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Someone posted this picture in the Men’s Rights subreddit yesterday with the title “Equality.”
[Trigger Warning: Depiction of violence against women.]
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Yep, that’s right, equality is all about hitting women. (Click the image for a larger version.)
The punchy superhero in question, Booster Gold, is from the future, and “in the future he is from there is actual equality, or at least enough of it for the “you wouldn’t hit a girl” thing to not be any kind of issue,” as one Men’s Rightser explained in the comments,
Yep, in MRA-land, men hitting women – sorry, girls — is considered “progress.”
And a critical men’s rights issue. Responding to a Redditor who thought the picture was “fantastic” but wondered if it should be in the Men’s Rights subreddit, BlueOak offered this explanation:
Making it socially acceptable for men to hit women, evidently a key plank on the Men’s Rights platform.
Wouldn’t it make a little more sense to work towards a world in which, you know, neither men nor women were getting punched on a regular basis?
As usual, a potentially good point is lost in the mire of MRA toxic bullshit.
I am all for male superheroes punching female supervillains who are threatening them. Or male supervillains punching female superheroes without the narrative treating them as doubly evil for hitting a woman. But the thing is, that’s superhero fantasy fiction. In real life, no one should be punching anyone, superpowers don’t exist (more’s the pity), and if someone poses a physical threat to you, you should try to get away from them before you resort to punching. (If you must resort to punching, punch only just hard enough to defuse the threat and then stop!) This goes for all sexes and genders in all combinations.
A few years ago, an Indiana Jones stage show at Disneyland had to be drastically re-tooled because the original script had Indy punch out a female villain who was trying to kill him with a magic artifact, and people complained that a hero like Indy should never be portrayed hitting a woman. I thought that was unfair–no one had a problem with the heroic Indy punching male villains who were trying to kill him with guns. If Indy were the kind of hero who always tried to solve his problems without any punching at all, yeah, it would be pretty disgusting for him to break that rule for a female villain, magic artifact or no magic artifact.
Oh dear, I think I kind of kind of agree with them here. Of course I see the point that people should not hit each other, but, if we accept that we live in a society where people do hit each other sometimes, then why is it inherently more wrong for a man to hit a woman than to hit another man? I know that’s not what you guys are arguing, but I get a little confused when this topic is discussed in feminist spaces.
Of course MRAs want to ‘drag women down’ to their level instead of lifting everyone up. Thing is, they probably treat other men pretty badly too.
6. If a woman is going to trick me into getting an erection with her stupid sexy body, I get to either hate her, hit her, or have her. No questions asked.
Carleyblue: in what feminist spaces are they arguing that it’s inherently more wrong to hit a woman?
You tend to see that kind of thinking in more conservative, not feminist spaces.
7. SCENTED FUCKING CANDLES !!!
2) The fact that women may wish to work and are very capable of working no more implies that they should always be encouraged to do so anymore than the fact that men may wish to rape and are very capable of raping means that they should always be encouraged to do so. The ironic, but logically inescapable fact is that encouraging men to rape would be considerably less damaging to a society than encouraging women to enter the workforce en masse. Widespread rape makes a society uncivilized. Widespread female employment makes a society demographically unsustainable. History demonstrates that incivility can be survived and surmounted. Unsustainability, on the other hand, cannot.
From the always delightful voxday.
Thing is, they probably treat other men pretty badly too.
I would imagine they’d be too scared to try and hit another man. I think they just want the right to hit someone who they assume won’t hit them back.
hellkell ; agreed. I’ve never seen a feminist argue that hitting anyone is acceptable.
Sure there might be those who buy into the “biological disadvantage” explanation, but here’s the thing.
These on-average -differences do not automatically grant the other sex an advantage in every situation. And even if it did, that should not be used as an excuse to belittle male victims.
Equality doesn’t mean that it should be allowed for everyone to punch everyone… And last time I checked, it wasn’t acceptable to punch another person in the first place.
