Another day, another apologia for male violence from the Men’s Rights crowd. This time the apologist is W. F. Price at The Spearhead, who uses several recent news stories involving violent men as an excuse to attack feminism.
Repeated provocations against men, systematic discrimination against men, and state-sanctioned debt slavery are starting to have the inevitable effect. In a triumph for the feminist movement, men are lashing out violently against women, fulfilling the feminist fantasy of a gender war.
In the old days, everything was (presumably) peachy keen between the sexes. Then along came the feminists, and all hell broke loose. Those “take back the night” marches feminists love so much? They’re just red flags to the bulls – that is, our society’s ample stock of “mentally unstable and out-of-luck men.” You don’t want to make these guys mad!
[W]omen were encouraged to be militant against all males, which can only have unfortunate results, given the hands-down male superiority in combat. …
In other words, the fact that there are violent men out there is why women shouldn’t complain about violent men. Presumably the only marches women should be organizing would be “No, Go Ahead, You Keep the Night” marches. Don’t want to offend those rapists –that’ll just make them even rapier than usual!
According to Price, though, feminists actually like violence against women — because it keeps them in business.
For feminism to exist as a valid movement, there must be violent conflict, so many of the efforts of feminists have sought to provoke just that. … You see, for a feminist to justify her job there must be some degree of brutality against women. … So, if you are a feminist, the hapless women murdered or assaulted by the damaged men feminists have created are necessary sacrifices for advancing the feminist agenda.
So not only do the feminists provoke these “damaged men” – they created them in the first place, by being so feministy.
Wouldn’t this whole provoke-the-men strategy make life more dangerous for feminist women as well? No, because feminists are all rich ladies, and everyone knows that rich ladies are never beaten or raped or murdered:
[W]e all know that feminism has never been about the typical woman who lives a humble life, but rather the ambitious elite who want to have access to the big boys and big money on Capitol Hill and Wall Street. … Disadvantaged women are truly the cannon fodder of feminists.
So what “proof” does Price offer for his claim that men are “lashing out” at women because of feminism? He cites three news stories: one dealing with a woman-hating trucker who’s accused of killing several prostitutes; another involving a man who went on a shooting rampage at a church, killing his wife and wounding two others; and finally, the case of James Ray Palmer, the Arkansas man who shot up the offices of the judge who’d handled his divorce and custody case more than a decade earlier. (I wrote about his case here.)
How do these cases relate to feminism? You’ll have to ask Price, because none of the news stories suggest any connection, and Price doesn’t explain why he thinks there is one. True, the trucker is said to be a misogynist, but misogyny is far more ancient than feminism. Meanwhile, we have no evidence that the church shooter was angry at any women other than his wife.
In the case of Palmer, there may be an indirect connection, if it turns out that he was influenced by the angry, violent rhetoric of the Men’s Rights movement. As I pointed out in my post on Palmer, many in the MRM have made a martyr out of Thomas Ball, who committed suicide on the steps of a courthouse, leaving behind an manifesto that urged men to literally burn down police stations — and courthouses. It is certainly conceivable that Palmer’s courthouse rampage was inspired by this sort of rhetoric.
But to blame feminism for any of this is ass-backwards. Feminism is a response to misogyny, not its cause. To blame feminism for violence against women is a bit like blaming Jews for provoking the Holocaust. (Forgive me, Godwin; it was the clearest analogy.)
Price ends his piece by urging women to, in effect, shut up and fix him a sandwich:
Women’s best bet for security is not in denouncing and fighting men, as feminists would have it, but in cooperating with them and taking on their proper role.
Then he ends with a weird coda suggesting that feminists should be locked up for having the temerity to speak up in the first place:
The United States will once again be a righteous society only when feminists are jailed for interfering with families, and their academic apologists are removed by security from their jobs in taxpayer-funded educational institutions. This would be the most humane course of action to take. Far more humane, in fact, than provoking men and women to physically attack one another, as feminists would have it today so that they can unleash state agents on confused and demoralized families.
