Over on The Spearhead, W.F. Price celebrates the harassment directed at Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes Against Women video project as a sign of a powerful new backlash against the evils of feminism, a backlash he’s proud to be a part of. Dudes being obnoxious to a woman on the internet: Men’s Rights at its finest.
Oh, sure, Price acknowledges, some of the attacks on her were “juvenile” – and thus not as effective as they might otherwise have been — and the controversy did enable Sarkeesian to raise more than $130,000 for her project, but Price even sees this as a victory of sorts:
As for Sarkeesian’s success, we should be happy about it, because I can’t think of a more worthless way to spend over a hundred thousand dollars than in finger-wagging over video games. For one thing, it’s sure to piss even more guys off, and the game industry is very competitive, so her documentary (now expanded to 12 parts!) will likely have zero effect on production and consumption of this form of entertainment. The feminists are simply pissing all the money away, and that’s fine, because this time they’re paying for it themselves.
No question about it: those grapes were definitely sour.
Naturally, the Spearhead regulars were overjoyed by these new signs of, er, progress. Here are some highlights from the discussion that followed; lest I be accused once again of cherry-picking outliers, each and every one of the comments I quote below got literally dozens of net upvotes. This is what these guys really think.
Mojo offers a sort of backlash manifesto:
Feminists will never understand that it is -they- who are the oppressors. They cling to their delusion that they are the ‘underdog’ against the system, even as they control the system.
Revolution requires an enemy class to attack … this is seen as justified when the enemy class controls the system. But feminism is perpetual revolution. So what happens when they gain control over the system? They continue to attack the enemy class, i.e. men, thinking they are striking the next blow against the patriarchy, when what they are doing is more like a pogrom.
Yep, he went there.
Now -they- are the system, they are able and more than willing to intimidate, humiliate, expropriate. It will get indefinitely worse if they have their way. Liberal feminism leads -necessarily- to radical feminism.
Still, we don’t need feminists to ‘understand’ that they are the persecutors (I imagine some of them know this full well and are just misandrist sadists, little Eichmanns). It doesn’t matter what they think or know or understand. What matters is what -we- think, know and understand, and how we are going to act on it.
So … like the swivel-eyed feminist lunatics progressing from attempted assassinations to laying the foundations for institutional and legal abuse … I ask you – what are we going to DO with this knowledge and awareness beyond changing online discourse? …
Thinking like a leftist, though: why not attach ourselves to the GOP in order to subvert its gender politics and radicalize it in the MRA direction? That kind of approach has worked wonders for leftists and their infiltrations into public institutions …
Huh. Reactionary anti-feminists attaching themselves to the Republican Party? No one’s ever thought of that before.
Keyster offers some equally, er, innovative thinking:
Feminism has failed because women as a group adopted the notion of “equality” with men, while stubbornly clinging to their sexual/reproductive power over men. Had feminism truly helped women “realize their greatness”, there’d be far more great women. Instead there’s just more feminists. It’s run it’s course over 3 generations and it’s out of time to prove itself righteous.
The original “male chauvanist pigs” of the early 70′s, were right all along. Women are biologically and chemically ill-equipped to be men. If the Creator had meant women to be more like men, he wouldn’t have given them the ability to bring forth life from their bodies.
Ryu not only embraces the backlash, but seems perfectly fine with the notion that the Men’s Rights movement is a hate movement:
Good. Hatred and anger are power. Whenever you hear someone say “stop the hate”, it is a call to throw down your greatest weapons.
Young Guy purports to speak for all young guys (manginas presumably excepted):
If feminists think men, especially young men, are angry, they don’t know the half of it. As a 26 year-old male, I have seen this society bend over backwards to accommodate women all the time.
The school curriculums are geared toward female success. Schools have countless women’s programs. Female teachers can be as hateful as they want towards male students without facing consequences. People cheer when girls succeed in school, but jeer when boys succeed in school. Even though females have every advantage in the education system, they somehow still have the audacity to complain. They take fluff majors but don’t realize anyone with less than half a brain could pass classes in the humanities and social sciences.
What makes so many MRAs such proud yahoos?.
