Men’s Rights Activists generally like to pretend that the world is some kind of feministy dystopian hellscape for men. No so the gentle MRA philosopher who calls himself Cooter Bee. In a recent post on A Voice for Men, he admits frankly that
In absolute terms, men have never had it better. Our lives are longer than ever before. Especially in the western world, we are not nearly as plagued by violence and disease as our grandfathers. Never in history have we had as much economic opportunity or as much latitude to choose our own careers and our ultimate station in life.
Well golly. Sounds like life is pretty good for us dudes.
We are clearly neglected and abused relative to women, but is that really a legitimate comparison? Is that any more meaningful than measuring how we are doing compared to squirrels or dolphins? There are a few men who do cross-over and become women but I never heard of even one who did it to gain access to all the goodies that go with being an entitlement skank. I know of few men who would be anything else despite the supposed unfairness.
So what is the beef? Could it be that even though men are doing better than ever that the level of ingratitude is also disproportionately high?
Uh oh. Do I smell some “we hunted the mammoth to feed you” coming up?
Let’s face it. Men are and always have been where it’s at when it comes to sustaining this world. In former days, men used to get some credit for it. Not now. Scorn, vitriol and blame are the thanks we get for making this world livable. Biting the hand that feeds you was always a no-no. Perhaps that’s what eats me.
Hmm. Given that most women work, and that women make up roughly half the work force, it seems to me that most women are actually feeding themselves. Statistics on all this are readily available.
I am starting to tire of all the stats and data.
Statistics? We don’t need no stinkin’ statistics!
Isn’t the fact that we don’t like what is going on enough reason to change it?
So you’d rather fight against imagined ingratitude than real injustices?
Ironically, after acknowledging that he’s primarily motivated by feelings, not fact, Mr. Bee accuses women of not being able to deal with gender issues rationally:
Talking equity among men is useful because men are capable of equity. Exceptionally few women are capable. Talking about equity to a typical woman is like talking particle physics to a baboon.
We want it the way we want it and so it should be done. No other justification is significant.. We have it good but want it to be better still.
Well, at least he’s being honest about it, I guess.
EDITED TO ADD: The comments on this post on AVfM are, of course, a treat. Here are some choice excerpts from my favorite one, posted by a fella calling himself DruidV:
[D]id any of you ever stop to consider the very first expendables in this gendercidal war against us?
You know, those accomodating Men of the sixties and seventies who were just trying to do the “right” thing. Those Men, who reluctantly but dejectedly gave up their lives and livelihoods so that millions of poor, oppressed wimmin could enter the work force (and completely FUBAR it, btw) in the name of ekwality.
Was there ever any kind of token memorial statue erected by the wimmin, to honor these displaced Men who were forced to hand it all over to their future political enemies? Was there even ONE?
Ever?
My grandFather just happened to be one of these very first Men to be displaced from his job by a woman, at the hands of the government. He never fully recovered from the loss, to be sure. But hey, who gives a shit right? As long as some loud-mouthed, 1960′s hatchett wounds could feel “liberated”, umm sorry-I meant to say “Empowered(tm)”, it made no difference how many Men were sacrificed…
So, yeah, let’s get working on that memorial, folks! I wonder if we could get Maya Lin to design it?
Gacked from FeministPhilosophers who gacked it from Jezabel who linked to the university media center on a study showing that respondents had a hard time distinguishing between excerpts from men’s magazines (in the UK) and statements by convicted rapists:
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/mediacentre/press/2011/69535_are_sex_offenders_and_lads_mags_using_the_same_language.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
@ithiliana: “Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey found that when presented with descriptions of women taken from lads’ mags, and comments about women made by convicted rapists, most people who took part in the study could not distinguish the source of the quotes.
The research due to be published in the British Journal of Psychology also revealed that most men who took part in the study identified themselves more with the language expressed by the convicted rapists.
Psychologists presented men between the ages of 18 and 46 with a range of statements taken from magazines and from convicted rapists in the study, and gave the men different information about the source of the quotes. Men identified more with the comments made by rapists more than the quotes made in lads’ mags, but men identified more with quotes said to have been drawn from lads’ mags more than those said to have been comments by convicted rapists.
The researchers also asked a separate group of women and men aged between 19 and 30 to rank the quotes on how derogatory they were, and to try to identify the source of the quotes. Men and women rated the quotes from lads’ mags as somewhat more derogatory, and could categorize the quotes by source little better than chance.”
Ugh. Just, ugh.
Yet, according to MRAs, WOMEN’S magazines are the problem, here (though to be fair, Cosmo is not exactly a balm to Maxim).
I know, I have to see this paper when it’s published. I really need to know what these quotes were!
I will hopefully be able to track the article down via databases, because, YES, NEED TO SEE EXCERPTS!
My Grandfathers were in their late fifties by the end of the sixties and had retired by the time I was born (and my parents were in their late twenties/early thirties) and I am now thirty.
Granted it depends on what kind of job he is referring too-no idea what my paternal grandfather was doing but my maternal grandfather was a road construction worker. Not a typical job women got involved with there or now for that matter.
Late forties, duh.
