You may recall a post I did the other day about Roger Ebert’s recent claim that women are superior to men. You may also recall that my basic thesis was that Ebert was completely wrong. Heck, you didn’t even have to read my post to see what my stance was; I made it clear in the title itself, which started off with the words “no, women aren’t better than men.”
Well, apparently my saying explicitly that women are not superior to men, and approvingly quoting another feminist saying the same thing, was too much to handle for the proprietor of an exciting new blog chronicling how wrong and bad I and my commetariat are. Mikhael Varpole of the imaginatively named Anti-Man Boobz blog (motto: “Exposing Man Boobz as a vile hate cult”) wrote about Ebert’s claim, and my response, in a recent post.
Here’s what he wrote:
Naturally, Futrelle and the boob gallery had to get in on the action. To his credit, Futrelle doesn’t condone Ebert’s misandry- but then again Dave’s always been a sneaky one that way. He won’t stand in solidarity with Ebert- but note that he’s happy to spin an instance of bold-faced misandry into an opportunity to bash MRAs who are righteously angry, ultimately concluding:
Guys, I hate to have to tell you this, but you’re sort of making it look like Ebert might have a point.
Remember what I said about subtle bigotry? This is a prime example. Misandry and misandric attitudes are dismissed in our culture because the concept itself is seen as illegitimate. And by portraying AVfM’s righteous anger as childish and “proving Ebert’s point”, Futrelle is knowingly and consciously destroying the legitimacy of misandry as a concept. It’s psychological manipulation on a global scale, and it’s downright sinister. And Futrelle, along with his lickspittle toadies, are happily contributing to the anti-male conspiracy.
Yes, explicitly stating that women aren’t superior to men is an exceedingly subtle form of misandry indeed.
Oh, and in case you’ve forgotten what the allegedly “righteous” anger of the AVFM crowd looks like, here’s are a couple of excerpts from the angry screeds I quoted from in my post:
Feminism has provided today’s pampered princesses with the privilege-stuffed, consequence-free Nirvana that they believe they’re entitled to. Do you really think they can be swayed with reason and logic?
And:
[E]verything on this earth from the knickers these women wear on their fat buts, all the way through to just about every single thing they touch in their day, up to and including homes, buildings, cars, trains, rockets, and the food they stuff down their throats, has all been either invented or produced by those useless ‘less than’ human, men.
That doesn’t sound so much like “subtle bigotry” as “just straight-up bigotry.” This is anger of an exceedingly un-righteous kind.
Well, after receiving some gentle mockery at the hands of the Man Boobz commetariat – sorry, at the hands of my “lickspittle toadies” – Varpole posted a comment here trying to clarify his stance.
I disdain commenting here for obvious reasons, but I have to clarify that subtle or “benign” misandry can be as damaging as overt bigotry- moreso, even, because it’s harder to call out. Radfem-level misandry can usually be dismissed (usually). But less overt displays of male-hatred are very difficult, because the concept has no veracity in a misandric, male-hating, anti-man culture. A culture, by the way, that MEN set up, and MEN continue to run, at both the low and high levels.
Well, this is an interesting thesis. Men – sorry, MEN – created the world as we know it, and run things – and yet have decided to set up a culture that is “male-hating [and] anti-man.” How would that even work?
After several commenters – sorry, toadies – asked him to explain this mysterious paradox, Varpole posted a clarification of his clarification on his blog.
First, I admit that “men maintain the culture” is an oversimplification. Obviously, that’s not true- certainly not today, arguably not ever. There are women police officers, women in government, women farmers, women firefighters, etc. Women do contribute to the maintenance of civilization. Not as much as men, but nonetheless.
On the other hand, women, feminists, and their assorted mangina lackeys have a disproportionate influence in the media and pop culture. Feminists and their dogs control the messages beamed at us through music, video games, and Hollywood. They have the print news media. They control primary education (how many teachers are men?) and thus the shaping of our youth. The infamous SOPA was almost certainly backed by feminists, in an attempt to bring the Internet (not coincidentally, the primary holdout of MRAs) under their control. Even when it is a male hand holding the pen, a male voice speaking into the mic, they are generally manginas who kowtow to female demands (see: Roger Ebert; Bill Clinton; H.L. Mencken). Thus, they are mouthpieces for the misandrist NWO, and are not in any way representative of men as a class; it’s just a different mechanism for the female perspective. …
I’m not saying thy’re calling for mass castration or anything like that (such a move would be too obvious). But there is a systematic denigration of men and masculinity in the media, and a subtle promotion of a misandrist, feminist, female supremacist ideology. In the news, in television, movies, literature, comic strips- we see the epidemic with our own eyes.
Huh. MEN created and still run the world, but “women, feminists, and their assorted mangina lackeys” dominate the media and popular culture with their evil anti-man agenda? There’s no getting around it: Varpole seems to be suggesting that MEN are just terrible at running the world.
Wouldn’t such an argument be … misandry?
Not even subtle misandry, at that.
I look forward to more blatant misandry from Anti-Man Boobz in the future.
As well as some critiques of his misandry from a mysterious, even newer blog that sprung up the other day: Anti-Anti-Manboobz, devoted to debunking Anti-Man Boobz and being meta as fuck.
Wheels within wheels.
lol, i didn’t think you were directing anything at me, no worries. just clarifying my position.
it was actually kind of amazing how fast the mrm rushed to schwyzer’s defense as soon as we all figured out what a fuckhead he is
Two interpretations come to mind:
1) “Women are not superior to men” is clearly not overt misandry. David said it, so the possibility that it isn’t misandry at all isn’t even worth considering. Therefore, by process of elimination, it is subtle misandry.