Oh, and just look at the workplace. Sexual harassment laws give women freedom to dress slutty and still have the nerve to complain when men sneak a peek. If you are a man who has a female co-worker, you have to walk on eggshells everyday or else you can get fired because the twat in the other room got her panties in a bunch over something minor you said. You can be a man who has busted his ass everyday to succeed in your chosen profession, only to see it mean nothing because some woman who was nothing more than an affirmative action hire. If this isn’t bad enough, you get these useless women who are subpar, yet they still never shut up about breaking through the mythical glass-ceiling that they didn’t break and didn’t exist in the first place.
Working men, forever cursed by subpar women.
Also, I have really had enough of women dragging this country down with their dead-weight. Female soldiers, police officers, and firefighters are liabilities. No, all you ladies in these jobs, you aren’t heroes. I am going to go insane if I hear one more female soldier, police officer, or firefighter cry about not getting the respect she thinks she deserves. She doesn’t get respect because she doesn’t deserve respect. The military, law enforcement, and firefighters would be A LOT better off if women stopped lowering the bar to astronomical proportions.
“Lowering the bar to astronomical proportions?” Young Guy here has clearly not yet mastered the fine art of metaphor.
He blabs on a bit longer before wrapping up with:
The backlash is not only real, but it is well-deserved. Apologies won’t erase the damage which has been done. Acting like what happened because of feminism either didn’t happen or was minor is a slap in the face. Saying women have suffered from feminism just as much as men is like spitting in the faces of all the men who have suffered ten lifetimes of pain because of feminism.
Not one, not two, not five, but ten lifetimes of pain? MRAs really are the world’s greatest drama kings.
Andrew S., meanwhile, seems a little confused as to what feminists would like to see happening in the video game industry:
It will be interesting to see if feminists can ruin the gaming industry like they ruin pretty much everything else. There is a lot of money being made off “gamers,” and even guys like me who play the occasional game but aren’t hardcore contribute a lot of money to the industry.
I doubt there are a lot of young guys and men out there who are going to want to play games that involve a bunch of screaming feminists, and where the object of the game is to destroy the “evil patriarchy.” The truth is guys who play games want their female characters to be either hot, large breasted, ass kicking types, or sexy non-feminist types that you save. If the gaming industry changes this dynamic to much due to Feminist/liberal pressure they will destroy a cash cow. And feminism will have yet another “victory.”
Unrestricted and uncriticized access to giant tittied video game ladies: a sacred men’s right!
Kevin evidently speaks for many when he says he wants video games to remain a boys club:
Video games are pretty much the only place that feminism can’t invade unless the principle consumers of them want it. You don’t have to play with girls, or listen to girls, or do other pansy shit. You probably can’t leave a football team and join a different one that has no women, you sure as hell can do that online. Don’t like all the teamwork talk? Play by yourself.
Feminists don’t like video games because; they can’t make them, they can’t force you to buy them or play them even if they did, they couldn’t ruin the experience for you unless you wanted them to.
You can do anything feminists don’t want you to do, and best of all you’re rewarded for it.
Anonymous Age 70 doesn’t even play video games, but he was pleased to learn that you can shoot ladies in them:
Speaking of video games, I am reminded of my son 8 or 10 years ago. I visited him, and he had some kind of shoot-em-up video game. He was partnered with a dearie, and the instant the game started, he always put a bullet in the middle of her forehead. Then, he’d laugh as if it were the funniest thing ever.
I told him he was a sick man, but I was also laughing as if it were the funniest thing ever.
Seriously, he told me he performed better with her dead than needing to be protected.
A great analogy for marriage 2.0, yes?
Women, can’t live them, can’t shoot them in the head. Except in video games!
Criticizing video games is misandry!
ACLAF: That’s the case in the USA as well. And that’s perfectly fine, I don’t have a problem with that. The adage goes, “better to be judged by 12, than carried by 6.”
Really? Because that’s a fast trip to prison (though the Harper Gov’t is big on increasing mandatory minimums, so all those grade 8 cons can learn a trade).
No nonsense self-defense
The law gives the criminals a huge advantage if they decide to prey on me.
Again, no. Structurally they have the advantage. The attacker (no matter what the circumstance) always has the advantage if the attack is carried out in the time/place of the attackers choosing.
If it’s at a place/condition of the defender’s choosing, the advantage shifts.