@Blitzgal: I see that the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection at my uni lists British Journal of Psychology articles, and both Horvath and Hegarty have multiple publications already listed, so it may be a while (don’t know how long it takes to get from publication into indexes), but I will definitely be able to get ahold of it and will be happy to share copies for those not privileged enough to have access to the subscription databases.
I was just looking at the nature of the alleged displacement. I know that my grandfathers were atypical (being almost seventy when I was born, to a couple who were 24/20 at the time of my birth).
There are samples of the quotes they showed participants here: http://bit.ly/vfroLj
Some of the stuff that turned out to be from a lad mag was really upsetting. I know that women’s magazines are shit on a cracker, but damn – the stuff in men’s magazines blows Cosmo out of the water.
Nope, moonbats are allowed, too! But dammit I don’t have the video to prove it!
4 words: So mote it be!
PS I *could* conceivably get the video evidence to prove this, but I have to install the game and play it half-way through cause apparently the YouTube dorks are slackin. I politely asked the one guy with videos from this game to post one, but prolly he’s an MRA and I’m sol unless I want to have his babies and make his sammiches or something 🙁
PS want should probably be in scare quotes.
To see an example of how the modern day woman’s rationalization hamster works just read an opinion piece by a woman, any TV show or advert. Go to public schools or college. Read a manboobz comment section, it’s filled with strawmen, ad homenims, personal example which prove nothing and are supposed to be believed as if it’s gospel. Wiki-knowlege as an indicator of intelligence. Apparently, googling a query equals great intelligence.
We’ve had quite a year and the hamster has been hard at work.
Womens prisons closing down in CA. and replaced with spa’s, even though it’s near impossible to incarcerate a woman.
Men immolating themselves, hanging from bridges, climbing atop Guv buildings, all to get equal child custody. As women continually kidnap a mans child and extort money then claim men don’t share in child-rearing.
Cutting off a mans dick and laughing about it while claiming misogyny in society.
Women lobbying for preponderance of evidence and claiming it ain’t so bad because it’s in civil court.
Women commiting horrific crimes and coming up with excuses like, “low self esteem” and getting off.
The list of atrocities, inequalities, privileges, entitlements and outright catering to a womans every whim has staggered the imagination this year. All of it has been explained away, been denied/dismissed or ignored. Suffice it to say, women, having handed all power to the State while retaining trustee status over men has left men baffled as to the suffragette motto of , “legislating morality with our votes!” It seems the pigs are indeed more equal on the animal farm.
RE “Cooter Bee”…what does that even mean? Is it just mad libs, throwing together words that sound vaguely naughty and insulting to women in the hopes of seeming super cool to the other MRAs?
NWO: Yeah, I’m gonna have to ask for some citations for that… wall of text. From actual news sources, please.
Uh-huh, sure NWO. You are living in a fascist gynocracy, indeed. How’s that tinfoil hat fitting?
I’m probably way behind the times, but I just heard that AVfM is going to have a March on Washington on April 15th.
This has the potential to be hilarious. Will they go with hoods, Anonymous masks, or cosplay? Will it be like a Westboro Baptist Church protest, only with “God Hates Ameriskanks” signs? Will they burn Katherine Heigl in effigy (at the stake)?
I just can’t wait!! 😀
Re this article: That’s right bros, everyone enjoys a good circlejerk now and again. Is this part of the pep talk before the big MARCH? P.S. OMG……………..CANTWAIT
An AVfM March on Washington will probably be three dudes wandering around aimlessly yelling about bitches.
I really wish I could make it to DC to cover that march. The potential for snark is almost limitless.
I wish I lived in NWO’s paranoid parallel universe. Female criminals everywhere you turn, your health and wealth constantly at risk, and the worst part is THEY’RE TOTALLY ABOVE THE LAW.
This sounds like the plot to an awesome TV show about sexy, sexy criminals.
The NWO-verse sounds like one of those sci-fi movies from the 70s where you kept wondering just how much acid the writers had been on when they came up with the plot.
I wonder if NWO’s rant means he saw my little hamster? 🙂
Or he just briefly scans for keywords and then spits out (maybe copy-pastes? does he just have a master file of generic rants he keeps hand?) Generic Lady-Hatin’ Rant #6.
@KathleenB
“NWO: Yeah, I’m gonna have to ask for some citations for that… wall of text. From actual news sources, please.”
Here’s a little yum yum from just a few days ago. It seems one of the girls from VAWA decided punching a man is justifiable in any circumstance. A classic example of modern womanhood.
http://annmariewhaley.com/2011/12/05/lisalyn-r-jacobs-charged-arraigned-for-assaulting-daddy-justice-at-vawa-hearing-in-d-c-senate-building/
Legislating morality with our votes. Or is my tinfoil hat too tight?
Cassandra: I think acid actually explains about 2/3rds of Phillip K Dick’s writing.
“one of the girls from VAWA”
I don’t think NWO knows what a law is. I think he honestly believes that VAWA (like Title IX!) is an organization. Maybe even an agency.
I wonder what kinds of slogans they’ll put on the signs at their Washington DC protest. I hope they make videos of the grand event because I bet it will be hilarious.