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).
I’m gonna say twenty.
I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’d rather listen to My Heart Will Go On than to Go My Own Way. It takes real talent to knock Celine Dion off the “please turn that shit off” spot.
You know, you’re absolutely right. In fact, I’d watch that 3 billion hour long movie again if it meant not having to listen to Go My Own Way. That is truly horrifying.
I think the best part of the live protest will be Paul Elam explaining why all his alter egos… I mean, “co-writers”… couldn’t make it in person.
Our friend Alex will be running around trying to explain to himself, and everyone else, why more people didn’t show up. They’re invisible, you see, because of the threat of feminist retribution! In addition to it’s many lawyers, AVFM also has an entire fleet of wizards at its disposal.
The little I’ve read of these guys tells me that the ONLY antifeminist way to think of women is to believe that the only time that they should be seen in public is at the grocery store and/or if the man they happen to be sleeping with enjoys exhibitionism. And I guess to expect them to cover their own financial needs by selling homemade craft on the internet or something.
I forgot to add that this is really the only RIGHT way to think of women as well, humanity’s just too PC to know it
“Holly Pervocracy | January 19, 2012 at 12:23 pm
I think the best part of the live protest will be Paul Elam explaining why all his alter egos… I mean, “co-writers”… couldn’t make it in person.”
…So much this.
I say they might get 21 people, they’re gonna do awful things to drag them there, too.
Was there a video? A written report?
Why you seem so mean to trollz?
For without trollz, what lolz?
Why value in rational discourse
over everyone minding zir hobbyhorse?
Truth or falsehood or else,
(really, is there something else?)
why care, should beautiful,
be less than truthful?
Soon time has begun to roll
to inspire an aspiring leet Troll.
I’m going to say 5 guys at Elam’s thing, wandering around saying that the lurkers support them in e-mail.
@Hellkell
I see your five guys saying that lurkers support them in e-mail, and raise you five guys and Elam holding a stack of “lurker’s emails” explaining that they stand fully in support with their brothers and that, if it wasn’t for this nasty stomach flu that’s been spreading around the manosphere, they would be standing there right now!!
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/18/costa-concordia-captain-claims-he-tripped-and-fell-from-sinking-italian-cruise-ship-into-lifeboat/
Captain of Concordia claims he tripped and fell off the sinking ship and fell into lifeboat!
He must be an MRA if he expects anybody to believe that!
Whatever the numbers, when the rest of us are hilariously unimpressed, I’m sure they’ll say it’s because the west coast is the seat of the feminazi liberal conspiracy.
I’m going to be generous and say ten will show up to the sink misandry event. However, only three will actually say anything out loud or carry any signs. The other seven will be too embarrassed to proclaim their misogynistic views to the world. They’ll stand awkwardly to the side to get credit from their fellow MRA’s for showing up without making it too obvious to bystanders that they’re also protesting.
It’s sad, but I agree that they are worse than the WBC. That’s really saying a lot, too. The WBC intended to protest here in Joplin last year, but they were gently persuaded to stay out. Their little Joplin “tribute” website is called “God hates Missouri” and has slogans like “Thank God for 160 dead” and “God bless tornadoes”. Those are the signs they had intended to use at a memorial service on May 29 when Obama visited. How messed up is it that I still find the MRA’s more offensive than the Westboro Baptist Church?
“How messed up is it that I still find the MRA’s more offensive than the Westboro Baptist Church?”
It’s not. They’re hateful and get happiness for people’s pain, but they’re unlikely to ever cause a tornado, kill a gay soldier, etc. They don’t participate in a tornado culture and also you’re unlikely to ever date a WBC’s member or to have a friend or relative join the WBC. And the WBC does not troll Manboobz.
@Kyrie: It hasn’t happened yet. It’s sometime in March
Looks like Elam’s thing has been canceled.
Okay, who got closest to “absolutely zero”?
…Snowy, with the lowest guess at three, is our grand prize winner!
“Looks like Elam’s thing has been canceled.
Okay, who got closest to “absolutely zero”?
…Snowy, with the lowest guess at three, is our grand prize winner!”
Omg, is there gonna be the grand story of the vast feminist conspiracy and how it kept it from happening? Is there already?!
Grats to Snowy!
Snowy wins the Internet!
Feminism is unnatural and thus disrupts the laws of physics. It makes planes fall down.
Actually, he just claimed “logistical problems” and unnamed people not coming through for him, which presumably means that there were going to be two guys there and one backed out.
Hysterical!! What logistical problems? The fact that it takes more than a car full of people to constitute a march?
That, logistically, they couldn’t claim to be a movement with no people?
It’s alright. Another ten years, and Paul Elam will be able to clone himself for such events!! Ten years, ladies. You’ll be sorry.
Could somebody copy & paste what he actually said?