Paul Elam, head misogynist at A Voice for Men, is mad at the ladies again, his wrath provoked this time by an overheard conversation in a local coffeeshop between two women talking about recycling, and how the world would be a greener place if women were in charge.
Elam seems to take deep personal offense at any suggestion that men aren’t the absolute best at every single fucking thing, so he quickly scurried off to his computer to bash out a 1500-word screed that began with him insulting the women as bobbleheaded “latte lappers who were more likely than not completely clueless about how a single thing on the planet with a moving part works,” moved into high gear with some not altogether wrong (if rather trite and woman-blamey) critiques of the diamond and fur industries, and wound up with a stern warning that WOMEN ARE DESTROY9ING THE EARTH WITH ALL THEIR SPENDY SPENDING!!1!!!
So let’s just skip ahead to that part, shall we?
Take it away, Paul:
The thing that drives the bulk of pollution, wars, white collar criminality, cruelty to animals, human slavery and the like is consumerism. Consumerism, especially the market of unnecessary, embarrassingly vain and useless goods, is a woman’s world. It is primarily the consumption of fashion, via cosmetics, plastic surgery, excessive clothing, jewelry and other vanity items. Women drive a world of pain and damage to the planet. And men, to their shame, do the heavy lifting to get it done.
Ah, damn you ladies! God damn you all to hell!
The so-called Planet of the Apes was Earth all along!
Oh, wait. Sorry. SPOILER ALERT.
But Paul, don’t men buy a lot of expensive useless crap, too?
I mean, I just did about a minute of Googling and found a goddamn fishing rod that’ll set you back $4600.
I cannot think of a single item consumed by men en masse, with high social acceptance, that does not also have utilitarian value. e.g. leather items come from food source animals.
Oh, I see. You can use a $4600 fishing rod to catch $4600 fish. My bad.
Essentially it is not that much different from Native Americans using buffalo hide as well as the meat.
Yeah, he really did just say that.
And many of the things men do consume that might appear on the surface to be excessive are things that women size up and measure them by in the process of sexual selection.
Ah, and these men are utterly helpless before these greedy, earth-destroying women and their evil feminine allure.
Most money is still earned by men.
This is true. In part because of that whole wage gap thing you MRAs don’t believe in.
Most money is actually spent by and on women, mostly on consequence-ridden products whose only use is to bolster their egos. That is about as green as a fucking oil spill.
The sex driving the world’s ridiculous over consumption, and therefore decimation of everything, is not men. In fact, women’s level of over consumption is so outrageous that they cannot even maintain it with their own resources. It takes both sexes to feed the excessive appetite of the one.
Ah, but that’s not quite true. Or really true at all. For one thing, while women may spend more than men, that’s in part because women still tend to do more of the shopping for things like, you know, groceries. They’re not spending all this money on themselves.
And women may not really be spending as much as you think. It’s often said that women are responsible for about 80% of consumer spending. But if you ever start trying to track down the source of that oft-quoted statistic, as I did while writing this post, you’ll discover that … there really doesn’t seem to be one. It’s one of these things that’s assumed to be true simply because it’s repeated so often – especially by people claiming to know how to market to women. The Wall Street Journal’s Carl Bialik looked into this 80% claim last year and found that
In addition to having murky origins, the number appears to be wrong. Several recent surveys suggest that men have nearly equal say on spending, and that when men and women live together, both participate in spending decisions. In a survey conducted last year of nearly 4,000 Americans 16 and older by Futures Co., a London consulting firm, just 37% of women said they have primary responsibility for shopping decisions in their household, while 85% said they have primary or shared responsibility. The respective figures for men were similar: 31% and 84%.
Let’s return from the land of reality to plunge again into the tempestuous torrent of Paul Elam’s testosterone tantrum. (See! I can write as crappily as Paul Elam if I really try!)
If we wanted to save the environment, be less cruel to animals, have less wars, less slavery and less forced labor of children then the best first step we can take is to start raising girls to get over their vanity and their entitlement. We would also do well to teach our boys to assist in the process.
Elam followed up this soul-stirring call to SAVE TEH PLANET with a post castigating male truck drivers for being too nice to lady truck drivers. No, really.
