Most of the coverage of the Costa Concordia disaster at the moment seems to be focusing on the Italian cruise ship’s captain and his douchey behavior, which involved not only running the ship aground but also abandoning ship prestissimo while passengers remained trapped on board.
MRAs, by contrast, are using the tragedy as an excuse to rail against the notion of “women and children first” and, of course, to make jokes about women drowning.
Now, the Titanic aside, “women and children first” isn’t now, and hasn’t ever really been, the standard way to evacuate those on a sinking ship, though many in the public — including some of those who were on board the Costa Concordia – seem to believe that it is. (See here for more details on how evacuations are typically handled these days; generally only those with mobility problems are given special treatment.)
In the case of this particular evacuation, some on board apparently tried to enforce an informal “women and children” policy, but many men weren’t willing to wait.
What’s got some MRAs in a snit is that some people, in the media and online, are calling these dudes cowards. In The Daily Mail, a right-wing British tabloid, A N Wilson wrote:
[I]n our day, with the advent of feminism and the professional woman, chivalry and manners are considered stuffy and old-fashioned.
As the father of three daughters, I do not, with a single fibre of my being, wish to go back to a time when women could not have the vote or get a university degree. Nor do I, surrounded by extremely strong-charactered and intelligent women in my family and among my friends, feel tempted to regard women as the frail sex.
But the fact remains that there is a longing among most men to protect women and children, and chivalry is simply a manifestation of that longing.
And whatever transpires about the reason for the Costa Concordia disaster, the disappearance of a chivalric code is a sorry reflection on society today.
This is not what you’d call a feminist argument; it’s a traditionalist argument, published in a tabloid rag that’s generally quite hostile to feminism.
Nonetheless, some MRAs are using the Costa Concordia disaster as an opportunity to deliver a big “told you so!” to the … imaginary feminists who live in their head.
Over on The Spearhead, where one familiar commenter actually described Wilson’s Daily Mail article as “feminist,” guest poster Lyn87 wrote:
The MRM is getting more vocal, and a lot of guys are now saying, “You wanted equality. This is what it looks like.” And they are saying it aloud and in public. Even a few women chimed in, saying that men have no obligation to die for women if women want equality. (Somehow I suspect there wasn’t much, “I am woman, hear me roar, watch me drown” on the Costa Concordia itself, but hey, it’s a start.)
MRAs: Always up-to-the-minute with their pop culture references!
This post was helpfully illustrated with a stock photo of a woman drowning.
Commenters got in their digs as well.
Keyster riffed on Lyn87’s incredibly au courant Helen Reddy reference:
I am woman hear me…blurp….rah…gurgle…raha…ffftt…orr…roar…gurgle…help me…somebody…fffft…please…blurp…help…help me please!
Aharon told both ladies and fish what’s what:
I eat fish. Fish don’t eat me. My life is too precious to sacrifice it so some spoiled bitch can have a pussy pass into the life boats.
Anti Idiocy got all hypothetical-cruise-ship tough guy on us:
Anyone who attempts to keep me on a sinking ship because of the genitals with which I was born is attempting to murder me. I have the right to respond accordingly.
And Thomas Tell-truth kicked chivalry – not to mention basic human decency — to the ocean floor:
Equality means that when the ship is going down and you are a woman, you had better get out of my way or you are going to drown with my footprints on your back.
Apparently Thomas Tell-truth is actually George Costanza:
Jeb, meanwhile, offered a more scientific rationalization for being a complete douchenozzle:
As far as I’ve heard, the one and only sport in which women naturally out-do men is endurance swimming. Women are also more bouyant, and as survivalists will explain, women float easiest on their backs (making it easy to breathe while expending minimal energy) whereas men float easiest in “the dead man’s float” (ie. face down, head in the water) and must expend more energy to stay alive. Furthermore, women have more body-fat than men which insulates them better against aquatic dangers such as hypothermia.
Given all these factors it is quite rational for men to pick women up by the seat of their pants and toss them overboard to make way for men and children to safely be rowed ashore on the lifeboats.
It’s all about doing the right thing and saving lives, after all.
MRA humor is very sophisticated indeed.
EDITED TO ADD: The Spearhead has put up a followup post, once again taking aim at imaginary “lifeboat feminists,” though the only person the post cites lamenting the end of “women and children” is Rich Lowry from the National Review (not a feminist publication).
Think of it like breaking an addiction and going cold turkey.
I wanna play in the insult game! Hey, Geese, your brain on the edge of a razor blade would look like a bee bee rolling down a four lane highway.
@Ami: Indeed it is!
I wanted to ‘shop it to have a starburst background, but my cat doesn’t know how to manipulate photos…
I would post things about my guinea pigs but they are both girls so I put them on tiny pedestals.
Also, if the house starts sinking, I have tiny lifeboats for them.
Fair enough Ami.
@Lauralot that’s an awesome Wonder Woman costume! 😀 I’m jealous! 😀
I just dress up as me (with wings and cat hats!)… or Miss Martian xD
They spend their time on the small parts of history not good for dudes. They don’t have a whole lot options for that.
Geese, your emunctory achievements are an object lesson for us all.
Nope, most men are in fact bigger and stronger than most women and children. There’s always exceptions. If men weren’t expected to let women and children go first, they wouldn’t play fair, they would cut in line, trample and tackle women and children, they wouldn’t give women and children a fair fight due to their bigger size and strength. Anyway, it is better to have more men die than women and children if you want the world to keep going.
They spend their time on the small parts of history not good for dudes.
But I thought ALL of history was bad for dudes.
I’m a day behind on threads, and I really feel like reading through hundreds of comments right now. What’d MRAL do this time?
The usual.
Can I get the credz for slaying MRAL? I brought him out of the woodwork for his final scorging by the SHRIKE FORCE. 😀
Claimed he’s being emotionally abused on here and eventually said he’s leaving. Though I don’t know if he means forever xD
Can I get credit for being me? 🙁
Can I get the credz for slaying MRAL?
Only if he doesn’t show up again tomorrow.
Geese, you’re an acerebral, bathybius who’s battology isn’t worth getting angry about.
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t92/Lauralot/castrationoncats.jpg
Do we really think MRAL is leaving these boards forever? His record is what, 2 days on a flounce? HE always does this. He’ll be back to annoy later.
MRAL, why do you assume that the men on the Titanic believed themselves to be disposable? I am not saying that they did not believe this about themselves (though I do not personally believe that they did) I just want to know what led you to view this as likely.
Do you view yourself as disposable?
I think this is the first time I’ve felt someone should be banned from here for the sake of their own mental health.
Of course MRAL doesn’t mean forever. Isn’t his record twenty-five hours at this point?
Yes Ami, I extend to you one credit just for being you.
Aww, Rutee beat me. XD
Instead of having a Book of MRAL, could we just have a list of all the times he’s flounced?