Men’s Rights Activists and manosphere misogynists love to complain that I “cherry pick” quotes in an attempt to make them look bad. Which makes it especially ironic that all too often when I call them out on some particular bit of bullshit, they more or less double down on that bullshit, reiterating and in many cases amplifying the terrible things they originally said.
Several days ago, I wrote about a Spearhead post from W.F. Price with the priceless title “After 25, Women Are Just Wasting Time.” It was appalling even by Spearhead standards. Price used the untimely death of a talented young writer named Marina Keegan as an opportunity to rehash the belief, widely held in the manosphere, that women over the age of 25 who haven’t managed to snag themselves a “good husband” are “just wasting time,” growing older and uglier and less appealing to men. (Evidently, women’s appeal to men is the only thing that really matters about them.)
Price’s article inspired numerous comments from Spearheaders that were even more grotesquely misogynistic and cruel than his own post; Price at least pretended to care about the dead girl, even though his post was a crass and opportunistic insult to her memory.
And it inspired one regular Man Boobz commenter, a 26-year-old woman, to wade into the muck that is the Spearhead’s comments section to point out that Price’s grand narrative of female decline after age 25 has no relation whatsoever to her own life story:
I’m 26 years old. 27 terrifyingly soon. I am nothing like the person I was when I graduated college.
After originally getting a film degree, I’ve just started nursing school.
I’m living on the other side of the country and loving the different culture here.
I’m dating a wonderful guy who mysteriously didn’t dump me on my 25th birthday.
I’m doing difficult, not always fun, but ultimately socially useful work, work I couldn’t imagine myself doing when I graduated college.Since I graduated college, I’ve read more books, worked on more movies, learned more skills, lifted more weight, traveled more places, marched in more protests, gotten published more times, saved more lives than I thought I ever would.
And I’m still only 26.
You think I’m going to stop protesting and writing and working the wild Saturday midnight shift in the ER before I’m 30? Before I’m 60?
Or do you think it doesn’t matter because I might not be as fuckable then?
Well then fuck you. I’m 26 and I got miles to go.
–
(Oh, and I’m way better at sex now. Guys who thought I hit my “expiration date” just around the time I was first learning what a Kegel was, you are missing out.)
The Spearheaders responded, predictably enough, with downvotes and insults and a lot of mainsplainy comments suggesting that she’s regret it forever if she doesn’t get married ASAP and start popping out children.
The strangest comment of the bunch came from a Spearhead “Shieldmaiden” (that’s what they call female commenters on The Spearhead, for reals) by the name of Andie, who launched into a barely coherent tirade that somehow revolved around, er, SCENTED CANDLES!
Price, after seeing Andie’s rant mocked by the commenters here, decided to feature it today as the Spearhead “Comment of the Week.” So without further ado, here is what Price considers to be the Spearhead community at its best:
@26 year old woman
Let’s see how you feel when you’re 29 and the end of everything possible is right at your doorstep. Hell, lots of women are infertile at 26. Done. You won’t do everything. You won’t be a mother.
And if that doesn’t bother you, darlin’, you ain’t a woman.
And if your plans are to actually BE a mother (as in do the damn work), you are already in very deep water.
Your resume will never put his chubby little arms around you and tell you he loves you, like a child will. Your resume will never give you grandchildren, like your children might. Your resume will never share in all your joys, all your sorrows, all your triumphs, all your tragedies, like your husband will.
But you WILL be able to rape that resume of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS over your lifetime. Yay!
The fastest growing consumer product category: scented candles. SCENTED FUCKING CANDLES.
Yes, 26 year old woman, all your education and opportunity and rights have resulted in millions of children raised without fathers, the total destruction of the family, the rise of GIANT ASS government to give all those wymyns a place to work (doing utterly useless shit) and what was it for? What did we gain?
SCENTED FUCKING CANDLES!!
Nicely done, ladies. Really good job.
Fuck you, bitch. My daughters are coming for you. And millions of daughters just like mine. We see you, you superficial piece of trash. You have cost us our lives. For patchouli candles.
You will pay.
Go back and read @26 year old woman’s comment, then read Andie’s again. Quite a contrast, wouldn’t you say?
I should note that when Price first posted the quote, he evidently left out the last few paragraphs; perhaps even he realized they were a tad over the line as a response to a woman whose only real “crime” was telling the Spearheaders that her life was interesting and fulfilling to her, and that she wasn’t planning on having any babies in the foreseeable future. (And if they didn’t approve of her life, too fucking bad for them.)