If you’re interested in learning more about saving our green planet, and even if you’re not, I suggest you take a look at the trailer for the excellent if unclassifiable Korean film called, naturally, Save the Green Planet.
Just in case anyone reading along is as stupid as chuckie – do not attempt to wear your scented candles. You may wear your towels as long as they’re big enough to prevent a charge of public indecency.
@judgybitch
Um yeah, actually it’s the COTTON part of the towels where the most environmental effect is. Processing etc of the pure cotton into a towel, just growing the cotton takees vast majority of resources. The dyes used to colour the thread is pretty minimal compared to the damage cotton does. Cotton is pretty evil as far as agricultural crops go. Look it up on wikipedia or study agriculture like some of us do.
I do love Chuckybuckets’ rationalization of a $4,600 fishing rod as a primal urge.
“WE CATCH AND RELEASE THE FISH FOR YOU.”
I think it’s fine to get scented candles as long as you pay the Iron Price for them.
Iron price, huh? ASOIAF reference, could it be our Boston Baby?
Hunting is about strategy and getting into the heads of your quarry, whereas shiny stuff and the self-indulgence that it relates to is all about me, me, me, I, me, want, give me, me and only me.
You stupid piece of shit, collecting shiny stuff for the living room, kitchen, and bathroom is related to nest-building, which is a vital survival tactic.
How do you manage these mental contortions? Does it hurt?
I’m using 4.04 earths. One thing that isn’t clear in that quiz is whether not ticking something that doesn’t apply means you’re assumed to be doing it, but without using power or water saving methods. Like, I can’t say I save water when washing the car, because I don’t own one. The other thing with these questions is the apparent assumption that everyone answering it owns their own place. There are a fair few things you can’t do (like install solar panels or grey water recycling) when you’re in a rented property.
No one cares, Grumbles.
You guys, chuckie has learned many vital life skills via fishing. Sitting around drinking beer is a vital life skill, right?
@Judgybitch:
You guess wrong, because you are a moron. I am married. Twelve years. One kid (so far). My husband is secure enough in his masculinity not to get offended by pillows, different shades of towels, or being in the same room with something a woman might enjoy.
My reading comprehension is fine. Your comprehension – reading and otherwise – is lacking. Not only are your statements (and Elam’s) about how the economy works so intensely stupid, they would embarrass a school child, but, if THAT alone weren’t bad enough, you utterly lack the courage to defend the jaw-droppingly bigoted things you’ve actually said.
@eline: Studying is misandry. Wikipedia too.
“Hunting is about strategy and getting into the heads of your quarry”
Which, with an MRA getting into a fish’s mind, would be a step up for the former but really retrograde for the latter.
Jesus Christ some people screaming about living ecologically can be dumb in what “ecological” actually entails. Such ignorance about the effects of agriculture in particular annoy me. These are the people who think meat is ecological because they see cows eating grass in ads and happily ignore that vast majority of cattl
I suppose the model train sets are related to providing, too?
@CassandraSays: and playing FPS games on the xbox 360 also stems from a vital life skill: hunting. These manly ‘gamers’ are using virtual automatic weaponry to blow the heads off other virtual human beings, just like they did back in the days of the wooly mammoth.
Evo-psyche claims just get dumber by the minute.
Cellphone phail.
…. cattle is corn and soy fed. And then they shout at vegetarians eating less than 5% of the horrible soy produced, totally ignoring what their beef eats.
/rant
Hunting the wooly broccoli is a provider skill. Collecting action figures and game consoles ‘n’ stuff relates only to self-indulgence.
In anticipation of predictable retorts along the lines of “but women don’t have to hunt broccoli any more”, my response would be that women continue to have to apprehend and understand a world that is hostile to women. So no, the basic elements of hunting (e.g., hunting for the truth of things) continue to be integral to the female condition. Hunting the wooly broccoli is about strategy and finding the best farmers markets, whereas loud motorcycles and the self-indulgence that those relate to is all about me, me, me, I, me, want, give me, me and only me.
