Today in Did That Really Get 196 Upvotes on Reddit: A Redditor claiming to be the owner of a brothel in Thailand explains how what he euphemistically calls the “problems in the sex industry” are mostly the fault of evil, lazy whores. Literally.
Let’s join the discussion already in progress. (ChaChaKrahp is the alleged brothel owner.)
A little further on in the discussion he makes this charming claim:
According to him, sex trafficking isn’t really a big issue, but when it does occur it “is more likely to victimize men” than women. (The main victims in his mind being trafficked men (by which I assume he means transwomen) … and male sex tourists.)
Those poor, poor Western sex tourists, suffering so at the hands of women and girls who’ve been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery!
But let’s just put this whole “trafficking” thing out of our heads. As ChaChaKrahp explains it, prostitution in Thailand is just a way for lazy ladies to make money. It’s totally on the up and up – “[j]ust like college girls in the US that work as strippers for $300 per night instead of picking strawberries for $50 per day.”
The only real problem is all those evil ladies ripping off dudes.
Did that last bit sound a little … MRAish to you?
Though this discussion isn’t in the Men’s Rights subreddit., ChaChaKrahp shares a lot of opinions and obsessions with the MRA crowd, peppering the discussion with MRA talking points on everything from dangerous jobs and breast cancer funding to false rape accusations and paternity fraud. While he claims not to “give a shit about MRA groups,” he links to prominent Father’s Rights site fathersandfamilies.com, and rails endlessly about the evils of feminism. He walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.
While ChaChaKrahp seems quite sincere in his beliefs, this is the Internet, and so there’s a chance that this “brothel owner” is not actually a brothel owner at all, just some dude making this all up for Reddit karma points and lulz.
Even if that’s the case, we still have all those hundreds of Redditors who read his comments and happily upvoted them, either because they thought what he said was sensible or true, or because the thought of owning a brothel in Thailand gave them boners.
The question remains: does Reddit attract the worst representatives of those in its heavily young, male, geek demographic, or is this how most of these (mostly) guys really think — even if they don’t usually say so out loud?
(Thanks to ShitRedditSays for pointing me to this lovely thread.)
EDITED TO ADD: Brothel Owner under attack (by a few people)! Send in the r/mensrights upvote brigade to upvote him even more than he’s already being upvoted!!!
when mral describes the women he’s most attracted to on here i get tempted to post a pic cause he basically describes me (when made up all nice and stuff which isn’t that often ha). it tempts me to post a pic i don’t know what i’d be trying to prove though. it’s just that whole magical mysticism thing again i hate it when insecure men who think women that they personally find attractive are somehow different from everyone else. and yeah guys are interested in me sexually but my romantic history is one of rejection and sadness i haven’t had a boyfriend in almost 10 years now and i’m 26! i’ve dated but no relationships and those guys have crushed me. i haven’t dated anyone in over a year and no it’s not cause i’m “too picky” (though i am picky, why would i want to date someone i’m not into? i don’t give a shit about money though and my looks preferences aren’t set in stone) it’s cause i don’t want to cry over guys anymore!
I don’t think anyone has anything against radiohead in specific, just that MRAL is treating them like they’re supar deeeeep.
Regarding Schwyzer, like Holly, I’m not in a rush to kick him out of the human race or anything, nor do I want him killed or in prison, but those aren’t high praise; I’d say the same about Hitler (The last pending entirely on whether leaving him out of a prison was safe at all). But no, he isn’t, and as far as I’m concerned, never will be much of an authority on feminism. I’ve never liked him, but this, and this cheerful way of making it sound like a not-big deal, is only adding to that.
We shouldn’t be taking him seriously. I mean really, he hosts a lot of idiotic shit on his site to begin with. The only use I’ve ascribed to him prior was that he was useful for collecting all the feminists (and much moreso, the ‘allies’) who were too busy tripping over their own feet to assuage the feelings of white dudes to be useful and keeping them out of everyone else’s hair. Now that, well, this has happened and we know he’s kind of a terrible person, well, I’m sure we can find someone else who can fill that role.
Thank you Cassandra for bringing up Stiv Bators, one of the ugly hot royalty!
As far as Hugo goes, how in the blue fuck did this dude become the face/voice of feminism (one of them, anyway)? I just find that and his whole shtick repellent.
Speaking of repellent, MRAL should be banned, it’s unhealthy for the little shit to be here.
The cynical part of me thinks we need a replacement Nice White Dude, someone who’s just as privileged but at least hasn’t tried to murder anyone, so we can spend them on speaking engagements instead.
The idealistic part of me thinks there are absolutely brilliant women and people of color and queer people in the movement with a ton to say (and who also haven’t tried to murder anyone) and maybe some of them should get some goddamn speaking engagements.
@LyssatakeaBow, I almost fit the bill too, except my boobs are fairly average-sized. So, congratulations to us, MRAL acknowledges our existence! Most women aren’t even real to him. When he talks about women having things so much better, he’s talking about lucky lucky us.
He knows women he’s attracted to have it better than him, because he’s attracted to them. He doesn’t see things like chronic health issues, physical and mental. Pretty girls don’t have years of frustrating doctor’s visits, hoping for an answer that would make it possible to work a steady job or go to school for a semester without having to abandon it to lie in bed.
Pretty girls definitely don’t still have scars from bad relationships. They definitely don’t have self-esteem issues (only MRAL has self-esteem issues!) Pretty girls don’t stare at themselves in the mirror, looking for any ounce of jiggle that wasn’t there before, convinced that they will soon become old and unattractive and then nobody will care about them — because what else do they have to offer the world, if not youthful good looks?
