Today is an auspicious day. For the Men’s Rights Subreddit, which we often write about here on Man Boobz, has won the prestigious World’s Greatest Shitlord Award. Oh, sorry, I mean it won the Subreddit of the Day award on Reddit. Which is, in this case, pretty much the same thing.
Here are some highlights from the official announcement , which I am totally not making up. No, really, you can go look. Someone – that being XavierMendel, one of the mods of r/subredditoftheday — actually wrote these things. And meant them. I AM NOT BEING SARCASTIC THIS IS REAL HOLY SHIT.
The topic at hand today takes a generous turn from our amusing and lighthearted articles of the month. On this, the last day of January, we look at something a bit more worthy to be called an article. /r/MensRights comes up a lot across reddit and, indeed, across the world as being one of the few centers for men’s help. It’s often attacked, and is always the center of one controversy or the other. My questions reflect that. MensRights is, undoubtedly, the home of great activists.
Again. I am not making this up.
There were some people close to me that suggested I not run this article. That the repercussions of doing so would be unreasonably bad. Well, here you go, people. This is my way of saying that a good reporter doesn’t care. A good reporter reports. It’s not in my job to care about consequences.
I’m not sure that Mr. Mendel quite understands the difference between “reporting” and “asskissing.”
/r/MensRights. Never in our society could the uninitiated imagine such a place. A place where feminism is questioned, and our culture is deconstructed to find what it’s really up to.
Hahaha, what? I was not aware that feminism wasn’t ever questioned on the internet, or anywhere else in “our society.” I mean, it’s not like I run a blog that features nearly 500 posts detailing people attacking feminism on the internet, most of them nastily and ignorantly and sometimes using the word “cunt,” and the vast majority of them not on Reddit. And it’s not like this only barely scratches the surface of the subject.
/r/MensRights is one of the last fortifications of free thought to exist on Reddit.
Yeah, that’s why I was banned – not for trolling or harassing or calling anyone names, but for politely if persistently disagreeing with the denizens until then-moderator ignatiusloyola threw a fit.
“Surely you jest,” one might tell me, “when you mean they’re alone in this regard?” No, hypothetical 19th century British gentleman, I do not. I truly mean it when I say that. What other subreddit openly questions feminism? None spring to mind, and I make it my duty to catalog various subreddits. Most end up banned or run down within a month. Only /r/MensRights remains.
Reddit: Bastion of Internet Feminism.
Nobody can say for sure whether or not they’re correct in any single regard. It’s certain that, due to the laws of probability, they’re not correct in every regard. However, it’s also certain that they’re correct in most of them. Occasionally a wackjob or two will suggest that feminism is behind Cinnamon Toast Crunch (The taste you can see!™). The accuser latches onto those wackjobs to denounce the whole movement.
Yeah, it’s not as if comments suggesting that a man allegedly wronged in divorce court should turn to murder got literally dozens of upvotes in r/mensrights, or anything.
Oh wait, they did.
Yeah, it’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors gave literally hundreds of upvotes to a post about a t-shirt suggesting that men could be convicted of rape simply for being in a room alone with a woman.
Oh wait, they did.
It’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors regularly give dozens if not hundreds of upvotes to posts from unhinged hate sites like A Voice for Men or Angry Harry,or fall all over themselves praising an internet-famous female MRA who thinks that many abused women “demand” their abuse.
It’s not as if they think “spermjacking” is a real thing in the world that should make all men think twice about ejaculating in the general vicinity of women.
It’s not like … oh, you can find many, many more examples for yourself.
After claiming that “people have died” after being called misogynists, while “nobody ever dies after being called a misandrist,” Mr. Mendel winds up his speech with this stirring conclusion:
I support the struggles of people who are in bad positions. I respect it, in a way, for I have also seen great struggle. My struggle is not over, nor will it end until my death. For I struggle with something that will not go away through legislation or social change. The Men’s Rights Movement, however, struggles with something very changeable. Very malleable, able to be fixed within a generation if so desired. So I will support them, for they have a fighting chance. …
/r/MensRights is controversial for a reason. In the same sense as Jews of the 1890s, Irish of the 1850s, Hispanics of the 1350s, and many more. Each generation has their controversial improvement in society. We’ve gotten off easy so far, but we have to make it happen eventually. As far back as anyone living can remember, the table has been imbalanced in one way or another, favoring men or women. It’s time the table stays level for once. We need equality.
And that’s what /r/MensRights is trying to do.
Oy yoy yoy. There’s so much ridiculousness to unpack there that it makes me tired. I think I’ll go take a nap.
Mr. Mendel followed his stirring introduction with some questions for the denizens of r/mensrights. And there was some discussion. I can’t even. Not right now. I’ll get to all that in a future post.
In the meantime, Skepchick’s Rebecca Watson – who has been on the receiving end of r/menrights’ heroic activism more than once — has her own reaction to the Men’s Rights is the Subreddit of the Day announcement.
I am soooo glad I haven’t had breakfast yet, because thinking about greasy cheddar pizza makes me want to hurl. That is so utterly nasty.
Pizza roulette on the other hand? Sounds kinda awesome.
*backs into a corner since apparently all the food where I am is irredeemably gross*
Gotta say, though, I find it funny when Brits and Aussies dis on American food, since neither of your cultures are exactly renowned for their cuisine.