I didn’t have the stomach to read all of the comments responding to Price’s argument, such as it is. But here are some highlights – lowlights, really – of the highly upvoted comments I did read.
The ironically named Anti Idiocy seconds Price’s basic argument:
Anger against feminism has been building for years. As the men’s rights movement has gained momentum, feminists and their lackeys have doubled down and become more virulent in their anti-male hatred and propaganda. Women today are becoming more and more nasty on an interpersonal basis, and they are doing so more frequently. A breakpoint will come. It will probably take a catalyst; another severe economic downturn might do it. But it will come. Feminists and their pet femboys will push things until it does.
Wait. If the Men’s Rights movement is, in effect, provoking feminists to get more feministy, then wouldn’t (by Price’s logic) the allegedly increased violence be the fault of the MRAs?
Rod worries that in the case of a real gender war, men might actually lose – all because of those darned “white knights” and their reluctance to beat up the ladies:
I’m afraid that if it ever came down to a real physical war between the sexes, men would unfortunately lose. There are too many men who can’t stand the sight of men harming women, and would immediately step in to save them. Perhaps nature instilled in us a visceral reaction to women’s suffering, making us want to step in and help, and at one time in the history of our species, that reaction was no doubt a salutary thing. Now it just works against us.
Antiphon, meanwhile, blames it all on the Jews. Or, more specifically, the Jewesses, who apparently control the feminist movement in the same way that their husbands control the banks.
Needless to say, this being The Spearhead, Antiphon’s comment has three times as many upvotes as downvotes. Apparently, the only thing worse than a feminist is a Jewish feminist.
I guess my Nazi analogy earlier in this post wasn’t so out of place after all.
Excuse me while I throw up my dinner at the blatant misogyny.
THOSE DAMN WIMMINS, WANTING TO BE TREATED LIKE PEOPLE AND NOT PROPERTY. WHY CAN’T THEY JUST GO BACK TO MAKING SANDWICHES AND BEING STONED TO DEATH WHEN THEY’RE RAPED AND LETTING US BIG STRONG MEN ORDER THEM AROUND LIKE DOGS.
Oh, I need to add “borderline hormonally intersexed” and “not legally classifiable as either male or female by some measures” (the hormones my body makes on its own mean I am not a woman for the purpose of most sports groups categories for competetion) to my list of reasons why I should be the most hated of NWO over on the lady killer thread! I suspect that the very existence of intersexed people would blow his fucking mind!
Aw, some parts of NWO World would actually be really cool to have over here in reality!
Pecunium:
I go by “Hershele Ostropoler” all over the place. It’s as much to display as to hide, as demonstrated in my NSWATM bio. I make very little serious effort to keep people from finding my real name, but using a consistant pseudonym is enough for my reputation to precede me on the internet.
NWOrld
Oh no! Reverse psycology, I’ve been bested.
How was that reverse psychology? XD That is what you are saying.
Schroedinger’s Rapist functions totally differently from the kind of ‘education’ NWOSlave describes. So clueless.
Hershele: My point exactly. I have discovered my reputation preceding me. When I started to comment at Ta-Nehisi Coates blog people whom I’d never heard of said they were looking forward to what I had to say. I’ve have people, in “real life” make comments, “Oh, You’re Pecunium”, or “You know Pecunium?” The first is sort of flattering, the second sort of strange. I don’t see myself as any sort of celebrity to be worth knowing at a remove.
Persistent pseudonym /= anonymous.
Also, I think we need to add “Schroedinger’s Rapist is taught in schools” to the now very large list of Fun Facts About NWO World.
They teach it every morning after the daily Homosexual Recruitment Drive.
I mean, how come I never got to go to schools like this?
Arrrrgh, stupid xcdk (http://xkcd.com/386/)
Boys and young men need to be taught that even being a perfect gentlemen is no guaruntee they won’t be victims of State violence at the hands of a woman.
LOLWUT?! Well, anything asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence, or in this case anything that can be said without an argument can be dismissed with a mockery.
