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).
@ Ami Angelwings
“So torture and abuse victims are intellectually deficient? o_O”
Fail.
Oh my god.
It means that people who are being to tortured are physically weaker because torture is a physical act. And someone who is able to torture does so because of some advantage. Unless someone is so stupid that they allowed themselves to be tortured if you believe they freely chose to do so.
You know, trolling people by offending them is the easiest, cheapest shot in the world. Just go to the Rat Fanciers’ Forum and post “RATS SUCK!” Bam. Trolled.
I guess it makes people angry if that’s what you’re into, but I hope it doesn’t make you think you’re clever or you’re winning some sort of game. Don’t pat yourself on the back because you can offend people. Offending people is something anyone can do, and the only reason you don’t see the grownups doing it is because we’d rather embark on the much more difficult and taxing path of actually saying useful things that might change the way someone thinks.
So what’s his point now? o_O That feminism means that women are cheating by working together when it should be a single competition free for all? xD
efasfas | January 31, 2012 at 4:42 pm
@ Ami Angelwings
“So torture and abuse victims are intellectually deficient? o_O”
Fail.
Oh my god.
It means that people who are being to tortured are physically weaker because torture is a physical act. And someone who is able to torture does so because of some advantage. Unless someone is so stupid that they allowed themselves to be tortured if you believe they freely chose to do so.
I’m just asking you xD Because you said that being manipulated means that you must have some inherent weakness. xD
What about emotional torture? Can I torture you despite being physically weaker than you? xD Torture isn’t necessarily a physical act, and even when it is it isnt about who is physically stronger than the other in terms of musculature o_O
@ Viscaria
“Uuuuuh… yeah. I totally have that privilege. I think it’s crap. You’re the one who seems to think denying men the opportunity to share feelings is a good thing o_O”
It helps with survival, morality has nothing to do with. Unless morality is based on survival.
What about abuse victims? Are they intellectually deficient?
Efasfas, every time you post like male life is 24/7 car chases and shootouts and explosions, I reduce my mental count of “times efasfas has been in so much as a harsh verbal disagreement” by about 20.
…It’s at negative 40 right now.
It helps with survival, morality has nothing to do with. Unless morality is based on survival.
How does it help with survival? The “suck it up be a man” culture you love has led to more men having depression, being unwilling to seek help and committing suicide. That doesn’t sound like good survivability. Dx
@ Ami Angelwings
“You certainly are acting afraid and threatened xD Ignoring whole paragraphs b/c they debunked your unifying theory of the universe… ignoring everything else being said… etc etc xD”
Um…perhaps you haven’t realized but i”m trying to respond to everyone (I’m famous).
It doesn’t mean i”m trying to skip or avoid any argument.
But keep on your delusions.
I really wish he’d respond faster…I want to know his worldview already xD It’s prolly the strangest and most hilarious since NWOslave’s giant conspiracy theory xD
Whoo boy, I can tell you didn’t pay too much attention in those ‘social science’ courses you claim to despise because you just know they teach crap.
It doesn’t mean i”m trying to skip or avoid any argument.
But you already have XD
“But keep on your delusions.”
But remember folks he’s not angry at all xD
But the dude with the MRA talking points is totally not an MRA, no sir, not him!!
He is a mighty independent thinker!
@ Rutee Katreya
Well if it is so stupid then debunk it. Men and women are equal but somehow men oppressed women doesn’t help your argument. How stupid can you be?
efasfas | January 31, 2012 at 4:50 pm
@ Rutee Katreya
Well if it is so stupid then debunk it. Men and women are equal but somehow men oppressed women doesn’t help your argument. How stupid can you be?
So you admit that men have oppressed women? First of all we need to confirm you agree with this. :3 Then we can explore the rest more 😀
Seriously, folks, this one is straight out of Encyclopedia Drammatica. Ignore, unless you’re interested in providing him with lulz.
(This one isn’t smart enough to be going for specific lulz, he just wants to get everyone flustered.)
Cis ppl have oppressed trans ppl. Straight ppl have oppressed gay ppl. White ppl have oppressed various PoCs… the upper class have oppressed the lower classes… so all of those groups are inferior? o_O
Shh, Cassandra, we’re having fun with him and he doesn’t know how much. 🙂
@Cassandra but he’s not flustering me xD I’m so amused about his hilarious world XD I want to know more but he’s posting SO SLOW
@ Holly Pervocracy
“Anyway, funny you should ask, because we talked about this in Anatomy lab yesterday. There’s three basic types of muscle fibers. Skeletal (voluntary) muscles are striated, regular, and multi-nucleated. Cardiac (heart) muscles are striated but branched, with intercalated disks. Smooth (involuntary) muscles have torpedo-shaped cells without striations.
…you were saying?”
Ok. Lucky you you actually took a hard class in your life. Now tell me about the differences in gender with the different types of muscles. Starting with skeletal muscles.
srsly, NWO has gotten to avoiding answering me, so has MRAL… I’m PLEASED to have a troll who will actually tell me how his world works… 😀
Ok. Lucky you you actually took a hard class in your life. Now tell me about the differences in gender with the different types of muscles. Starting with skeletal muscles.
Do women not take hard classes in your world or something? o_O
efasfas: I need learn how to quote here. So quotations will have to do. Sorry if it is confusing. But you do write a lot.
Cut and Paste, with attribution is too hard for you? Wow.
Yes. People can get very instinctual when their lives are on the line. However I’m old fashion at least to an extent to want to help women who respect the old school way of doing things. However people decided to maintain a certain calm. Of course Lord of the Flies is fiction but draws upon realism.
Actually, it doesn’t. Golding was a misanthrope, and projected his views of how people are into the book. In fact when people have been put into that sort of circumstance it was more Gilligan’s Island, with everyone pulling together, and using their talents/strengths to keep the group going.
@ Rutee Katreya
Whoo boy, I can tell you didn’t pay too much attention in those ‘social science’ courses you claim to despise because you just know they teach crap.
Actually I did. But doesn’t mean I agree with most of the idiots in them.
Did you like my video! Feminism for the win!