Manosphere misogynists love fantasizing about a coming apocalypse, invariably caused by the bad behavior of feminists and/or women in general, and invariably resulting in feminists and/or women in general lost and forlorn and realizing their mistakes, returning to men begging for help and asking for forgiveness. Like Doomsday Preppers waiting for the planet to suddenly shift on its axis due to the sudden reversal of the magnetic poles, most of the apocalyptic misogynists don’t seem to have the faintest idea of what they’re talking about.
Take, for example, one Paul Elam of A Voice for Men, who transformed himself into an environmentalist last week when he realized it would give him an excuse to rant about the evils of women spending money. Turns out that the “conventional wisdom” his thesis depends on — that women are responsible for 80% of spending — is essentially an urban legend, and that men and women seem to spend roughly the same amounts. Similarly, there’s evidence that suggests men and women in developed countries have similar “carbon footprints,” with men if anything a bit more pollutey.
But of course this is hardly the only bit of apocalyptic misogynistic fantasy that, upon examination, turns out to be based on patent nonsense. Manosphere misogynists – particularly those on the racist right – love to complain about the evils of single motherhood, especially in the “ghettoes,” which they imagine will lead to crime rates spiraling out of control, riots, dogs and cats living together, and any number of other apocalyptic scenarios.
As one commenter on Dalrock’s manosphereian blog put it, providing a pithy summary of the coming single-mom apocalypse:
Single mothers bring the very wellfare state they depend on closer to the brink of colapse with every illegitimate child they pop out, who will most likely in turn create more bastards and be more likely to commit crimes thus placing an ever increasing strain on the state’s purse stings. …
[T]hings will collapse soon enough and then it will be everyone for themselves. No more suckling at the government’s saggy dried up teet.
Of course, manospherians are hardly the only ones who like to blame single moms for everything. You may recall that odd moment in the presidential debates when Mitt Romney responded to a question about gun violence with “gosh to tell our kids that before they have babies, they ought to think about getting married to someone, that’s a great idea.”
There’s just one tiny problem with the whole single-motherhood-means-higher-crime-rates argument: if you look at the history of the past twenty years or so you will find that while single motherhood has been on the increase, violent crime rates have been going down, down, down. Take a look at this chart, which I have borrowed from an excellent post on The Atlantic by University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen.
Huh. First single motherhood and crime rise together, then crime plummets while single motherhood continues to rise. It’s almost as if the two social trends have no correlation with each other at all.
As Cohen writes:
Violent crime has fallen through the floor (or at least back to the rates of the 1970s) relative to the bad old days. And this is true not just for homicide but also for rape and other assaults. At the same time, the decline of marriage has continued apace. Looking at two aggregate trends is never enough to tell a whole story of social change, of course. However, if two trends going together doesn’t prove a causal relationship, the opposite is not quite as true. If two trends do not go together, the theory that one causes the other has a steeper hill to climb. In the case of family breakdown driving crime rates, I don’t think the story will make it anymore.
Once upon a time, when both single motherhood and crime rates were moving upwards, you couldn’t entirely blame some social critics for suggesting there might be some connection. But with twenty more years of data we can see clearly that this just isn’t so. At this point, anyone predicting a single mother crime apocalypse is either a) an ideologue, b) ignorant about the facts or c) both.
In the case of the apocalyptic manosphere ranters, it’s obviously c.
I love it when Ithiliana does some troll smacking.
“It was a typo” – how can an entire sentence be a typo? Never mind a whole string of stupid comments …
There is evidence. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JymN5yu-K_o
Look at this video on You Tube.
@Cloudiah: I love it when Ithiliana does some troll smacking.
*blush*
Thank you!
It helps me take out some accumulated aggression over students who FAIL to look.things.up (or even look at assignments).
And it’s nearly the end of the term (six days left to final grades going in), and while there are some good breakthroughs happening, there are some that are just……ARGH!OMGWTF were they thinking.
Have had more plagiarism (upper level english class) this term than I’ve ever seen before (unintentional, but that’s still plagiarism).
Incidentally, trollboy, you don’t need to take CassandraSays’ point about people being better educated than you literally. Most are, as in having higher education. I don’t. But it doesn’t take a degree to know you’re talking garbage.
rty23: I’m not against women having a choice. I just want men to have an equal choice in reproductive control.
So you agree with feminism. Glad to have you on the team.
At the moment, men have condoms. They work pretty well. They also have the option of non-reproductive sex.
What they don’t have is control of abortion (in theory… there are lots of places where abortion is almost impossible to get).
But men are being discriminated against at jobs and throughout our educational systems. It’s happening so that girls can advance. Cassandra, as the Nobel Laureate of the group, what do you have to say about this?†
WTF? Massive subject change.
