Manosphere dudes, as readers of this blog are well aware, love talking about women and their “rationalization hamsters.” As one douchenozzle defined the term:
The rationalization hamster is an analogy for the thought processes used by women to turn bad behavior and bad decisions into acceptable ones to herself and her friends. When a woman makes a bad decision, the hamster spins in its wheel (the woman’s thinking) and creates some type of acceptable reasons for that bad decision. The crazier the decision, the faster the hamster must spin in order to successfully rationalize away the insanity.
When the hamster rationalizes successfully, a woman can divorce [yeah, I meant to use that verb] herself from the consequences of her bad decision or behavior.
He’s got it backwards. Women don’t have “rationalization hamsters.” They have “hamster rationalizations.”
Example: “I’ll just eat one hamster. It won’t spoil my meal.”
Of course, that’s impossible. Hamsters are like potato chips, only furry and squirmier. Everyone knows you can’t eat just one!
Silly women and their hamster rationalizations! No wonder they’re so fat.
@Joanna
About a year ago I met up for drinks with an ex I hadn’t seen for a few years. Everything was going very well, and I was starting to wonder why we’d ever split up. Then he told me that the week before he’d given his hamster a viking burial with the aid of some phosphorus (I think?) he’d ‘liberated’ from work. The hamster had exploded. I remembered why we split up.
Oh so that’s the rationalisation hamster well I really must be a woman then because I’m pretty sure I do that all the damn time.
I’m pretty sure I’ve done it today even.
@TheNatFantastic
Did he blow you up, causing radiation poisoning, thus turning you into The Nat Fantastic?
@NatFantastic: Oh dear. I’m pretty sure the Vikings didn’t have phosphorus in those days.
@Joanna
Hahaha! maybe it tried to escape because it’s unable to convince me to date alpha badboy criminals xD
@Shadow
It was more like “Oh crap, he’s actually an idiot”. But your story sounds better so that’s how I’ll end it in future.
Femme Fatal hamster, promoting the gynocracy!
http://pocketowl.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4j5ro3
…
Okay, fine, it is actually a guinea pig. I guess my hamster thought I could fool you.
“Silly women and their hamster rationalizations! No wonder they’re so fat.”
The women or the hamsters?
(…….never mind.)
Aside from that, it doesn’t sound to me like eating hamsters would make a person fat. Lots of protein and no carbs, right? According to Dr. Atkins a hamster should be like the manna of the Gods. Right?
No wonder the little buggers can run so fast……
“Your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries!
Now go away or I shall taunt you some more!”
*Monty Python*
“Now go aweh, or I zhall taunt you a zecond tahm!.”
Ah. I stand corrected. 😉
It’s SO true…
I can never just eat one.
Well, um…crap! My daughter and I only have one hamster between the two of us! Poor Elizabeth Waddlebum, hammies should not have to work so hard…
Okay, since the *ahem* gentlemen *ahem* want to get down with psychology I suggest they look at the concept of reaction formation. And then look in the mirror. Especially the ones who’ve developed the lurid phobias in regards to womens’ genitals.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_formation
I wondered for a while if I should try to talk my landlady into letting me keep a hamster (my lease is technically no pets, but sometimes small caged animals are okay for some people), but I don’t really want a hamster. I would much rather have rats, but I don’t think I could get her to go along with that…
I kept a cat in an apartment where pets weren’t allowed in London, and my roomate had a small dog. As long as the pets in question aren’t terribly noisy it’s doable, so I’d think rats would be fine, as long as your landlady doesn’t live with you.
Of course not! You see, ‘rationalize’ is one of those verbs that conjugates irregularly.
Women rationalize.
Men provide critical analysis.
See how that works?
(H/T Ophelia Benson)
My landlady lives upstairs. She’s generally not nosy or invasive, and I did technically agree to no pets.
Marc2020,
“Oh so that’s the rationalisation hamster well I really must be a woman then because I’m pretty sure I do that all the damn time.”
That’s what I thought as well. On the one hand, the misogyny associated with the term really bugs me. On the other, the metaphor seems quite good – when I reflect on doing it, the process really feels like a hamster’s spinning wheel. What an annoying combination.
I always think it’s funny when white cis hetero middle-class men buy into the cultural narrative that they are automatically more logical and objective than everybody else, because what’s less logical and objective than drawing a conclusion because culture is telling you it’s true and believing it feels good?
You know whose minds are constantly coming to wacky conclusions based on bizarre factors while simultaneously letting them believe they’ve come to those conclusions through wholly logical and conscious means? Everyone’s. Sorry, brave Manospherians, you’re not that special.
I don’t mean that as a dig at the non-misogynistic/racist/what-have-you people who struggle with the implicit attitudes that come from that narrative; especially as a white person who has, without question, fallen into that trap at some point. I’m just laughing at the people who wholeheartedly and explicitely embrace those attitudes.
It’s possible I’m not expressing myself well because I’m so sleepy and it’s so cold gaaaah. -32C (-26F)! I hope most of our homeless population got off of the streets last night. /whiny derail
The “rationalization hamster” strikes me as a universal human trait. Everyone screws up sometimes, and almost everyone would rather avoid responsibility than admit mistakes and learn from them.
But, but…aren’t there studies? WHAT ABOUT THE STUDIES?!
No, I agree. But we’re also in a culture that deifies “empirical knowledge.” My bet is that a lot of people believe the hype and just assume that the proof is there, somewhere. This is also supported by a lot of anecdotal evidence, in my experience (hehe). A pattern is seen by someone, it vaguely coincides with information heard from another source, and then you’ve got enough “proof” to believe all sorts of things.
The problem is that there’s little inquiry into how this compares to overall trends/population or what the underlying reasons for it are. So yeah, a person can easily believe that men are more logical if they are exposed to what the interpret are “emotional” women, assume that’s the norm, and don’t bother to think about what kind of socialization occurs from day one.
And definitely: I’m a bit flippant here, but it is REALLY hard to think one’s way out of these patterns. Even when someone has the best of intentions and not a malicious bone in their body, it can still be very hard. The trap is pervasive and very subtle most of the time.
Well, they did die valiantly in an epic battle. >:)
I thought we were supposed to have lizard brains. Now the MRA’s are saying we have hamster brains. Which is it, lizards or hamsters?