Pretty girls don’t have any kinds of problems. Because they’re pretty.
When I think of a Nice White Dude feminist, I often think of Jason Thibeault, but he’s actually aware of the fact that being a male feminist gives him an easier time. But maybe the atheist activism thing would scare some away?
You won’t from me. He is a beautiful god and his music is magical.
yeah also the pretty to THEM part. and the very specific type thing is an issue i believe. not in itself just the experience i’ve had with it is one guy who i was involved with who turned out to be pretty emotionally abusive i was actually not his specific type. i have large breasts and am curvy and brunette and he preferred small breasts and blondes. and he used it against me to quote him “if you had a body like sasha grey you’d be my girlfriend”. Sure other people would tell me i’m pretty still but things like that cut deeply from someone who has emotional power over you. i’m not saying their aren’t privileges to being conventionally attractive but there are downsides too and i’m sure thats true for almost everything.
Women get speaking engagements all the fucking time, especially if they’re rich white girls, more false victimization. Look at Valenti. Nice to see that people want to deny me employment based on gender, tho.
Oh, I’m sorry, MRAL; did you want to become a feminist speaker? We certainly weren’t trying to deflate your noble ambition.
How is anyone denying you employment? No one would want you to speak because you’re an obnoxious little fart, not because you’re male. Do you think you have what it takes to be the next white dude voice of feminism (that sounds like a reality show)? Yeah, right.
Take your victim complex elsewhere.
hm i forgot that if i told that story to MRA types it would be cause i only go for alpha guys or some shit. it’s just not true. i mean i don’t have to explain every guy i’ve ever dated to them but it’s just not. that particular guy i mentioned maybe sorta could be considered an alpha type by their dumb-ass standards but other guys have made me sad too. theres just no way to prove anything to these guys that will make em listen. the alpha-beta thing is just freggin stupid as anything other than maybe a possible concept or theory, nothing to live by
MRAL’s right. Rich white women are unfairly over-represented in feminism, particularly in Official Professional Feminism.
…The only solution is to have more rich white men?
No, that’s not what makes you racist.
@Holly Pervocracy: So sayeth The Onion. So say we all! .
mral thinks women being murdered is kinda meh, and women dying in an accident is a gift from god, but thinks fictional men dying in movies is the worst thing that has ever happened in the entire universe. Sounds like somebody has some double standards XD
Also, this thread has been a blast to read. Shadow, nice reference of Jean Grae. I once saw her sitting in with The Roots and Mos Def and she killed everyone in the cypher. And in honor of women who would give Meller a heart attack:
That ship sailed so very long ago.
I mean, I wouldn’t say you’re more racist than average, but yeah you’re racist.
Also, I don’t think Schwyzer is much of a “Nice White Dude” face for feminism. He’s hardcore, he’s a misandrist, he has double standards, bashes men, etc. Jessica Valenti is a more moderate face, and she’s still pretty hardcore.
The racism accusations don’t really bother me, because I can fart the wrong way and you guys will call racism. So, fuck off.
It’s not your farts. It’s your genuinely dismissive attitude towards/about people of color -regardless of our gender- that makes you kind of racist. Like Rutee said, you’re not especially racist. But, yeah, racist.
As for fucking off: you go first.
Who you are attracted to does not make you racist/nonracist. It is your overweening attitude that young white men have it the worst that makes you averagely racist.
Now I am white, but not sexually attracted to other white people. That makes me neither racist nor non racist, in and of itself.
Speaking of racism! Morgan Freeman pretty much nails it here:
Damn it, I missed the discussion on lyrical dissonance, and most of my favorite songs ever have lyrics contradictory to the sound of the song. Kylie Minogue’s Better the Devil You Know is a classic example of people not getting the lyrics, in the same vein as “Every Breath You Take.” “Pumped Up Kicks” is another recent example that I love in which people think it’s happy when the lyrics are about a killing spree.
And now, just to piss off MRAL, the ever-beautiful Lady Gaga (who I find all the more beautiful simply because she isn’t conventionally beautiful and she makes no attempt to hide that):
And let’s not forget Natalie Portman’s truly stunning SNL performance:
I disagree with Freeman about just ‘not talking about it’. That’s not really going to solve the structural problems underpinning a lot of USian race relations, but yeah, it’d be really nice to not forget about black history outside of February. Kinda like that xkcd of “After we survive 2012 because there’s no such thing as a mayan apocalypse, it will be sad that we as a culture will totally forget there were giant city building Meriken here long before the USA.
MRAL: The fact that you can’t cop to cultural racism isn’t going to convince informed people that you aren’t racist. It only works on other really racist fucks. Seriously, there’s no shame in having been born with a lot of stupid ideas, only in perpetuating them. The latter of which you’ve done, frequently, not the least of which by pretending that you are being called racist for anything but your actual faults.
“I disagree with Freeman about just ‘not talking about it’.”
I think what he meant was not giving blacks super special treatment because they’re black. Stop referring to them as black men and refer to them as men. You know?
@Lauralot: Let’s not forget the song that’s not about domestic violence.
I’m very sad that my work blocks the youtubes… can I make a humble request of the commentariat that when posting awesome songs you add in the artist and song name in your post so that those of us stuck behind walls can still at least partly follow the conversation (assuming we know the groups/songs)?