But if I come at you, when you are unawares, the odds are you are going to get pounded. If you, after the pounding, elect to shoot me (because you could finally get to your gun, and your blood was up) you are going to prison.
And that is a lot more common than you think. I have a friend who son spent 16 years in prison (Folsom Prison you may have heard of it. Johnny Cash had a song about it) because after a fight he took a shot, and hit the guy in the back.
2nd degree murder.
I totally understood what you meant. And, as a seasoned political strategist and lobbyist, Rosen should have been more careful and more clear with her language. But I understood what she meant.
For the record, I think the “mommy-wars” are divisive bullshit.
But this jack ass wants to change the definition of “work” as it suits his increasingly feeble arguments in an attempt to prove his repeatedly debunked assertion that feminists want to force his wife to work outside the home.
@Acronym Troll: And I don’t need to convince you that feminists drafted Canada’s current gun laws, minus C-19. I believe it to be true. And if you don’t, I don’t care. It changes nothing.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK! Then why the fuck have you been posting over and over and over and over and trying to convince us EEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLL feminists that evil feminists are keeping your gun toting rights down?
WHY WHY WHY WHY?
We don’t believe you. We won’t believe you. We don’t care what you think. It changes nothing.
A LONG AND BORING HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN WOMEN OF THE VISCARIA FAMILY
I had three Canadian great-grandmothers. They were all plains farmwives, which means they fucking worked. Everyone works on a farm, even if back then the man was the “farmer” and the woman was the “farmer’s wife”. Everyone works on a farm. The work is often gender-segregated, but if you think the women got the easy jobs I invite you to pluck a chicken one day. Then, I invite you to keep plucking chickens for 5 hours or so. Enjoy. (My other great-grandmother worked too, but she was American. Like many Irish-American immigrants and their descendants, she worked in factories all of her life.)
My grandmothers grew up on those same plains farms, which means they worked on those farms as children, because fucking everybody works on a farm. But after that, their stories became quite different. At 16, my maternal grandmother married my grandfather, a member of the upper-middle class. Because of her family’s social class, she spent the 50s living the life that you 50s fetishists seem to think everybody lived back then: she stayed home and took care of her 5 children. A very “typical” 50s lifestyle. In reality, of course, that lifestyle wasn’t at all typical. You just hear about it all the time because the narratives of middle-class white people are privileged above other narratives.
My other grandmother worked various jobs until she married my grandfather at 22 — nannying, clerical work, etc. Then she got married, and she kept working, because working class people have to work. It wasn’t optional then, just like it isn’t optional now. The biggest difference is that now she would have the option of higher-paying jobs that were reserved for men when she was working through the mythologized 50s (and beyond).
My mom worked some, and stayed home some, because she (like her mom) had the class privilege to choose. If my bio-dad had bothered to do any child care or other household labour, she might have worked more when we were young, but she wasn’t a superhero.
AFLAC, how many generations back do you have to look to find working women in your family? Working women who, like your wife, didn’t have the luxury of choosing to stay home? I seriously doubt that they don’t exist. Are you white? Ask a friend who is a POC if their mother and their grandmothers worked. Single-income households have always been an anomaly.
ACLAF: If a young guy approached me and said, “ACLAF, how can I improve my chances with women? If I want to be happy, with women, what can I do?” I know how I’d answer. I’d tell him, to the degree that a person can change these things, “Be at least a little taller than average, say 5’11″-6’2″. Have broad shoulders, work out, and don’t allow yourself to get too fat. Have a good job, make decent money, and display your symbols of your status. Appear in public well-dressed, and keep yourself well-groomed.” because on average, women tend to like these things more than their opposites.
Hermn… 5’9″ 120 lbs, net imcome per annum of less than 30,000. I am well groomed, and dress well; if a bit idiosyncratically.
I’m doomed. I don’t know how I’ve managed to have as much sex (or as many long term partners) as I have.
. But I believe, and I don’t even know why it’s controversial that on average, these things would help because, women tend to like men who display these traits. Again, not a guarantee, and of course, women aren’t slaves to their hormones, nor a monolith.
I don’t understand what’s wrong with this idea.
Pretty much everything, from the faux distancing (of course not all women, just so many that to not do those things is to need to go to PUA gurus and get lessons, etc.) to the essentialism, to the mock understanding, to the self-pitying, “I don’t see what the controversy is”.