I have seen this “female-on-male violence” double standard a lot in various places, but never on any of the feminist spaces I’ve been to. (Popped once or twice in some of those supposedly-feminist-spaces though.)
Interestingly enough, it’s mostly feminist spaces where I have seen this DS pointed out. In order to get rid of these toxic mentalities, we need to address them.
Too often I’ve seen conversations like this lead into oppression Olympics instead.
@yoyo
Wait, did voxday just imply that wanting to work and wanting to rape someone are the same thing…. O_o *inches away slowly from voxday*
Actually the longer I look at that quote the more I am squicked out.
@hellkell
I was thinking mainly of people I know in real life, but yes, you’re right. I was just a bit confused because I haven’t seen the discussion come up much on feminist sites and was wondering what the ‘official’ position was. Seems like lots of people here answered my question anyway.
@kiki
True- or maybe they’ve been on the receiving end by another man, and fantasize about hitting someone smaller in ‘revenge’.
Since there’s no HiveMind, I’m not sure of any “official” position other than “don’t hit.” Then again, my news letter could have gotten lost in the mail.
[cloudiah makes a note to remotely re-install hellkell’s HiveMind software and check her mailing address in the newsletter database.]
The whole question is dumb. Hitting other people is wrong. And I’ve been hit before and never did I trot out the line “but I’m a women” as a reason for them not hitting me. It was more like “does me saying you are stupid really warrant you hitting me?”. I am a person. I am not defined solely by my gender. You shouldn’t be hitting people.
@Marie
No, voxday outright said that women wanting to work and men wanting to rape is pretty much equally bad, but women actually working is much worse than men actually raping. And that it would be better to encourage men to rape than to encourage women to work, because rape is just bad, but women working leads to the downfall of society.
Yeah, it’s completely disgusting. Also completely untrue.
@ellex
oh wow. So it was worse than I though 0_0
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
This just popped up in my feed:
http://mattforney.com/2013/01/22/how-to-rape-women-and-get-away-with-it/
I don’t care if folks say it is a satire it isn’t funny. It is screwed up.
I’m surprised that more MRAs aren’t taking the stance that it’s not a man’s right to hit women, it’s his duty.
@Melody – WTF????? That is not satire and not funny, that is a ‘how to’ guide. He has thought about that waaayyyy too much.
Matt Forney has published on The Spearhead.
I don’t know if they are MRA’s but this (and the numbers of men killed vs. women killed) is being said at least over on HuffPo. “I’m going to treat a woman just like a man. If a woman gets in my face I’m gonna punch her.” So, you punch men? And they accuse women and feminists of treating men badly? OT: has anyone here ever come across a person who believes that male circumcision is equal in horror and pain as female genital mutilation? I’ve not encountered that one before today and this miss flighty, who says her clit is her friend, says that the foreskin has just as many nerves and removal is just as bad if not worse than clit removal.
I’ve only ever heard outcry about a man hitting a woman, as opposed to a male in the same situation, if she was clearly physically weaker than her – there was quite a big fuss in the uk when a 6 foot something cop beat up a tiny woman on camera. But then again, there was a huge outcry when carers, some female, were caught hitting elderly and physically disabled clients. I think people are completely able to understand what a fair fight is.
Nobody’s genitals should be touched without their express consent, in any way, unless by a doctor, and in a medically necessary procedure. Many forms of FGM are ‘worse’, but in the genital cutting playoffs, there are no winners.
Matt Forney is a shithead of the highest order.
I had never run across Matt Forney before. At least that I recall. I feel his name is familiar, but can’t recall why.
I did a report in high school about FGM and the problems are huge. Women die from FGM. And some women become unable to conceive in the future as a result.
@saltandpickles I agree. One time a group of 3 boys smashed my face in the ice and took my wagon and folks were upset. It wasn’t a fair fight I was 11 they were in high school. I get upset when I see that in any situation. A group of boys picking on a smaller boy makes me so angry.
While I agree that genitals should not be altered unless needed, there’s not a chance that I’m going to agree that circumcision is worse than FGM. They are not equivalent.