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.
I know I should be more offended that single mothers are being blamed for horrible tragedies (their lives are nightmare mode), but it just irks me so much when people equate a hobby of mine (video games) with horrible stuff like MRAs and Second amendment fundamentalists.
Atheism is the same way, always lumped in with Randian philosophy and all that jazz. It leaves an icky taste in my mouth!
So I just spent my entire morning break reading articles and comments over at Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Technology. I need brain bleach STAT!
Brain bleach
Some Gal,
It appears I’ve misread PMAFT’s statement. I took it to mean video games that get targeted for censorship. But no, your interpretation is more accurate. He does appear to be talking about all games across all platforms, so the 47% statistic is valid. My mistake. Sorry about that.
I honestly didn’t expect anyone to be that… detached.
thenatfantastic:
I did not make that claim.
What do people who want to “attack… single motherhood” mean by that, anyway? I get that it’s coded racism mostly, but how exactly does one attack single motherhood? If they’re suggesting women stay with abusive partners, which seems likely, I doubt that’d be a better situation to grow up in.
Helping single mothers, on the other hand, could work.
@2-D Man
I know! It is just like you’ve never read this blog before!
Hedgie yawning!
Don’t you mean “forcing Big Daddy Gubmint to give men’s money to women?” Which is what they actually think happens now.
Brain bleach?
Single moms, not to blame. Why does no one ever talk about the men who made them single mothers?
Yeah, I’m better off playing some Baldur’s Gate 2 right now.
@Argenti
Thank you for the link, I must have missed it (I don’t want to fall into the trap of saying “Oh, well we don’t KNOW”…when that info has been released. Oops.)
@atomicgrizzly, re: mental illness database.
Well to be fair, doing that is about as American as bald eagles and apple pie. It’s the American way. (Or, really, the conservative way.)
That bulldog looks so happy. It makes me want to take up skateboarding, just so that there would be one more “man” thing ruined by feminists.
Oh, for fucks sake. Any time I play video games online, there is at least one girl around. And she’s usually at least average skill level. And, go figure, no one really tries to stop her. Stop saying this is predominantly male.
As for Saints Row the Third, it’s not just female characters. It has the closest thing in a video game to transsexual characters, or hell, you can even control a walking toilet that hits people with dildos.
I had to post this; I went over to one of my other favorite blogs right after here, and look, MRAs infecting regular life (I’m not always sure that all of these stories are real but there are too many of them that go down exactly like this for me to think they are all made up):
http://notalwaysright.com/bigots-and-sexists-on-line-one/26296
Over the holiday my youngest niece kicked all available ass at all available PS3 games.
AND commandeered the remote control so we could watch the X-mas day Doctor Who marathon. That’s my girl!
I hope that ruined everything available for all available MRAs.
Actually I think that the last couple of Doctors ruined Dr Who for men*. Also that one companion who all the dudebros thought was “too fat”. Both of these things were obviously results of the feminist conspiracy to ruin sci fi.
*Men who are asshats. Most non-asshat men seem to be quite happy with the way things are going.
So, freitag, I should add Doctor Who to the things feminists are ruining?
I got my ass handed to me at Wii Sports fencing by a 5-year-old girl, but I’m sure that doesn’t count as a “real” game.
Donna was my favorite companion! I loved that she didn’t get sucked into a romance with the Doctor, and she had an actual character arc! And that she became the moral voice for the Doctor! And then the writers sent her back without all that development! And I was sad!
I used to have a conservative sit next to me at work (he’s since been fired, probably due to the feminist matriarchy). The one topic we found in common to discuss was science fiction. You should have seen his face the day that I said they should have someone of color or a woman play the Doctor for once. You’d think I just squatted and took a crap right in front of him, lol!
“Actually I think that the last couple of Doctors ruined Dr Who for men*. Also that one companion who all the dudebros thought was “too fat””
Craig! Who I hate for a completely sensible reason, he defeated cybers with love…no, just no.
I love watching the old Doctor Who episodes on Netflix, because they are so mindbogglingly racist and sexist. It makes me appreciate the new Doctor all that much more. Madam Vastra and Jenny, anyone? 😀
I should add, he is also the most MRA-ish type man I’ve ever met in the real world — he didn’t identify as such, but his attitudes were full-on MRA.
@Some Gal, I hope it’s been ruined for MRAs. I like Doctor Who, and am not an MRA. And if feminists like it, then MRAs, by definition, have to hate it, which makes it even better for all of us.
And Donna was awesome. I had a bit of a crush on her, to be honest. That’s the kind of woman I could go for.
“Madam Vastra and Jenny, anyone?”
They’re married per the Christmas special, I totally squeed at that. Also, that bit about Jack the Ripper “how did you find him?” “Stringy” is one of my mother’s favorite Doctor Who lines.
WordSpinner — Donna’s also her favorite, though I have some serious Bad Wolf love — not even Rose really, just that bit, the all powerful goddess that is the Bad Wolf, and wtf she does with that power…gets me every time!