We can certainly all agree that a woman who uses a bedazzled shopping cart to gather tiny baby vegetables is also a form of materialistic indulgence, but its appeal lies in the primal motivations of women that it taps into. Collecting truck nuts or stupid crap for your man cave does nothing of the sort.
So do women get a pass if they’re doing useless dude hobbies, or are those only acceptable when it’s actually dudes fulfilling their biological imperative? *Glances at 30mm Phoenician army*
Definitely no pass. You’re intruding on sacred menz space, infecting their manly man things with your yucky femaleness. How dare you!!!!!!
To add: Between Tom Martin telling us that women have conspired to make furniture too hard for men’s asses which physiologically require extra padding and Judgybitch telling us that women are destroying the planet with pillows; between Judycretin criticizing women for being too vain and Thinking (cough) Housewife complaining that NYC and NJ women were not elegantly enough dressed, made up and coiffed the day after Hurricane Sandy, which was only the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of the region, because we are misandrist bitches who hate beauty and femininity, I really don’t know what’s expected of us girls. Seems our very existence is a crime against humanity.
From JudgyBitch’s “Six steps to raising a son in a feminist world”:
Violent video games are important to little boys for a number of reasons. Firstly, they give boys an outlet for their aggressions, which are perfectly natural and if you woke up this morning NOT speaking German, you should be able to perceive the usefulness of those aggressions. Video games also demand mastery. The programmers aren’t pleasant lunch ladies who will pat you on the head and let you proceed to the next level because “Good effort, Tommy”. Nope. Want to get to the next level in Call of Duty? Then get it right. All of it. There are no medals for showing up. Video games are an antidote to the idea that competition is bad and that mastery is immoral.
***
Create a home that welcomes and celebrates men. Have lots of books and pictures and toys and trains and cars and spaces that look like they were designed by and for men. Throw cushions and glass ornaments are fine for YOUR room, but your home should be a space that welcomes men. Treat your male friends and relatives with respect and courtesy and when the guys are outside on the back deck and need some cold beer, get it for them. And when your husband hands his son a glass with a sip of beer in it, go inside and shut the hell up. That little boy is HIS son, too.
**
Oh, one more thing. When he gets to be a teenager and starts spending a lot of time alone in his room, let your husband show him the best porn sites. He probably knows some good ones.
Anyone want to calculate the carbon footprint of providing your son with video game consoles and a library of games, piles of toys, boy-specific decorations in every room of the house (except Mom’s room, where she hides her scented fucking candles), a computer of his own so he can surf porn sites, and beer, all of which are essential to prevent him from growing up into some horrible woman-liking girly-man?
Also, anyone want to come up with a convoluted explanation for how all these things are ethically superior to the equivalent things for girls? For example, how Tonka trucks are utilitarian and eco-friendly, while My Little Ponies are for frivolous bitches out to destroy the planet? Because I’m sure some MRA out there can do it!
I think women get a pass because they are following their hunter gatherer instincts and so can be held responsible for craving, searching out, and acquiring, scented candles. That is my understanding of the evo psycho rationalization hamster argument.
Now for another instalment of “WeeBoy uses his bizarre family as examples for things!””
I have two sisters and three brothers. One of the sisters is a big hippie – go round to her place and scented candles and pillows for sitting on and throw rugs and decorative crap made out of hemp abound. And yet, I’m pretty sure she spent less money and has used less resources on that than her brothers with their obsessions.
Brother 1 with his gadget obsession, and insistence on having the latest computer, cosole, phone, tablet, sound system and television.
Brother 2 with his new SUV or sports car every single year.
Brother 3 with his collections of figurines, roleplaying books and parephenalia, and toys.
Brother 4 (me) with my vast VAST collection of clothes. (I like to shop!)
Shannon: Don’t forget meat at every meal! I await with baited breath an MRA explanation of how massive meat consumption is environmentally friendly.
I keep coming back to how dodgy the whole idea of Daddy showing son the best porn sites is. “Grooming” is the word that comes to mind.
Also, if you’re like my Dad, who was not a man of Things at all – like if we had moved he would have been able to fit his stuff in one box. He didn’t accumulate.
Well if you’re like that, and you die, you leave your family with no treasures to remind them of you.