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!
Cultural exchange!
Do you guys have Yorkshire puddings?
Cream of wheat is so yummy! Imma make some right now!
*skips off to kitchen*
We have yorkshire pudding in Canuckistan. I make them all the time, yummy.
@Morkai: I’ve had grits since I moved to Texas, and I honestly cannot tell the difference between them and cream of wheat in taste or texture; the only difference is presentation (i.e. c. of wheat is usually served in a bowl with milk and sugar; grits are served on a plate next to ham and eggs or other breakfast protein items, often with butter on them, sometimes I’m offered syrup).
@Yorkshire pudding: my mother’s four grandparents were all from Wales (immigrated as adults). So I grew up with Yorkshire pudding (YUM), and current cakes, and suet pudding and other things that my more generations in America friends didn’t have.
it’s too bloody hot here for the baking–but dang, I love a Yorkshire pudding!
All hail the goddess caffiena, who dwelleth with the coffee machina.
Bows to her sixth cup of coffe for the day.
I didn’t get much sleep last night okay?
Acronym Troll cannot even get his misogyny right: the idea of women’s essential difference from men didn’t spring full blown from Zeus’ forehead during the 1970s. It was firmly embedded in so-called western culture for several millennia (meaning we can find recorded EVIDENCE of it). There are variations on it over time (one of my favorites is how formal meaning for men only education will cause women’s wombs to come loose and zoom all around their bodies leading to CRAZYLADY hysteria). Yep, that’s one of my favorites. I giggled about that as I got all my postgrad degrees, bwawhahahahahahahah.
ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM
Proof: Aristotle on women
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2004/2004-09-19.html
(poked button too soon–there are wiki entries and such, but I like this review because it’s about a book that complicates things somewhat, and the review even more complicates things, but the discourse of women being inherently different from men is pretty oldy and moldy).
Ah yes, Hysteria and the Wandering Womb
W:eeeeeee ZOOM!
If only Aristotle could see us now!
I love how human psychology works. Thousands of years of women getting shit done and men believing women couldn’t handle it because we’re just inheritantly fragile….. I guess women slaves handed their wombs in when the shackles were put on?
Plato might be pleased though..
What is a grit? Why, it is an extremely efficient delivery device for carrying butter and cheese. 🙂
Cream of wheat sounds awfully like porridge made from wheat rather than oats.
(porridge may be the same as oatmeal, I’m not sure…)
Random pudding tangent! Awesome. I love semolina pudding. We used to have it in school all the time and everyone always thought it was the most disgusting thing ever. Oh well, more for me. 😀 We used to have it with either jam or brown sugar, though syrup works too.
My contribution: rice pudding! You guys in the US have that too? Basically semolina-type-pudding-stuff but with pudding rice in it.
Um? Porridge is made of wheat, oatmeal is made of oatmeal…at least in canada.
All oatmeals are porridge, not all porridge is oatmeal.
Farina, faro, kasha, semolina, malt-o-meal cream of wheat, boiled millet, congee, are also porridges.
Cassandra: Has anyone figured out how the guns relate to the issue of some men being short? That was an odd topic shift.
Hmm… Freudian interpretation? Makes sense to me now!
(rimshot)
Rice pudding! I never did like the British version though. By order of preference – Arab rice pudding first, then Indian, then everything else. Although Thai-style sweet sticky rice with coconut cream drizzled over it may just beat both.
I haven’t had grits in years. I may have to get some.
My dinner last night was a roast beef wrap sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cheese, mustard and mayo. Nothing fancy. Nice though.
Oatmeal is a kind of porridge.
>>>@Argenti Aertheri Concerning aboriginals, it’s a matter of law. I don’t like unequal treatment under the law. Sue me.
That’s like complaining that Germany not having the same laws as Canada is ‘unequal treatment under the law’.
Newsflash: the Canadian government has no legitimate authority over Native affairs. They have their own law. All Canadian law involving the Natives are treaties, in the sense that they are negotiated compromises between two different organizational entities with separate jurisdictions (two governments, though technically one is a state actor whereas the other is a non-state one). And even then, most of them the Canadian government just spits on and ignore.
Hmm. I have a feeling what I call porridge is what you call oatmeal, a type of porridge.
Rice pudding: nom.
The porridge/oatmeal thing is just reminding me of some maths I learnt recently. In graph theory, a tree is a type of forest.
Now, anger IS a power, because anger can become a catalyst to change the injustice that created it in the first place. See: the history of any struggle for equality, including feminism. But they’re saying what–they’re angry that they can’t verbally abuse women in video game forums but women gamers have no right to use their anger (presumably a result of this) to create a project or stand up for themselves in any way.
I’m not a fan of hippy-dippy “anger is bad and we should never have it”, but “i’m allowed to abuse you from my starting point of privilege and you have no right to feel angry in kind and say or do anything about it” just seems like BS.
I did kind of like that one MRA idea though, the one where they all go live on an island away from the rest of us? They should use their powerful anger as the catalyst to make that happen. A really really far away island.
I was annoyed at Rosin bashing Ann Romney, and the Feministe post housewifery . Yes, I realize they were specifically criticizing rich wives of the 1%, but they also bashed all stay at home moms for not going out and getting jobs for the feminist cause. They have no idea the reality of why some moms stay home, and it’s oftentimes because they can’t afford to work outside the home.
My last job was at a daycare, where the pay was $6 an hour. I would have had a raise to $7.25 when they raised the minimum wage, but that’s still crappy pay for taking care of 8 infants all day. I had no benefits, because the daycare wouldn’t let anyone work more than 35 hours a week, which would make you eligible for health insurance and paying for employee healthcare is not affordable for discount daycares. They wouldn’t let me bring my own baby to work without paying $125 a week. Do the math of 30 hours X $6.00, and then the cost of $125 X two kids. Why the hell would I stay at a job where I’m losing more money than I’m making? Plus you have to have a second car to have a job, you have to pay more taxes, and you have to wear store bought clothes rather than second hand ones at a job.
That’s why I disagreed so strongly with feminists like Rosin who have no clue what it’s like to make a decision based on money and not on what is the feminist ideal. I won’t let her judgmental scolding keep me from calling myself a feminist, though. I want feminism to be for all people that want gender equality, even if they make life choices that annoy her.
AFLAC, feminists are not all the same. There is a huge debate in feminism about Rosin’s piece. While people rightly point out that it’s classist to assume that all women can afford to stay home, it’s also classist to assume that all women can afford to work outside the home and send their kids to daycare.
It’s also infuriating that in these “mommy wars”, dads always get a free pass while moms always get criticized. Fuck that.
I feel like I need to blow AFLAC’s mind here…
I’m 5’11” and a former state title holder in a well-known pageant. (ie, I am “classically” good looking by most “standards” these MRA guys seem to find important). My current beau, whom I absolutely ADORE, is 3 inches shorter than me and 5 years younger. He’s also a programming geek who spends his free time creating mobile apps *for FUN*. He’s introduced me to the likes of Firefly (LOVE!), Star Trek, and comic books.
He’s short, slightly pudgy, and pasty white. And he couldn’t be any more handsome. You know why? Because he’s kind, charming, and thoughtful. (And quite witty!) Also, he’s not at all hung-up on his height. He’s confident and sees me as a partner, not as an object that is either to be scorned or worshiped based solely on my gender.
Jenny, I do agree that anger is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on its target it can be a wonderful tool to bring good change, to fight important battles and it can simply be, at time, the sanest reaction. Hatred, however – which is quite common among MRAs – is a destructive feeling, and I can’t imagine a situation in which it made things better.