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antifeminism cuteness evil fat fatties evil women idiocy kitties lying liars misandry misogyny MRA

Argumentum ad Kittypicturem: A Rebuttal

Manosphere doofuses have a wide assortment of excuses for dismissing this blog without actually having to deal with anything I’ve ever actually said.  There’s the old “you’re a misandrist bigot so I don’t have to read anything of yours to know what you think” argument; no evidence of the alleged misandry is ever given. There’s the old “you call yourself Man Boobz and that’s a silly name so I can pretend that nothing you say counts” excuse; actually, I call you guys the “man boobz,” but never mind. Then there’s the old “he’s fat” chestnut. (See the next-to-last pic here.)

My favorite excuse, though, is a little logical fallacy you might call “argumentum ad kittypicturem.” That is, the claim that I can’t be taken seriously because sometimes I post pictures of adorable kitties. I’m not sure why these pictures confuse and infuriate misogynists to the extent that they do, but I’m sort of happy this is the case, because every time I run across it, it gives me an excuse to POST MORE KITTY PICTURES.

This time the kitty picture hater is the lying liar Dalrock, whom we’ve met several times before—most recently when he complained about women taking jobs from men by “playing career woman much the way that Marie Antoinette played peasant and Zoolander’s character played coal miner.”

In a post with the ponderous yet somehow also very silly title “We need worthy adversaries,” Dalrock dismisses my blog as one of the unworthy ones, the only example of said unworthiness being this post I made featuring pictures of several adorable  kittens.

Here is my rebuttal:

Yes, that’s a hedgehog. Let’s see how they deal with THAT!

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BigKitty
BigKitty
12 years ago

OK, that was really uncalled-for, PosterformerlyknownasElizabeth. Now I am completely bewitched, charmed and mesmerized by baby sloths. Awwwwwwww!

Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte)

Well, that and the stupid factor, too. Mustn’t underrate that when it comes to reactionaries. I had one screeching on Twitter that opinion pieces I write for, you know, actual publications online should all be disregarded because at Pandagon, we let it hang out a little with jokes about cheesy movies and songs.

Sharculese
12 years ago

you don’t get to choose the people who oppose you, the people who oppose you choose it themselves

yeah, it’s a problem for mras that the site thats become their biggest adversary is kind of goofy, but that’s just indicative of the level of response they deserve

princessbonbon
12 years ago

I am not apologizing for teh adorable Bigkitty.

Because look at that:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkZ1qR-v__8&feature=related

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Leeloo Dallas Multipass

“playing career woman much the way that Marie Antoinette played peasant and Zoolander’s character played coal miner.”

“Zoolander’s character”?

Lady Zombie
Lady Zombie
12 years ago

cloudiah
12 years ago

Just want to remind you that some MRA’s love cats, and draw very important lessons from their behavior.

ragefromthebasement
12 years ago

Someone in the MRM should send Bernard some money (or a gift card to Walmart) so he can buy some props. I can’t believe how cheap this guy is. His bedroom probably consists of a mattress on the floor with a ratty wool Army blanket.

BigKitty
BigKitty
12 years ago

On a more serious note, Amanda Marcotte brings up an interesting point. For example, misogynists often try to insult women by saying that if they fail to please men, they will end up “alone” with their cat(s).

Just as a thought experiment – would anybody ever suggest that a man, living with his beloved dog, was “alone,” because his dog was insufficient company? No. It’s only when a woman lives with her kitties that a human living with beloved pets is considered to be a pathetic loser.

It’s so sad – most humans, men and women, love their pets, and it shouldn’t be controversial or challenging for us all to agree that our pets are wonderful, lovable and dear. How did loving pets become a MRA-issue?

ragefromthebasement
12 years ago

Wasn’t there a study about how men smell bad when they don’t have a woman or sexual partner? Like they give off weird pheromones that turn women off when they’re celibate.