2) Women are self-evidently horrible, so saying men and women are equal is saying that men are horrible. That’s misandry, but he doesn’t come out and say “men are horrible,” hence “subtle.”
Mertvaya:
I think that’s why you see so much conspiracy-theory thinking among bigots, certainly among MRAs.
If we’re calling dibs on LoTRs characters, I get to be Radagast. That way, I get to be a wizard who hangs around with talking eagles and people who can turn into bears, but also a virtual hermit who can’t be found for the Council.
damn… that is actually the perfect answer. im jealous of dsc for thinking of it first.
hey, dsc, did you see the avfm article on marxism yet, because it is seriously a must read
Sharculese — but he…argh! He tried to kill someone and thus should be serving a decade+ prison time, asking him not to take positions of power as a feminist role model is like…the least consoling consolation prize ever?
Hershele — 2b) Men are self-evidently superior…the rest is the inverse of 2.
darksidecat — nice obscure choice there! Can I just be an ent then? Not treebeard or anyone special, just want to hang out in the woods for centuries while the world of men passes me by…
Can I be Tom Bombadil? Or his wife whose name escapes me at the moment?
Goldberry.
King of the Eagles, motherfuckers.
King. Of. The. Eagles.
That rationalization hamster thing is repulsive. I fully support flooding it with hypocritical MRA thought processes. Here’s what I got so far
http://qkme.me/3pd1on
http://qkme.me/3pd1pk
http://qkme.me/3pd1q0
http://qkme.me/3pd1qk
http://qkme.me/3pd1qy
http://qkme.me/3pd1rc
http://qkme.me/3pd1rx
http://qkme.me/3pd1sl
My mother read me the Lord of the Rings when I was young–like elementary school young. I was convinced (or I managed to convince myself) that Merry was a woman (named Mary). Pronouns, what are pronouns?
Wordspinner, I knew Merry and Pippin were boys intellectually but they were both female in my imagination anyhow.
I reeled at the “Dave is sneaky that way” bit. I totally identify with that. It couldn’t be for a second that David is NOT a misandrist, and that team MRA are a bunch of boobz. It couldn’t be that they are WRONG. When faced with things that don’t match their fantasy worlds, Dave is being “sneaky.”
BEEN THERE.
Sincerity for their cause and just sincerity in general would look like “So Dave I understand that you don’t agree with this or that, and think A and B are faulty premises. But to clarify, do you think C D and E? I’m not sure.” That would be sincere. The fact that they “know” anyone that disagrees with them hate men just shows they’re fanatical ideologues- scorch the earth types. This is the stupidity of humanity, it’s as stupid and repugnant as racism. Also, constantly on a bloody crusade, looking for trouble and reasons to pearl clutch at the very least.
Jackasses claim to know something about me based on some mean spirited fantasy in their own heads, based on some opinion I don’t share of theirs, and when faced with evidence completely opposite of the made up portraits in their heads, somehow I’m ‘pulling something’ or being ‘sneaky’. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. People that do this are stupid assholes emphasis on stupid. Consistently, their stupidity and bigotry will be made their target’s problem. Please do not mistake your problems for mine, etc. So yeah.
This is absolutely precious.
The power of manboobz compels you!
Apparently, being female and having an opinion is MISANDRY.
Fine.
I’ll be “misandrist” if being a woman who actually thinks about things makes me guilty of it.
I’ll be a “misandrist” if it means that I support the right of humans to be multi-faceted, mutable individuals who don’t live the embodiment of stereotypical heterosexual gender roles.
I’ll be a “misandrist” if fighting against homophobia, misogyny, size-discrimination, genderism and racism is considered “bad” according to MRAs.
I’ll be a “misandrist” if that’s the default insult that MRAs want to use to try and SHUT PEOPLE UP who disagree.
In the words of Fezzick, “I do not think that word means what you think it means.”
Or watched a movie
Or seen a TV show
Or listened to popular music
Or watched a commercial
Or paid attention to politics
Or stepped outside the confines of his little bubble into the real world
The infamous SOPA was almost certainly backed by dogs, in an attempt to bring the Internet (not coincidentally, the primary holdout of cats) under their control.
TIL “breast physics”, “bitches and hos”, Judd Apatow, and the Page Three Girls were all invented by man-hating feminists. Somehow this version of reality isn’t so surprising coming from an MRA.
@Tulgey, Wordspinner
You two did better than me on my first time through that book. I thought Pippin and Peregrin were two different people, and was confused the Fellowship kept saying they had 9 people when they obviously had 10. Eventually I decided that either Frodo or Gandalf didn’t count.
I did the same thing with Strider/Aragorn for a chapter or two. To be fair, I was seven at the time.
@ lowquacks
I’m pretty sure I couldn’t be bothered to keep people straight enough to remember if I confused Pippin and Peregrin for different people and I wouldn’t have bothered counting 🙂
But I do think that young girls tend to invent female characters where none existed/make male characters female when they read/watch/hear stories without female characters.
indifferentsky:
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to Pinsk”
“Aha! You tell me you’re going to Pinsk so I’ll think you’re going to Minsk. But I happen to know you are going to Pinsk, so why are you lying?”
Yay, I am so glad we have taken over the rationalization hamster meme. Keep it going!