In the comments to Price’s “Comment of the Week” post, HL offers this thought:
Every time something like this comes up, it becomes ever more apparent that the ignorance, hate mongering, bigotry and fallacies rests so much more heavily on the side of the feminists.
To paraphrase Rick James, lack of self-awareness is a hell of a drug.
@Shaenon, did I see on another thread that you actually know one of the Tuskegee Airmen? That is supercool.
It’s abhorent to hear women swearing.
Moderation is key to good communication. You should only lightly season your repartee’ with a hint-o-fucking, not try to make it a smorgasbord.
I don’t know, Uncle E., I rather like it.
I also like “hint-o-fucking,” so thanks for that.
Sorry, guys, GODDAMN BODY FUCKING BUTTER sounds like lube.
@Uncle Elmer: I was raised in such a way that I could never say “fuck” until I was in my 20s.
I’ve been making up for lost time ever since.
Because along the fucking way, besides never saying ‘fuck,’ I somehow ended up unable to say “no” to anybody because that would not be FUCKING NICE, or FUCKING POLITE, or FUCKING WOMANLY.
And that fucks like shit.
So you, dear old dirty old uncle elmer, can just fuck yourself right off.
Signed:
So fucking not a lady@
And yet Elmer, we fucking don’t care. Our lives don’t revolve around pleasing you or males in general. If the discomfort you experience upon reading our naughty words is too much, I invite you to kindly fuck the hell off to a more sexism-friendly place.
NOBODY CARES, GRANDPA!
youre a shit writer, anyway, so why are you trying to hand out advice on language
Things I learned from misogynistic trolls today
it is perfectly okay for sexist men and women to rant about how MEAN women are for having jobs, being working mothers, not having kids, aging after 25
But if a women says fuck you for insuating I am a horrible person for having a a fullfilling like she is an abbhoration
love,
An intelligent women who says fuck a lot
I had a guy say over a multiplayer game the other day that he “shouldn’t swear like that because there’s a lady present.”
As I was the “lady” in the match, my response was “Why the fuck would you do that?”
I like to fuckin’ swear, and I am perfectly capable of being articulate without the use of the language when I deem it necessary.
Also, can we get a “SCENTED FUCKING CANDLES” t-shirt? Pleeeeeaase?
Blogs are ugly affairs when women swear.
From WTF Price’s post, comments in brackets because I’m bored:
This, uh, insightful comment from Opus:
Unthinking obeisance from male academics is a characteristic of religions, now? What did Christianity do before there were academics?
Does he really think that a) most feminists even know who Pankhurst is and b) that a woman who died of ill health is in any sense a martyr for anything and c) that she’s the only prominent feminist who suffered for her beliefs?
“Divine women stuff”? Who or what this even refers to is unclear: maybe if feminism were a religion, I’d have a fucking clue what he was talking about.
Dave Futrelle is a Bishop, now? I would ask if he realizes that a Bishopric is something besides a well-trafficked blog, but the very nature of his assertion means that he doesn’t.
Finally, a comment from Pierran:
Man-hating screeds?
Find me one. Just one.
The very fact that you think there are any is evidence of your projection.
Until then: ur projection, it is hilarious.
OT but want to see something fucking revolting? http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/uhlem/i_dumped_my_girlfriend_for_lying_about_being/
and they say we’re heartless and lack compassion.
Luckily a bit later I will scrub my mind of this douchebaggery by watching movies and NOT having babiez, eating FUCKING ice cream which will make me FUCKING FAT and FUCKING undesirable to teh poor oppressed MRAs. FUCKING LOL.
Also my stance on SCENTED FUCKING CANDLES- I like candles, but the scented ones give me a headache. Especially FUCKING vanilla *puke*
@Elmer
And gentlemen commentors on The Spearhead like to use the word cunt a lot. As well as slut, whore, and instead of vagina (which just sounds too icky I guess) prefer slit, or axe wound (wtf). So what is your point?
What men don’t want: the ultimate insult. Better shape up and fly right if you want a babiez, feminist!
