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.
Careful, Shaenon! You are treading on the grounds of the Holiest of Feminist Holies, our transcendent niranic state of being able to decide what you want to do and then doing it, no matter what it is! At least according to the Prophet, W.F. Price.
If we have to excommunicate you, I just want you to know I don’t know you very well but I like your comments and your avatar drawing thingy.
Nirvanic*, that is.
Both the band and the afterlife!
NWO: do you even know who Sojourner Truth was? You did not just claim your life is harder than hers, did you?
“What mass media do you have? Last years fathers day gift promotion was the book of how women are better at everything, the year before was the end of men. Maybe time will have a picture of a pig on it again to describe men. How often have you seen a mainstream magazine with a picture of a pig on it describing women? Where were all these supposed good women when it came time to stick up for men? The silence was deafening. Or was it the laughter?”
I appear to have missed the feminist overlord father’s day media in question, which leaves me asking — What mass media do you have? I imagine if you specifically go looking for the worst gift suggestions ever, you’ll find some terrible ones, but I saw TVs, gadgets, sports related stuff — generic trinkets to “holy shit that’s a 3k TV that’s not a gift!”
Regarding fuck, well, I’ll leave that to Boondock Saints —
Rocco: Fuckin’- What the fuckin’. Fuck. Who the fuck fucked this fucking… How did you two fucking fucks…[shouts] Fuck!
Connor: Well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word.
McNulty and Bunk have the greatest use of “fuck” ever:
Is it unbecoming for ladies to swear? I don’t fucking know. I’m not a fucking lady, assbrain. Nor do I fucking want to be one.
Stated where, Slavey? And by whom? Which imaginary feminist movement are you referring to?
NWO: A man sacrifices all his funsies for his wife and children, doesn’t he?
Nope. Ever heard of a mistress? Ever heard of a “golf widow”? Of course you have.
Poor lassie, never even helped into a carriage or over a mud puddle.
Are you that fucking clueless? Sojourner Truth was born a slave. She had her children sold away from her. She worked in the fields, hauling loads you’d grunt to move. She was exhausted from doing extremely difficult work; and her boss could (and did) beat her if he didn’t like the way she was doing it. She could have been killed on a whim.
So I don’t think helped into a carriage/over a mud puddle were all that big a deal in her idea of what was hardship. But you, you don’t care about that. You want to pretend no woman, anywhere, has ever done a hard thing.
Which is more false witness.
Although I can’t say men wouldn’t have done the same if they were being rewarded to divorce women. There’s simply no reference in all of history, anywhere of men being rewarded for divorcing women. So I can’t say it wouldn’t happen.
Right… dowry murder never happens. Men walking away and forgetting they had a wife/kids never happened. Coverture never happened. A wife’s income being her husbands property never happened (so he could take her earnings, and leave her. He could even; if he didn’t divorce her, kick her out and still go to the place she worked to collect her wages).
Nope, there was never any man who ever benefitted from walking away from his wife.
Do you work at appearing this stupid, or is it natural talent?
ithiliana: NWO: do you even know who Sojourner Truth was? You did not just claim your life is harder than hers, did you?
Of course he did. He’s been hungry; for 300 days of his life he’s had nothing to eat. Once he had to steal to get food. He works for more than 24 hours at a time, in temperatures that would melt your wimpy little female brain.
He’s had to braid cable, without gloves, and it hurt.
So he’s having a much harder life than Sojourner Truth did…”ain’t he a man”?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/3071963.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverture
Right owly, when you get whipped by a slave owner, bred like an animal and watch your children get sold to another slave owner, you can tell us ALLL about how tough your white self has had it in life.
Until then, shut the fuck up.
And I come over here to find out that NWO actually thinks his life has been harder than Sojourner Truth’s was because some woman might not give up her seat on the bus to him. WTF.
“He’s had to braid cable, without gloves, and it hurt.”
That’s special, I fondly remember pulling bits of metal out of my hands for a month after the time I did that, gloves really would’ve been a wise idea. (Theatre, you never know what stupid shit will suddenly be your problem.)
Lol, I think that’s wtf my brother’s doing in the newspaper photo the family is passing around…he’s wearing gloves though. (And a plumber, so I’m really not sure wtf he’s playing with cables for.)