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

I counter your baby sloth with good ol’ Barry

Bee
Bee
12 years ago

Kitties = MISANDRY!!!

Pugs eating bananas are the alpha thugs of the animal kingdom. TOTES irresistible. I’ll admit it. I ride the alpha pug carousel, uh huh.

Newbie
Newbie
12 years ago

Thank you, thank you, thank you for finally putting up a post re: Dalrock! What a vile, nasty and stupid man he seems to be, claiming to be a “Christian”. The comments he puts up are not Christian.

Post after post after post is about Game, like it’s So Important, and men being “Leaders”.

They are trying to intellectualize Game, which is Un Fucking Readable. Absolute Babble. Absolutely Pathetic.

Dalrock wrote, “Feminism is trying to turn my daughter into a whore and that infuriates me”. You can’t make that shit up.

clairedammit
clairedammit
12 years ago

Here is a baby capybara for everyone.

Misandry!

valerienorth
valerienorth
12 years ago

If loving a cat is wrong than I don’t wanna be right.

2-D Man
2-D Man
12 years ago

I like that second picture with the kitten photobombing in the foreground.
Today at work I was going through our collection of pictures of oil-recovery equipment and in one of them, my boss’ dog is sitting in the background photobombing a picture of a skimmer.

Bee
Bee
12 years ago

I think we can all agree that our MRA friends have really wonderful arguments, but have they considered … chinchillas?

Newbie
Newbie
12 years ago

The black & white one is so sweet…and sleepy. And baby tigers!

Dalrock was angry he wasn’t included on the ACLU list & called them “commies”. He’s also a big time gun owner. He took it upon himself to announce to the world wide web that his wife was a virgin when they got married.

It’s like a certain branch of the MRM: saying they’re Christian, obsessed with biblical patriarchy, angry at certain evangelical (?) pastors.

KathleenB
KathleenB
12 years ago

Holy crap, the second one from the top looks almost EXACTLY like Kamikaze as a kitten! No argument can stand against the awesome power of such cuteness!

cendare
12 years ago

I can’t believe you have all failed to consider the obvious wisdom of husky. puppies.

Nanasha
Nanasha
12 years ago

Aw, David- you’re so awesome- it doesn’t matter what you look like physically- on the internetz, we are judged by the contents of our brains and our abilities to convey our thoughts. It is a cheap (and irrelevant) dig to try and insult someone’s appearance (which, ostensibly, has nothing to do with your thoughts or quality therein), and yet it’s the go-to excuse (beyond implying or outright threatening violence) for these MRA schmucks.

Ok, I’m not just gushing about the blog- I’m gushing about TEH CUTENEZZ. Seriously- there are some days that I get up and see the most recent round of MRA nonsense and think “WHAT IS THE POINT OF EVEN TRYING WITH THESE YAHOOS?” And then there are kittehs, and suddenly things are better. Ahhhhh, now for some tea, and some cute youtube searching of cute kitty videos. 🙂

Nanasha
Nanasha
12 years ago

@Jessay- HOLY CRAP, that voice sounds like me! O_O

But I would think that I would have remembered reading that piece of “MRA treasure” aloud, lol.

I have a husband, a child, and I’m older than 26….and sometimes I buy scented candles with money from my job, which I work at for a reasonable wage (apple candles that smell like actual apples are SO AMAZING but to be fair my husband likes anything with lavender in it). In fact, I’m probably going to have to support my husband for awhile while he’s looking for a job because he’s getting to the end of his rope on graveyard shift and it’s looking like there are hardly any options available for him to move to.

It’s amazing how MRAs will argue that women are powerless and can’t do shit, and then turn around and say things like “oh, women ruined EVERYTHING!”

Uh….HUH?! O_o DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Viscaria
Viscaria
12 years ago

I RAN OUT OF D’AWWWW.

DAMN YOU ALL.

katz
12 years ago

I think you will find that the MRM has failed to account for Snoopy the Exotic Shorthair.