The controversy that lots of people disagree with you. Since you are making blanket statements that means,in simple english, You Are Wrong.
And doing it on the internet, where everyone can see.
Cassandra: I know nothing about Sherlock, so how about an old favorite derail? What did everyone have for dinner last night,
We had company over (my partner was rehearsing, and their is her other partner, so I was cooking for five).
I did a mock fricassee of chicken (fried leg quarters on the skin side, placed them on some sliced zucchini, and diced onions in a schlemmertopf; after dusting them with alder smoked salt).
Made a romaine and cuke salad, with onions and tomatoes on the side (nightshade and raw onion allergy), and an apple cider vinaigrette with dijon and herbs de provence.
I also made artichokes (simple steaming) , and went out back to get some tarragon for the mayonaise I made to go with them (again, mustard, some cider vinegar, and a dash of the 25 percent super vinegar, one egg yolk, and about 3/4rs cup olive oil).
Green beans on the side.
Recent study showing that men in traditional marriages tend to be prejudiced against women in the workplace.
I’m sure that somehow this is the fault of feminism!
ACLAF: So, where can I find information on how this is gender policing?
I don’t know. I heard about this thing called Google… it’s on some other thing called the internet. You could try that.
You might also try an Open University course on gender roles in modern society.
“Try being a short man some time, and see how much female attention you get.”
Blah blah blah, my boyfriend is short and a lottttt of girls are into him. He has had sex with alot of women. When we go out, girls hit on him. He is funny and charming. I am a ‘chubby’ girl with a big nose and a lot of guys are into me. Most people are not conventionally attractive, and most people do get laid.
ACFLAC: According to feminists, Ann Romney, a SAHM never worked a day in her life. Lovely.
One could argue that Rosen was saying Anne Romney never had to work to eat; that she never had a job of necessity, and so she (like her husband) doesn’t understand the issues which face non-rich people in the US>
But it’s still only one feminist. According to one non-feminist (Phyllis Schafley) even what work she did was wrong.
So that’s evened up.
Feel better?
Now, go find a real citation, one that shows a trend of belief among feminists. For extra credit you can show them trying to legislate stay at home motherdom into illegality.
Also, I live in the UK where gun control is very strictly enforced. I have never seen a gun. No one I know owns a gun. I am happier this way.
More short complaints? Is duck boy simply a new incarnation of one of our banned friends?
Also, Ann Romney was being held up as a knowledgeable voice who is qualified to speak about the economic issues that face the average American woman. She is not and never has been. She has lived a life of economic luxury and has never had to make tough choices about paying bills or buying groceries, about going to the doctor or keeping the lights on. The Romneys wrote off $70K in costs associated with their dressage horses. They do NOT know a fucking thing about the average American’s life and never will. The “liberals disrespect stay at home mothers” meme is bullshit Republican spin.
*Nonsense post*
All this talk of ducks reminds me of a game I saw the other day where you played a character called “Bread Duck” (a duck with a body that was a loaf of bread), and you went around saving “Bagel Cats” (cats with bodies that are bagels).
That is all.
I always thought PUAs were at best “make yourself as attractive as possible and talk to lots of women until you get one that’s interested” and at worst “seek out insecure women who you can bully into sex”. The fact that some PUAs are able to find success doesn’t mean that every woman is into them, just that they talk to enough women to get some successes.
Essentially, they become human spam. Spam “works” too — it wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t profitable — but I can still say definitively that it doesn’t work on ME.
I don’t know if “make yourself visible by wearing silly hats” fit in the “at best” or “at worst” category.
“Oh really? Well, first of all, dirtyhippiefeet MAY have gotten their firearms license as part of their high school curriculum. But then again, I don’t know dirtyhippiefeet’s age. They didn’t specify that particular fact.
They may well be ignorant of just how much times have changed in this country. I can assure you, that no highschool in my particular city offers the Canadian Firearms Safety course as part of its regular curriculum.”