NWO — you completely missed Sojourner Truth’s point — those things you mock, getting helped into a carriage for example, were standard practices among the wives of her masters. Her argument was that she was as much a woman as their wives were >.< (It's about sexism and racism)
If I ever write a script for an anime, I’m gonna try to sneak this in there.
Where did you see this promotion, NWO? I’m looking at Amazon’s recommendation pages for Father’s Day gifts, and I’m not seeing any books on the superiority of women. Here are their book recommendations for dads:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=fd2012_6pk_mm_book?ie=UTF8&docId=1000688641&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=0V4MTRQB83EVRDK6M2AC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1370947982&pf_rd_i=502661011
Poor lassie, never even helped into a carriage or over a mud puddle. Has anyone ever even met a woman whose given up her bus seat to a dirty man staggering onto the bus in work clothes? He just might be near exhausted from doing extremely difficult and dangerous work. Or do you just look away in revulsion?
I’ve never seen anyone give up their bus seat to an able-bodied person, male or female. I’ve seen people give up seats to elderly and handicapped people of both genders, and to pregnant women. Most people riding the bus are also on their way to or from work. Do you even ride the bus?
I’m sorry you think you’re repulsive because you wear work clothes. Believe me, it has nothing to do with your clothing.
Wait, why am I trying to talk to someone who thinks he has a harder life than an actual plantation slave because sometimes it’s hot at his job?
Shaennon: I think that should go into the Book o’ Larnin’.
NWO isn’t repulsive because of what he wears. NWO is repulsive because he’s so ugly-minded anyone with even the slightest sense of situational awareness within fifty yards of him probably feels like their skin’s about to crawl off.
It’s cute how MRAs think they invented being tough on the Internet
Well the cook books are clearly MISANDRY! only women are supposed to cook! /sarcasm
“I’ve never seen anyone give up their bus seat to an able-bodied person, male or female.” — I have, but not during rush hour — college students around here will get up sometimes when adults board. Only sometimes, and it seems to be more than they’re not going as far, but it happens (and gender seems not to be a factor). I get around by bus, and yeah, get the feeling NWO would be the sort who’d make me want to be as far away as possible.
I’ve also seen 5 people readily stand for to allow a wheelchair user to board, and women standing with babies in those carry-your-child slings — my sample is probably not representative in other words.
Maybe NWO just lives in a city full of assholes? Those do happen, though, being an asshole does also get you treated like an asshole. Hard to guess which it is in NWO’s case.
@ Crumbelievable, they may not have invented it but they’re probably among the thankfully small number of people who want to try and turn it into a career.
@ Mertvaya
No shit. If they ever do a new edition of The Gift Of Fear they could use NWO and the way people respond to him as an illustration of the book’s principles.
In Paris the signs on the Metro say to give up seats to wounded veterans, disabled people, the elderly, and pregnant women.
In that order.
Nothing about giving up seats to the able bodied. Funny that, able bodied people can stand. A big strong man ought to be able to stand too. Of course a company that flies him from place to place ought to be able to arrange for a van, or a rental car, or something too.
But no, NWO wants to blame women because his employer is cheap.
@NWO- As far as I’m concerned, if you fail to look with an open mind at history, you are doomed to repeat it. And unfortunately for you, there are far less institutionalized privileges in place for shitheads who engage in sexist, racist and criminal behavior towards other human beings (yes, women ARE human beings, as much as you’d like to deny it).
So yeah, I’m glad that I don’t live in a world where my body can be sold as chattel, and where I will not be a legally owned object by either my father or husband…or where I am economically shackled to someone who may at some point decide to leave me or abuse me without any recourse for myself beyond suicide or abject poverty.
And if you’re sad that you don’t live in that world, there are some choice words that I have for you. Most of them rhyme with “truck.”
Meh. He deserves it.
As a wise man said: “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment.”
Also, this guy was a complete asshole to someone who counted on him in a critical and painful moment on her life, but he’s no criminal. Unless you think all assholes deserve to die? And even if you do, well here is a civilized place. We don’t wish death on people we don’t like, so please cut it out.