Boys and young men need to learn they might do hard time while being completely innocent, while their false accuser walks free. And even if they aren’t falsely imprisoned, their name will be dragged thru the mud while their false accuser remains anonymous.
I guess we need to tell that to the 1.5% of cases of boys actually accused of rape falsely.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape)
Boys and young men need to learn that their children can be kidnapped at a moments notice, and they will be forced to pay extortion or go to jail.
Maybe boys and young men need to pay for the child they conceive and learn the legal notions of divorce so they dont confuse it with the fellony of kidnapping.
Boys and young men need to learn that in education and employment women will be given preference over them by State mandate.
But it’s compensated by their higher incomes, yay boys!
Boys and young men need to learn that charity organisations are for women/women and children only. Once a boy hits puberty, he will be on his own.
Seriously? Soup kitchens are for girls and boys only? Cancer organizations dont help men? This is news to me.
Boys and young men need to learn their unborn child can be murdered and there’s nothing they can do about it.
Ok, boys and young men need enough education to know the difference between a child and a fetus (by the way, this would be a problem even if the “child” is born, because then “boys” are forced to pay for it, its like we are forcing them to chose between the cake and eating it, sooo fucken oppressive).
Boys and young men need to learn it’s a crime to defend yourself from a womans physical attack. They need to learn they will go to jail if they hit a woman back.
Boys should really learn to get a lawyer (also man the fuck up, why does american “big, though guys” always recourse to hitting girls and litigation? Just take the fucken beating and move on with your life…not that this scenario is true, fuck now I am considering NWO crazy ass world!)
Boys and young men need to learn that a restraining order can be placed on them at any time with only a womans word. They need to know they can be evicted from their home at any time, even if they foot all the bills.
Boys need to learn that if someone wants a restraining order on them, then they are to stay the fuck away from that person. Also, if a person wants them out of their house, they have the right to leave and say thanks. They also have the right to put a restraining order on who the fuck they want, and toss any undesirables from the premises of their house. (Im oversimplifying, but so are you)
Boys and young men need to learn so many things. They need to know women have lobbied for, and endorsed this systematic oppression. They need to know they are forced to pay for this system with their own taxes. They need to know women will call all these injustices patriarchy. The very system they have worked so hard to enact, they will blame men for.
Yes, we pay taxes to have nice shit in society, however this society is unequal, everyone is trying to make it better except for a few fucktards who cant tell a crime from a legal procedure.
Now does this clarify things for you precious? Your are not being oppressed, you do not live in 1984’s Euroasia, you are a spoiled brat who whines because the other boys have better toys. Suck it up and learn that you are a person who lives in an unfair world, sometimes against you, most of the times for you.
“I mean, how come I never got to go to schools like this?”
Srsly. I went to a snobby private college, so my experience might be different from the norm, but we *never* got a “She fears you” course. Instead we got fire safety and rape whistles.
bspiken, I don’t know why you live in fear of false accusation, but I don’t. I’m not denying it happens, only that it’s a constant overwhelming threat.
@Hershele: I think bspiken is quoting OWNslave and responding to his comments individually, but failing to differentiate between the quotes/answers. I thought the reference to 1.5% was meant to be perspective — like, “look, it’s so low.”
Yes, I didn’t venture into the forbidding realm of html tags. Mainly because NWO points were so mind-searing stupid that I just had to answer them.
Still, hastiness is no excuse for poor grammar, apologies all around.
PS: Daphne, that is exactly what I was claiming, sarcasm in the internet is fucking hard, specially with Poe-like MRAs.
Being a feminist is a job now? When can I expect a pay packet?
Chris, it’s piecework, so much money for so many innocent men destroyed, sort of thing.
If the feminists that we see on the internet are any example, I can certainly see where they would bring out the worst in their husbands or companions. They are simply AWFUL! Their disrespect, their contradicting their menfolk in public, their use of foul and unladylike language, and the endless attempts at showing up their mates as somehow inept or stupid.