Luckily this is as easy to deal with as the rest. You Are Wrong.
Why is am I stupid? What did I ask or say that was stupid? Discrimination and forced equality are in my imagination?
I don’t know why you are stupid. You have said many things which are stupid (hint, I replied to many by, politely, telling you you were wrong).
This statement is high on the list though. It makes no sense. Discrimination against men, is in your mind. I don’t know what you mean by, “forced equality”.
I’m asking you valid questions and you’re screaming and swearing at me like a bunch of bikers.
1: You are not asking, “valid questions”. You are making assertions in the form of questions, presenting them as proven facts.
2: No one is swearing at you, nor shouting.
If someone were to do that there wouldn’t BE ANY FUCKING DOUBT, that someone thought you a waste of protoplasm, They’d be telling you “The best part of you was tossed out by the doctor when your mother discharged the afterbirth, IF THE FUCKING WATER BREAKING WASN’T ACTUALLY MORE VALUABLE THAN YOU WILL EVER BE. YOU MISERABLE SHIT-STAIN ON THE UNDERWEAR OF A 98 POUND WEAKLING!”
That’s what someone who is shouting and swearing like a biker looks like. Try to keep it straight. We tend to engage in mockery and more subtle insult.
† why do I get the whiff of someone returning. The sudden shift, and naming of Cassandra feels familiar.
Meh, this troll is getting boring already. Where are the hilarious trolls from the days of yore? We need another Gor-loving doll fetishist.
Oh, the Troll23, women might have good reason to work harder to complete college given that even at similar levels of educational achievement, they earn LESS THAN MEN.
Rty: I don’t consider vids evidence, Unless they have footnotes in the entry with them.
And I live in the boonies, so slow download–if you want to give me evidence, give it in text format and I’ll check it out.
Oh yes, Coutinho is SO credible when it comes to women’s fertility: http://menstruationresearch.org/2012/02/29/misogyny-medicine-or-menstrual-madness/
@Pecunium: Well, I am swearing a bit (nothing like your brilliant example!), but yeah, naughty language, tsk, oh dearie me, what would the Worthwhile Club or JOb’s Daughters think of me now?
But extrapolating from one to all is a leap of logic only a troll could perform!
A youtube video is what this moron provides as proof? rty23, you are making the baby Jesus cry with your dumb, are you happy now?
Pecunium: I don’t think this is a returning troll.
Yeah, “forced equality”. So … you mean you think equality is bad? You think having to give up your privileges, the systemic advantages you have over women (among others), is bad? Because equality doesn’t just happen on its own! Society has to change and those changes have to be recognised in laws, in many cases, and yes, you have to abide by those changes.
Reading rty’s posts, ever time he says something I just go “Nope.” It’s the fundamental disconnect from reality he has going.
And then he cited youtube.
Son, you aren’t exactly overburdened in the intellect department, are ya?
So you think that Dr. Coutinho is lying? I won’t stoop down to your level in swearing back at you. If you think the Doctor is lying then you are all insane.
Ooo, sorry I’m late. (Ironically because my alma mater called asking for 50 dollars which I’m supposed to get where?) So, yeah, I was just having a little blow-up/nostalgia session about my totally non-discriminatory lady-experiences in university.
Here’s two bits concatenated (that’s a computer science word that means “stuck together” *pats head*):
But clearly universities just fawn over women.
Oh! I forgot! Some douchecanoes decided to put up mock “Association for Men in Mathematics” posters during finals week one year.* I certainly didn’t feel disrespected or unsafe. And it certainly didn’t trigger any stereotype threat in any woman walking to her final.
*Of course, my uni made the news while I was there for one of the first MRA student groups in the country, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.
No, I’m saying two wrongs don’t make a right.
LOL LOL now it’s the “you’re all insane” line! Damn, I should have been playing troll bingo.
Trollboy, I gave you a link with critiques of Coutinho’s ideas. You could try, y’know, reading it.
You say that like it’s a bad thing. *spins propeller on top of my propellor beanie*
Ooooh Nepenthe, do you have one of those caps with a mini-umbrella on it as well?
I present you with hard evidence and you deny it. What more can I do?
Ooh, I want to see how many cliches he can spout in one thread.
There is a Dr in front of my name too, but somehow that does not prevent me from being totally effing wrong from time to time. It ain’t magic trollboy.
BWAHAHAHAHA trollboy now thinks he’s presenting evidence – having ignored all the evidence on multiple issues before.
Seriously, the stupid is almost awesome.
A video from a dude with a conspiracy theory is not hard evidence.
Here is hard evidence that cats can talk. YOU ARE ALL INSANE IF YOU DENY MY HARD EVIDENCE.