism. Sigh.
Just to freak out NWO, my organ donor register card has my name in capitals – I suppose this means THE STATE can come and reap my organs any time, Monty Python style! 🙂
NWO, my visa card has the title MISS in capitals, does that mean it’s now part of my name?
I like this game..
The screenplays I write have all the characters’ names in capitals. Does that make them real people owned by the STATE? Also, SOUND OF KID SCREAMING is in caps, so what IS that?
And where does this leave belle hooks, who has no capitals at all in her name?
The mind reels. My contract for shipping my goods… apparently not binding, because my name wasn’t written in capital letters.
I don’t even know what to make of the idea that a default on a collateralised loan leading to the seizure of the collateral (as the prescribed remedy in the contract) is supposed to prove.
Apparently the company telling me that a long forgiven debt is now owned by them, and I can pay it off for 30 cents on the dollar (which is about the cost of the original debt… now almost 20 years old, after they computed the interest) is a real contract, one I have to abide by… they put my name in capital letters.
And those contracts I signed, the one’s where the only place my name was on the document was where I wrote it in, and it wasn’t in all caps (neither was the name of the other party), and I used my everyday name, not the one on my birth certificate… I can just blow them off.
Yeah… I’ll be sure to tell that to the judge.
Wait. I just looked at my birth cerficiate.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Mixed case.
My name…
Mixed case.
They can’t sell my Birth Certificate.
I am FREE.
NWOSLAVE
Do I own you now?
Well, I won’t have to prostitute myself to pay off my student loans because of a little thing called a competitive fellowship. In other words, I got paid to go to school. And no, cry-baby woman-haters, my fellowship wasn’t awarded for my vagina. It was awarded for my work.
NWO doesn’t understand how corporations work either…
…But I think that was established a dozen or so topics ago
Spear,
Slavey gets pwned on a regular basis, so you’ll have to get in line. 🙂
ya i would love to see owlslaves (or any sovereign citizen types) definition of what a corporation actually is
So we’ve established that NWOaf is, as well as an innumerate misogynist, consiracy theorist, and all-around weirdo:
– a creationist
– anti-vaccine
– anti-fluoride
– a global warming denier
– at least friendly to holocaust denial
– a gold bug
– and a SOVEREIGN CITIZEN to boot!
He truly is the gift that keeps on giving.
PS – NWO, my first name is spelled entirely lowercase on my marriage certificate. The rest is mixed case. Have i completely BLOWN YOUR MIND?
…
Reading an NWO post is like watching the Twilight Zone on Crystal Meth.
I mean, jesus christ. And I don’t even know anything about contract law.
@PosterformerlyknownasElizabeth: I looked over the marriage and health benefits links you posted.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/marriage-rights-benefits-30190.html
http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20041215/health-perks-of-marriage
1) Taken straight from the health benefits link:
“Married men were more likely to be overweight or obese. The problem was worst among middle-aged married men; three out of four men aged 45-64 were overweight or obese. The slimmest groups were men and women who had never married”
Strike 1! Higher rate/chance of getting fat = not a benefit
Now on to the marriage benefits: I don’t want to list them on by one so I will just keep the same grouping the author has.
Tax Benefits
Sure you might get a tax break, but I can achieve almost the equivalent by filing single and depositing a larger portion of my check into a retirement plan which would then lower my AGI, which means I pay less in taxes….and get a fatter retirement account.
Estate Planning Benefits
Sure, you get a few special types of trusts you can enter, but that doesn’t prevent you from opening a trust. The only thing I see here that is an actual benefit is avoiding estate and gift taxes. In this case, if I have that much wealth, what do I care if they tax it at 40%…I am dead. And it is not like my widowed wife wouldn’t get anything.
Government Benefits
You can still get public assistance benefits married or not. The veteran’s and military benefits only apply to service members and their spouses…so it’s not even a benefit that is even across all married couples. Benefits only married service members. I also don’t qualify so it’s not a benefit for me.