This doesn’t excuse the fact that a few men confronted with such harpies will respond violently, but if the troubled fellow who has anger issues, and perhaps woman issues to boot, he could well mentally snap and there will be a result that nobody wanted! The woman’s prior (mis)behavior toward him certainly will serve to EXPLAIN it, however!
I’m not even discussing here about the couples who seem to need “a good fight before a good night’. The female half certainly provokes the man into physical violence, and then responds in kind, a kind of ‘foreplay’ is initiated. That isn’t MY idea of a romantic evening, but then nobody asked me, and it certainly explains a lot of (allegedly ‘abusive’) behavior that would otherwise be inexplicable. Needless to say, responding by the police as a result of complaints of ‘domestic violence’ or “spousal abuse’ to such couples turns out to be a waste of everyone’s time, and the taxpayer’s money!
If men want tough, opinionated, bitchy women they are welcome to them, but don’t be surprised at the results. If men, on the other hand, want soft, respectful, docile, compliant, and playful women, there is no reason why we should not have them, and feminism be damned!
Nothing here in this post excuses or justifies cruelty or brutality, but certainly a sound and rational EXPLANTION is long overdue, even if it doesn’t automatically make the man out to be the villain!
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller
Meller: If the feminists that we see on the internet are any example, I can certainly see where they would bring out the worst in their husbands or companions. They are simply AWFUL! Their disrespect, their contradicting their menfolk in public,
Oh My God!!!
The horror. Next thing you know there will be cats and dogs living together. It will be anarchy.
Nothing here in this post excuses or justifies cruelty or brutality, but certainly a sound and rational EXPLANTION is long overdue, even if it doesn’t automatically make the man out to be the villain!
Right… nothing excuses it, but if it happens, the women caused it.
Tell you what, save time, and effort (I know you have a busy schedule, running around the internet explaining things to people) and because we know you care about us (or you’d not be taking time out of that busy schedule to catch up on a post this old), next time, just use some short hand.
SSDD, is pretty good. We can expand that without too much trouble.
If you really need to make sure we can read the golden gems dripping from the frenzied flickering of your fingers flashing furiously over the keys, you could just hypertext to one of your golden oldies (As you know I am fond of the one where you explain about the justifiable, and almost inevitable revolution, where the women who will not submit, freely, an eagerly, to the loving domination of the man who is set to be her Lord and Master, are killed).
And that way we could know you still love us, and want us to be happy; while being able to go, to and fro about the internet, distrubuting the little pearls of wisdom.
So really, Same Shit, Different Day does pretty much some it up, don’t you think?
Pecunium–
There are porcupines who need petting! There are cacti who need cuddling! I am sure that you wouldn’t want to forget stinging jellyfish, scorpions, and pufferfish.You still want to find soft and fluffy evenly mixed with harsh and prickly surfaces, don’t you?
Have fun!
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller
Meller: Here you, a classic opportunity wasted.
All those words, when you could have just said,
Pecunium is still a poopy-head”
Have people been giving you grief about your 5 o’clock shadow? :p
Bagelsan: Are you asking Meller? Because I really don’t want to know about it. If he was coming on to me, I don’t want to be able to recognise it.
Mind you, I’ve had partners who shaved/waxed, and sometimes they could be a bit “harsh and prickly”, mixed in with the “soft and warm”, though not so much the fluffy.
@ Molly Ren – We got dancing (ballroom and Scottish country), which was about as useful as the Fear Women lectures would have been. OTOH, we also got fencing and archery as options, which I took, so if a barbarian horde ever tries to invade the castle I’m all set.
Actually that would sort of fall under “fear women”, wouldn’t it? Subsection “fear me”.
For fluffy I think you have to stick with going au naturale for extended periods of time. (And I’m not actually sure if I was asking Meller, but if I was I regret it and wholeheartedly apologize! Which is what people do after every interaction with him, I suspect.)
Bagelsan: A wild and woolly landing strip, and some stubble, would make for fluffly, soft, and prickly.
Poor Meller, the problems of paradoxical opposites in real-life continues to put the rough with the smooth.
As he says, heterosexual interaction is problematic for him.