Our old friend over at the Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Technology blog is angry again. This time he’s mad at a legitimate target: National Rifle Association president Wayne LaPierre. But not because LaPierre is the head of an organization that has stood athwart every attempt at sensible gun control, making tragedies like the one in Newtown an all-too-predictable side effect of the easy availability of semiautomatic weaponry.
No, Mr. Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech is made at LaPierre because he thinks the NRA big gun has turned into a feminist. No, really. Noting that in the wake of the Newtown shootings LaPierre launched a transparently opportunistic attack on violent video games, Mr. PMAFT accuses him of doing the work of the grand feminist conspiracy against men and manhood:
The most important reason why LaPierre is wrong is because what he is doing is feminist. Video games are an activity predominately enjoyed by men. So are guns. Both activities are under attack from feminists (just like other predominately male activities like science fiction are) because men are interested in them and women are mostly not interested in them. LaPierre is shooting himself in the foot (pun intended) by alienating allies among the video game community and helping out feminists in their war on male activities.
Never mind that nearly half – 47% — of those playing video games these days are girls and women, according to the Entertainment Software Association. (I await the inevitable comment from a troll telling us all that whatever games these women are playing just don’t count because blah and blah.)
What LaPierre should have done is form an alliance with the video game community. While the Newtown shootings are being used against gun owners right now, the next target will be video games and other mostly male interests and activities. Both the video game community and the gun community are fighting the same enemy, feminism. They should be working together to point out facts like how the Newtown shooter was raised by a single mother and how homes where the father is kicked out lead to more violence.
Never mind that the shooter — like virtually all mass shooters — was a dude; a woman is always to blame.
The NRA is in a position of weakness now because they are attacking video games and not the real causes of the Newtown tragedy, single motherhood and feminism. The NRA is in the same boat as the Republican Party where it needs to become an explicitly anti-feminist and pro-mens rights organization to survive. (Lots of conservative and right wing organizations are in this situation.) Guns aren’t the problem here, but neither are video games. The NRA needs to realize this and realize that its only way forward is by fighting feminism. Anything else leads the NRA to irrelevance.
So one of the most powerful lobbies in American politics needs to team up with a Men’s Rights “movement” that can’t organize a single event that draws a crowd bigger than 8 people, or else it will fade into irrelevance?
I dearly hope the NRA fades into obscurity, and I am hopeful that public opinion about guns is beginning finally to shift in the right direction, but I’m not sure the NRA needs any pointers from MRAs on political relevance.
You guys are quick with the troll IDs!
Time for the ritual exorcism. Chant after me:
I do not like thee, Doctor Pell,
The reason why, I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Pell.
http://karenspoetryspot.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-do-not-like-thee-doctor-fell-by.html
@inurashii
Awesome. I love Kate Beaton!
Oh bother. It looks like you can’t see the posts on that site any more, but I am SO buying that book. I bloody love Sandy Toksvig.
Dude, what are you even getting out of coming back here? I mean, aside from the thrill of imposing yourself on women who don’t want you around…
@Kitteh, oh people in general, but since the focus of the blog will be on important interesting people who have been left out of main stream history (ie. you’d never hear about them at school) then a lot of them will be women.
And I have a big soft spot for bad-arse historical women so fire away.
@Some Gal, is that Radical as in Rad Fems or Radical as in the 90’s slang? 😛 I don’t intend to focus solely on women but overlooked people general, so for example Margaret Beaufort and her role in the Wars of the Roses and in ensuring her sons place on the throne.
But one person who I intend to do a profile of is Tadamichi Kuribayashi (the commanding officer of the garrison on Iwo Jima, played by Ken Watanabe in the film).
DAMN IT I MISSED IT AGAIN
@emilygoddess
@Pecunium
Does that mean you will be there?
Any other Boston Manboobzers going to be at Arisia later this month? We could have a mini-meetup and/or go to some of the feministy panels together…
thenat, how cool! I’d only seen Sandi Toskvig on a few eps of Time Team and knew nothing about her. And now she’s Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth!
Cheers NatFantastic! I always knew there was a reason I loved Sandi Toksvig 😀
@Historophila
I was quoting what AJ/Pell said about it. But really, I’d read Rad Fem or like totally like radical history if that was your direction. 🙂
@Some Gal, ah this thread is moving too fast for me to keep up with it! I missed that!
Seriously, how is a girl supposed to discover Emilie Autumn, and read this thread AND read the open thread on crushes over at Captain Awkward (seriously everyone go read that thread, you’ll see me commenting with my experience of the CRUSH OF DOOM) AND totally not do my essay all at the same time?
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ms6l_saturday-night-live-common-knowledg_fun
Aw, did we break him?
Historophilia, there are three people I have in mind, one woman and two men. They’re all awesome.
Sir John Holt
Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara.
Kitteh those are great! They’re just the sort of people I’d like to research and read about, people who did important things that helped other people but have never been trumpeted for it.
Also I would totally watch films about all of them. We need more films about the Witch Craze.
There’s a beautiful quote from Chiune Sugihara about why he did what he did (issuing Japanese visas to help Lithuanian Jews leave the country in safety):
“They were human beings and they needed help,”
Oh, I started reading that Captain Awkward thread but didn’t have time to look at it all! I got sidetracked reading the link to limerance. Never heard of it before (sounds like it should be a fishing village in Cornwall or something). Then I got stuck doing the “Do I fit that pigeonhole? Nah.” thing. 😀
I’ve spent far too much time reading that thread as I am a “Serial Crusher” and some of my most “life defining” moments have been crushes of some form or other.
DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT I missed the Pelltdown!
On the bright side, Kern’s was 50 cents a can.
I’d never heard of Chiune Siguhara ’til I read Hark, A Vagrant – and Kate Beaton did her cartoon on him because she’d just learned about him.
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=144
I saw the name Sir John Holt in a novel I’m re-reading (very cool detective series by Kerry Greenwood).
I missed the entire Pellsplosion? Stupid working for a living…
“I’m sorry I don’t use blockquotes. I don’t know the HTML of WordPress so I just decided to go without.”
<blockquote>like this</blockquote> or, you know, with those things called quote marks (see above)
I’m sure I’ve told you this before.
I’m surprised they don’t teach about HTML at doctorlawyerbrainreader school.