The whole Social Security, Medicare and disability benefits would not benefit me because most likely I would be the provider of the family (like most men are…house-husbands are rare). This would be a benefit for the woman…not men. Also, my lack of faith in the SSA makes me take steps to not depend on it when I reach retirement age. Women also live longer than men by about 7 years, so it would be rare to see a wife die before her husband. Meaning I have little to no chance of ever actually receiving this benefit.
Employment Benefits
I see family leave as the only benefit here. Retirement plans can name beneficiaries in case of death. Also, she should be working, hence have her own health insurance and not be depending on me to place her on my policy. Isn’t that what feminism is all about…having women not depend on a man.
Medical Benefits
Again, solved with a medical proxy. And visitation rights is the only benefit here.
Death Benefits
These can be handled with a will, which everyone should have one regardless of marriage. I can see young couples not getting a will…but this is death we are talking about. You should have one after 40.
Family Benefits
It is nearly impossible for single people to adopt, man or woman. So if you want to adopt it is a benefit for you (I don’t). Child support happens regardless of marriage. The same for father visitation rights (as long as the courts grant him visitation). Spousal support = money I am paying to an ex-wife = obligation not benefit.
Housing Benefits
Where are these “family only” locations…not in my state…hell not even in New England if I want to broaden it out to include a whole region. Automatically renew leases? Ya…I don’t like people (wife or anyone else) making decisions when I am not there. I also don’t like the idea of someone committing me to obligations that I am not part of. Or even give them the authority to commit me to those obligations.
Consumer Benefits
Sure, you get a few discounts for insurance. But depending on the company, you can also get lower rates by doing a few things: Maintain a good driving record = lower auto. Stop smoking = lower health insurance. Tuition costs are a plus if you have children. But there is always FAFSA and grants.
Other Legal Benefits and Protections
Most of these are fringe issues except for the ones related to crime. First off, I wouldn’t marry someone with a criminal record or that I suspect has “dealings” with the authorities. Second, if she was in jail for an extended period of time (like 5-10 years)…see you later! I will write you.
Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships
Doesn’t really apply to me personally…but this just mentions federal benefits which are under “Government Benefits” above.
Final Remarks
Marriage seems like it has a lot of benefits for women. Alimony, health insurance, etc… But most of the benefits are towards the non-working person (predominately women). For a man, (who is most likely the working person of the marriage) might be held liable or is otherwise obligated to pay the non-working person. Divorce happens a lot in America, so I think it would be naive of me not to “write off” the idea of the relationship not working.
I guess now I see why so many of the commenters where defending it…you girls get a lot of perks.
Well, I won’t have to prostitute myself to pay off my student loans because of a little thing called a competitive fellowship. In other words, I got paid to go to school. And no, cry-baby woman-haters, my fellowship wasn’t awarded for my vagina. It was awarded for my work.
AWESOME.
I consolidated my loans through this program, and applied for their income contingent repayment plan
http://www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov/
Now I only have to pay about $30/month and after 25 years the remainder is forgiven. It owns. On the other hand, the black helicopters will take me away any second now, so YMMV.
“I guess now I see why so many of the commenters where defending it…you girls get a lot of perks.”
There are guys here, too, Brandon. And they objected to what you’re saying.
@Redlocker: The “you girls get a lot of perks” can easily be substituted for “the person without the job in the marriage sure gets a lot of perks”
The “you girls get a lot of perks” can easily be substituted for “the person without the job in the marriage sure gets a lot of perks”
this is the dumbest thing youve said so far, and i dont have any desire to get married like ever.
maybe its the fact that i was raised by parents who took being equal partners seriously, but i find your paranoid delusions about marriage to be absolutely depressing.
we get it. youre a selfish child who can stand the idea of having to reach a consensus with someone else ever, but have you considered that maybe you should just lighten the fuck up.
@Brandon: Ok, yeah, not to be pedantic, but to make an assumption like that shows that you have a lot to learn in regards to what marriage is and how it works.