I wanted to go all Austen on their asses.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a pizza craving must be in want of some damn mozzarella.”
Ok it’s been 5 minutes and I’m still thinking about that revolting cheddar pizza. Did they use orange cheddar or was it actual cheddar? (Part of me really wants it to be orange cheddar for maximum gross-out value.)
It tasted like it was proper cheddar, I’m just not sure why they thought that putting it on a pizza would be a good idea.
Katz
No way! There is so much awesome American food. Parisians love them some hamburgers for one thing (as well they should) and no one disses pumpkin pie, at least not in my presence. Also, Frosties.
It also bemuses me when people act like anything that isn’t full of fat is automatically gross, as if fattiness was automatically correlated to tastiness. When Domino’s and snobbish foodies are agreeing, something is wrong.
Seriously?
Actually I found a really cool London food blog that was fun reading except that for some reason the blogger has gotten it into his head that American gourmet burgers are supposed to come on a brioche bun (which, OK, I can live with that) with melted Kraft cheese. I have no idea how he got that idea – he seems to think it’s a West Coast thing, but all the fancy burger joints I know don’t even offer that kind of cheese as an option.
Buddhism is not woman-friendly, regardless of it’s cuddly image.
An example from each of the major lineages.
Therevada: Women cannot be ordained. Theravadan “nuns” are laywomen who have taken 8 of the 10 monastic precepts and receive much less social support than “real” monastics. The lineages of nuns died out–literally–because the ordinations were much more complicated than those of monks and specifically required a certain number of nuns to be present. And now they’re all dead. Whoops, can’t make any more.
Mahayana: Women can be ordained but nuns are explicitly inferior to monks. The vinaya includes about 50% more rules for nuns than for monks. In particular, they’re governed by the 8 “heavy rules” which were the conditions for the Buddha allowing female ordination. An 80-year-old bhikkuni with the equivalent of a doctorate in theology must stand aside and bow to the 6-year-old boy who was ordained that morning. (These rules are also in effect for the other branches that have ordained women.)
Vajrayana: In the mythology of the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, Tibet before Buddhism is envisioned as a demoness, with all that scary, rumbly female sexuality. The major monasteries of Tibet are viewed as pinning down that demon goddess. If she gets loose, female sexual energy does too, and that would be the worst. Various retellings of this myth are more or less misogynistic.
And of course, being a woman is considered an unfortunate waste of a human life-time and one prayer that one will be reincarnated as a man. Etc. Etc.
Yours,
A secular Buddhist
Is it possible to melt Kraft cheese?
Apparently so, since he had photos. He says he went on a trip to LA and that’s where he got the idea that all fancy American burgers must have that kind of cheese, and I can’t figure out where he could have gone to get that idea. So now a ton of Brits are probably reading his blog and getting the idea that if they don’t find and use that kind of cheese they’re Doing Burgers Wrong.
Yeah, I made the boyfriend try one on our last trip back. He was less than impressed. But I effing love Frosties. And then there’s barbecue, I don’t think even the snobbiest Frenchie would deny the greatness of southern BBQ (possibly because the name is French).
*&%^$#$ blockquotes!
Ok, I love Kraft mac and cheese, but that is *not* burger cheese!
Lol, is that why garden (cheese) burgers are so terrible? (Note to the meat disinclined, amtrak’s veggie selection is terrible, pack lunch or time a transfer around lunch)
My best guess is maybe he went to an In n Out in LA? I think they use the generic orange cheese. But, no offense to In n Out because they’re an institution, they’re not what most people mean when they talk about a gourmet burger.
BTW, liquid fats (oil) are for batters. Solid fats (butter, margarine, shortening) are for (non-yeast) doughs. If you use solid fats for a batter, you’ll just have to add more liquids somewhere else to get an appropriate texture so you won’t have to cut your muffins out with a cookie cutter, and that means an end product that is less moist.
The best of British: Dr Who and jelly babies! If anyone can let me know where I can get gelatine-free (i.e. vegetarian) jelly babies I would really appreciate it. I miss Bassetts.
In n Out doesn’t use brioche, to my knowledge, but that sounds probable in that, if you asked someone in California to take you to a great burger place, odds are high that you’d end up there.
In n Out is like a cult. It’s weird.
I’m going to do some hardcore mansplaining on a very controversial topic: butter.
Butter in Europe is usually made from cream that isn’t pasteurised. It does taste a bit better and has a much shorter shelf life. It’s also usually a bit higher in… butter (less water) so you should take that in to consideration when switching out butter for oils as oils are 100% fat. If your recipe calls for a wee bit of salt, as most do, I usually just use salted butter instead of adding a pinch because salt = salt and of course salted butter is going to last longer in your fridge. I refuse to spread unsalted butter on bread, because why? Salt is good for you, according to a study conducted by a herd of deer.
katz — eggs, though I don’t really make muffins from scratch (cookies are my thing)
But eggs are in oil recipes, too.
A friend of mine who fits the absent-minded professor stereotype in so many ways has been known to figure out how much oil to sub for butter or vice versa by figuring out the specific gravity (? Not into chemistry) of both, realising she’s burnt something else while doing calculations, and then calling her mum and asking for suggestions.
And, not to be grilling you or anything, but were you talking about cookies when you were saying that Americans don’t cream butter or sugar? Where were you running into this problem?