Over on AskReddit, someone called 478nist has asked a question that has been puzzling a lot of us for some time: “Why is Reddit so anti-women? (outside of r/gonewild anyway).”
I used to think it was just because the large majority of users are men, but it’s not pro-men it’s becoming more and more anti-women.
Outside of the friendzoned crap, any comment that leans towards any kind of talk of womens issues, equal rights etc gets downvoted to hell so it’s not even capable of being discussed. It seems like it’s an US vs THEM mentality more and more. Was it always like this?
The thread that followed is nearly 2000 comments long, so far, and has gotten written up on TheAtlanticWire. The discussion is surprisingly … good? Not perfect — after all, this is Reddit we’re talking about here — but not terrible.
So naturally our friends in the Men’s Rights subreddit are complaining about it.
The legendary AnthonyZarat offers this thought:
MauraLoona, meanwhile, challenges the premise of 478nist’s question, and thereby challenges reality itself:
Legitimateusername also has a problem with Reddit’s alleged surplus of manginas.
Fuckrpolitics_again just goes with some plain old-fashioned misogyny:
The Men’s Rights subreddit, such a reliable generator of self-righteous poop.
@Argenti – OK, I got the grammar of QED wrong, mea culpa.
BUT I have the USAGE correct! Ha!
“Q.E.D. is an initialism of the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum, which translates as “which was to be demonstrated”. The phrase is traditionally placed in its abbreviated form at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument when what was specified in the enunciation — and in the setting-out — has been exactly restated as the conclusion of the demonstration.[1] The abbreviation thus signals the completion of the proof.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q.E.D.
I employed it to signal that I had proved what I stated. And also, because I know it would annoy a bunch of you. Success!
I shall continue to use it, and hopefully annoy you a little more every time.
>:D
I could care less if you use QED, and I never said your usage was wrong, just that QEMFD annoyed me as being random English inserted into a Latin phrase.
And lookie there, you admitted you’re only here to annoy us, totally called that one.
@maselphie – people-who-think-that-60/40-is-equality-and-70/30-would-be-equaller-still? Their failure is titanic!
(Not the ship. Noooo. Although the Titanic that was in itself a titanic failure)
I couldn’t* care less
Fuck, I can proofread (non, non possit sum *shakes head*)
@Argenti – annoying you is just one goal among many. But hey! ticking that box! 🙂
Joe’s in the UK, right? 3AM on Sat/Sun, no wonder he’s getting progressively less coherent.
Fucking up Latin annoys me, try not to feel too special about it. Actually, feel special about it — being a stupid fool annoys me, and you’re managing it, might as well at least let you feel special about being a fool.
On further thought, I make your bucket list? *shudder* Creep, get lost.
“I shall continue to use it, and hopefully annoy you a little more every time.”
I knew he was here in good faith.
@Argenti – clearly, you could in fact care less. You care enough to keep responding to me.
Are you perhaps a Sicilian? I was told once never to mach wits with a Sicilian.
The First Joe is the British Br__n. How novel.
Yeah, quotas and Title XI don’t work the way you think they do.
Show me where a man who can afford to go to college and has been accepted into a college has specifically been told that he cannot go to any college, because he is a man.
Tell you what, I’ll address your idea of what quotas are and how affirmative action works if you’ll acknowledge that in the past (again, among other things) cronyism, nepotism, legacy acceptances, Business Associations, Country Clubs, and Greek organization culture created a society in which women and minorities were effectively kept away from educational opportunities, political enfranchisement, and economic independence.
“match” (buggerit!)
Cassandra – Yeah… she’s a piece of work.
@Argenti – don’t flatter yourself. :p
Aw, are we doing racial slurs now? I’m Italian enough to know exactly what that Sicilian crack means, nice try though.
What’s wrong with Sicily? (Vague thought just ran through my brain about Othello and “moors”; was it a race thing?)
Argenti: I think the Sicilian thing is a reference to the Princess Bride.
@The First Joe
Tell-a-vision told them you’re wrong.
Nooooooo, not at all, they can be quite entertaining.
@Nobinayamu
I keep wanting to jump into the conversation on that thread, but old thread + I’m not a known commenter over there + I’m not black = that would be very bad manners. The conversation really is frustrating though. When the OP says things like this, it feels incredibly coercive and creepy to me.
“I would like to see asking as fully empowering in its own right. But consistent denial of one’s requests certainly undercuts the power one finds in the asking.”
Why should empowerment mean that your sexual requests are not sometimes denied? It’s inherent in the act of asking for sex that sometimes you’ll be turned down. This is a feature, in that it means that people feel able to say no and thus they are not being coerced, not a bug. Not to mention, if feminists say shit like that how are we supposed to explain the idea that being able to say no without negative consequences (like a former partner sending you on a guilt trip) is a feature, not a bug?
But at the same time, you have responses like this, which are just as messed up.
” Even if a man rejects you he knows it’s far easier for you to find a willing partner than it is for him. He knows where the power is and it’s not with men.
Of course there are a few men who command that kind of power but their rarity and relative exclusivity makes them irrelevant. A average women will always have more sexual power than the average man.”
Which is frustrating in that he’s buying into the same basic idea of how sex works that she is, and just bemoaning his perception that the power balance is not tipped in his favor (he thinks).
Sometimes trying to talk about het sex just depresses me. I really wish people would stop framing all sexual interactions as a power play.
Also, I’m frustrated with a project that I need to finish by deadline but I’m feeling uninspired about, so please, bring on the meltdown and pass the popcorn.
“I really wish people would stop framing all sexual interactions as a power play.”
If it’s power play, I’ve got a strap on. If we’re just having vanilla-awesome-cuddle-sex, then there should be no power involved.
@leum – Yes! It is indeed a Princess Bride reference! You WIN!
@everyone else’s kneejerk taking offence! You FAIL! Again! Ha! Hhahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!! *dead*
Hey man, my strap-on is for tender egalitarian cuddles!
…sometimes.
I don’t get why people who want the power play can’t just find themselves a nice compatible partner who’s into that kind of thing, rather than trying to impose their kink on random people. Kink is great! With a consenting partner who understands what’s going on. Stealth kink that you don’t give people the choice to opt out of, on the other hand, is not so great.