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2012/06/01/comment-of-the-week-scented-candles/#comment-152626
I too have experienced several non-vagina-related events in my female life. Like, finishing my Master’s degree at 52. I’m pushing 60 now. What, the MRAs gasp, still alive? Must be some fuzzy wuzzy basket weaving degree. No it was in a technology field, from an established, respected university. And I am still working in tech, after so many have been laid off and driven out. I have even been a boss over men, and have rescued and/or boosted several men’s careers. Do I regret not having children? No, because I had several of them, and they are all speaking to me and returning my calls.
So, let’s look around the landscape of Reality. Oooh, most women aren’t centerfolds! And neither are most men! Most men are not combat veterans. Most women haven’t bothered to enter beauty contests. Yet, I know many loving couples, more like Damon and Pythias than Romeo and Juliet (though there is some of that too), and see many more than I know, often holding hands in public. Being joint tenants in mortgages. Driving around together, sometimes with her driving!
If I ruled the world, my first act would be to march all the MRAs in for vision and hearing screening, because their perceptions of reality are so skewed. The encouragement Mr. Price gives to some of his guests who come to share the group folie will come back to bite him some day, mark my words. What’s that saying about “the one you feed”?
So if women saying “fuck” a lot offends his sensibilities, we could (if we were so inclined to placate him) use Shakespearean insults.
You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish–O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!
Well gosh! :*(
Here’s a nifty little generator.
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html
Wait. If David is now a Bishop, can we finally accuse MRAs of “Bashing the Bishop” whenever they go to town about something on ManBoobz?
@Fembot
if you do a search on many MRA sites, “slut” is used in about every second article or comment. Yet we’re the meeeeeeeean ones who hate men.
I hate men. The specific men who consistently call women sluts, whores and cunts that is. Why wouldn’t I hate a man who obviously thinks so badly of women?
also when did the sisterhood approve this?! http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/02/MNI11ORI84.DTL
@ Quackers
The funny is thing is I don’t hate men at all. I’ve always had male friends. I am happily married to a wonderful man who treats me well (and I treat him pretty damn well too). The first time someone called me a cunt online, it genuinely hurt my feelings. I didn’t think I was being that offensive, either. Just commenting on how I was happily married. But I guess that just enraged the MRAs, kind of like running through a room filled with starving men holding a box of donuts. “That guy gets donuts! Why can’t I? People are starving here, woman!” 🙂
And watch, now Price is going to quote you as “I hate men” and use it as proof we are manhaters. He is a dishonest, cowardly piece of poop! (Not ALL men, Welmer, just you!!)
They seem to think if feminists use the word “fuck”, we must be angry. Which is just not fucking true all the fucking time. Right now, I’m pretty happy, and I’m about to go grocery shopping for the supplies for some cooking adventures. What? A feminist who likes to cook, even though she has no children, nor a husband? Or even a boyfriend? Why, yes, I am. How about that? I hate housework, though, and only wash my floors a couple times a year, so maybe that cancels out my un-feminist cooking tendency.
Ginger Snaps, these are the kind of people who think we can all fit in Texas or Jacksonville, FL.
UNCLE FUCKING ELMER: NO ONE FUCKING CARES WHAT YOU FUCKING THINK, SO FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING FUCK OF A FUCKING OLD MAN.
@Fembot
I don’t hate men. Most are awesome and are good people. I do hate the ones who hate me though, based on my sex. Which would make up 99% of the manosphere. Its a natural response. I’ve been called plenty of names before in my life so it doesn’t hurt my feelings as it does fill me with revulsion at the bitter, twisted fucks who need to put others down because they’re either a) unhappy with their own lives/themselves or b) they lack any kind of empathy for others.
MRAs who truly believe women hate them should take a good look at why this may be. Do you call women sluts and cunts frequently? do you tell women they are inferior and are only good for making babies and cooking and have no value past age 30? do you dehumanize them? HINT MRAs: PEOPLE GENERALLY DON’T RESPOND WELL TO BEING DEHUMANIZED.
It’s not the names that hurt as it is knowing that such maggots exist in this world to consistently tell women what worthless trash they are (and yep those maggots include women like Andie too) I hate them alright 😀
@quackers
I didn’t mean to insinuate that you hate men. I know that you don’t, because well balanced individuals don’t hate HALF OF THE WORLD 🙂
@unimaginative
I am quite the unfeminist. I’m a SAHW at the moment, cooking, cleaning, doing my husbands laundry. But since I like to vote, and drive a car, and own property in my name, I would call myself as feminist. Oh, and I also like to be treated as a person, who has her own ideas and feelings, and is not an automaton.