I graduated high school in 2005, and as far as I know my alma mater still includes the hunting course/CORE in its curriculum.
and you don’t have to “track down your previous sexual partners to ask permission to get a gun”. when you apply for a firearms license you’re required to provide contact info for all your exes from the last two years, so that they can be informed that you’re getting a firearm, you know, just in case you’re abusive/murderous/revengey…
one of my exes applied for his firearms license and let me know that I might be contacted about it, but I never was, and he got his license anyway. so… I don’t know if maybe it doesn’t happen all the time, or if Saskatchewan is super lax or what have you.
I guess I just can’t figure out why you’re so whiny about not being able to get a gun. I literally do not know anyone who wants to own a gun who can’t. Most people I know either own/use guns because they want to, or don’t because they don’t. also people I know with guns aren’t all “This is to PROTECT MY FAMILEE from HYPOTHETICAL IMAGINARIES”, they’re more “Want to see pictures of the buck I shot last year? He was enormous!” or “If I tell the conservation officer that the kermode bear was charging my dog will I not get fined for shooting it?”
@Dirtyhippiefeet: I gather Acronym Troll does own a gun.
But he’s still unhappy about…..things.
He does keep his ammo separate from his gun.
But he’s still unhappy about……things.
Where things mean all the evil feminist inspired laws that keep him from being able to PRACTICE and be a GOOD gun owner and save his life when the little but larger than 0 chance of being attacked happens.
I may be wrong–it’s hard to winkle out actual facts from his blather of opinions and over generalizations–but I’m pretty sure he’s stated several times he has a gun.
But still……FEMINISTS!
The technical term for all of this is goal-post moving.
Has anyone figured out how the guns relate to the issue of some men being short? That was an odd topic shift.
Ooh, short & sweet Mad Libs!
And last night’s dinner was almond-crusted redfish with grits and summer squash.
Off to work!
Pork chop in tomato sauce, boiled potatoes, some form of entirely forgettable vegetable.
I’m eating the parental cooking again, and suddenly my appetite improves…
Derail derail: what actually is a grit? I could google it, or I could ask here and cause conversation that isn’t fixated on CATFLAP.
He blames feminists that he can’t get a permit to carry his gun around when he leaves the house.
Because.. well that’s where it breaks down. He also blames feminism for his not feeling manly. Having a gun on him, when he’s walking around, makes him feel more manly (he is “Able To Protect His Family”, and he has a nice pistol to prove it.
That, I think is the real problem for him. He can’t know (secretly) that he’s more manly than all the dudes who don’t have guns.
Or something.
It’s not as if he’s actually responded to my critiques of his thinking on the subject. You know, my experience (which apparently is less relevant than his. His experience, after all, gave him feelings. Mine is boring, it offers facts. Facts which run counter to his feelings).
Nope, he can’t PRACTICE. because the nasty PP (presumptively Ottawa. Oh lord, if he’s in Prince Edward County I was in his neighborhood last week)won’t let him use the facilities he needs to do it.
Never mind that most of them don’t require ammunition (I hate to think what my expenses would be if I were to live fire all the time… couple of hundred a month, at least; and with no great increase in marksmanship. It’s possible he’s such a poor shot that he needs a lot more work on the fundamentals, but in that case he certainly ought not have a carry permit).
I get the feeling he doesn’t know if he’d get turned down, and just assumes it, because FEMINISTS.
Fun fact. In Calif., Los Angeles County, it was almost impossible to get a carry permit. The Sheriff (a reactionary right-wing sort; name of Sherman Block) had a secret policy of denying them.
He was not a feminist. He was actually pretty anti-feminist.
But the law looked pretty simple, anyone who wanted could apply. He just had them all turned down. Not one permit in 15 years, in a population of almost 10 million.
1. Fuck you.
2. I don’t want to be ‘a man’, I want to be me.
3. I don’t have first-hand experience of this, but spawning does not impede your ability to use a controller. So, see #1.
4. If I, as a person, were meant to ‘bring forth life from [my] body’ then I would not have issues relating to spawning or being perceived as such.
I do like the image of the ‘gamer Lakshmi’ though, that’s cool. It’s all Nintendo!
Cassandra: Has anyone figured out how the guns relate to the issue of some men being short? That was an odd topic shift.
Because the real issue here is how manly our poor dude feels.
Morkai: Grits are dried hominy (a type of preserved corn, done with lye), which are then ground and boiled. Like semolina/farina/cream of wheat.