My Man Boobz staycation continues. Here as promised is an interesting video.
I’d also like to take the opportunity, while I’m off, to as you all, dear Man Boobz readers, some questions that I’m really interested in seeing your answers to.
The first one: Are MRAs right about anything?
My answer to that is “no,” but there are some issues they bring up that a real, non-misogynistic men’s movement could focus on. These are:
1) Prison rape. A troubling new survey suggests that it’s far more common than previously thought, and that the number of people raped inside prison (overwhelmingly male) is by some estimates nearly as great as the number of people raped outside of prison (overwhelmingly female). (Trying to break down the numbers to make clean comparisons between prison rape and rape outside of prison is difficult; Stephanie Zvan digs into the numbers here.) Of course, MRAs don’t seem to want to do anything about the problem except use the issue of male rape to attack feminists. And of course if they focused on prison rape they would have to acknowledge that female prisoners are also raped, and that LGBT folks are much, much more likely to be raped than straight cis men.
2) Disparities in prison sentences between men and women. Even after controlling for assorted relevant variables, men tend to get longer prison sentences than women for the same crimes. (I don’t have a citation handy, alas.) This is not driven by feminism; female judges tend to be harsher on women than male judges. And of course there are gigantic racial disparities in sentences as well. MRAs again have done nothing about this except use it as an excuse to circle-jerk about evil women getting a “pussy pass.”
3) Domestic violence against men should be taken more seriously. Needless to say, though, most of what MRAs say about this issue is repugnant nonsense, and they have done nothing to actually help men, instead trying to get resources taken away from women.
Thoughts, on these or on any other issues MRA might be kind of, sort of “right” about?
they are right that domestic violence and sexual assault against men are trivialized to the point where tons of people see these issues as nothing but a big joke. otherwise, i can’t think of anything.
Melody, are you familiar with the Bechdel Test? It’s a lovely tool for evaluating if a movie meets even a baseline of reasonable portrayals of women:
Two female characters must have a conversation for several minutes that is not about a man.
What’s appalling is just how often modern movies fail this test (and meanwhile, so-called “chick flicks” usually fail as well, because the women are often focused entirely on the menz).
Not every movie needs to pass this test to be good, but it would be a better movie landscape if more of them did.
@Freemage
Isn’t it depressing when hoping for at least half of movies to pass seems unrealistic?
Taking a little break at work…
Here’s a clip from “How to Train Your Dragon” with Hiccup’s dad, all muscly muscled (voiced by Gerard Butler, who was also all muscly muscled in “300”):
And here’s a clip from “Mary Poppins” with David Tomlinson as Mr Banks:
I’m really not seeing the similarities.
Yes, Kittehs’, you should see “How to Train Your Dragon”. It’s adorable, and you’ll want a Toothless of your own.
Loved it. Even the weird kid-friendly Vikings.
Back to the Pratchett, I was reading a bit more Going Postal last night before bed and I came across Miss Dearheart dealing with a “Currently Friendly Drunk” with style (and stilettos).
Eh, the director probably said, “Can you, y’know, Vegemite it up a bit?”
I dunno why the Easter Bunny is Australian. The only association I have of Australia and rabbits is Threatening Imported Species, which is not at all positive.
JudgyBitch: “Not much a surprise, really. It’s what men tend to do. Win”
Right after talking about how men lose hard fought custody battles. Fail. So hard.
Re: Pratchett. I took a look at my library last night, and Reaper Man shows the most wear and tear. I love the stuff about the shopping mall entity. And I always love how Death feels about cats.
@Gillian: I just watched the BBC miniseries for Going Postal. So, so good. Their Miss Dearheart took the cherished one I had in my head and just plain out-awesomed her.
PS: Kitteh, that one features golems heavily as well.
My hunch is that the person who didn’t see the muscular bodies of the older men in HTTYD was using a very British concept of masculinity – very concercend with being a proper.Man and trying to teach discipline.You know, the “Stiff upper lip” trope. At least that was my take on it. I’ll admit that my grasp of the culture is as much trial and error as anything else.
And yes, toothless is basically dragon + cat.
d’oh. Grounds keeper willie. I keep forgetting him. how many times have they had him rip off his clothing and be oddly ripped. I do not know the root of this in American culture, but it really seems to be a trend.
Part of the conversation was how while the movie fails the Bechdel test, it still tries to question masculinity. Mostly I think it does a good job, With the big point of contention I have was how Astrid’s role went from unique to cliche fairly quickly once a romance got introduced. But there are movies that do a lot worse and it is still really enjoyable.
Good, I’ll look out for the film, then! Don’t worry about spoilers, I’ve read the synopsis and I’m of the reads-the-last-page-first mindset anyway. 😉
“How To Train Your Dragon” = my favorite movie.
Even with it’s flaws, I love it. Any time I get depressed, I’ll pull it out to watch to comfort myself.
Kittehs’, if you can, make sure you watch the short “How to Train Your Dragon” sequel, “Gift of the Night Fury” as well.
Ta for the tip! 🙂
I hadn’t thought about the masculism aspect of the Scottish accents; that’s a good point. I’d mainly thought it was just another case of an animated movie that isn’t set in America where the main characters nevertheless sound American and only the supporting cast has accents (eg, Aladdin, Ratatouille).
Kitteh, I’ll see your Link cat and raise you a Samus cat.
hellkell: I don’t think they’re ever going to be more than an internet pest.
I worry. Not about, “the movement”, but about small groups/individuals, who manage to figure out how to get the superficial aspects of the problem considered, and then get themselves appointed the people to work on drafting the solutions.
There are a few who managed that in Massachussets, though I’ve lost the links. The state was looking to reform some aspects of DV/custody and there were no, “feminists” on the committee, but there were some MRA, which affected (for the worse) the resultant legislation.
Perfect spherical cat! 😀
Well, a pox on our shops. Tried Target, JB HiFi, Minotaur and the DVD Collection and NONE of ’em had How To Train Your Dragon. Every other flippin’ Disney film evah but not that one.
Looks like it’ll be another job for the internet.
@freemage
I am familiar because I watch feministfrequency (have you watched it? If not check it out on youtube).
The problem is many male dominated films pass (when applied to men) while female films do not.
@moreorlessdan
Romance novels also paint scots as super fit men. How many Scottish highlander romance novels are there? More than I can count for certain.
I think Riders of Berk passes the test, but only on some episodes.
Not to mention the time-traveling Viking Navy SEAL romance novels.
THAT GUY HAS A MULLET
::hurl::
Those are just minor issues MRAs use to play the victimhood complex, probably because liberals care so much about victims.
No, the real fight is against feminism. One does not need to plug for male rights or grab sympathy to fight it. All we need is to witness what feminism does to civilization. A continued softening of competitiveness, aggression, and the desire to contest supremacy for your tribe, race, and nation. Every feminist argument ends up being about their feelings. Compassion, empathy, and other inconsequential obstacles to serious geopolitical goals.
That, is the reason why feminism and its adherents need to be crushed around the globe.
What a stupid troll you are.
Oh, and a cowardly one, Mr Aggression Is So Civilised: you haven’t even the gumption to comment on a live thread, but try to sneak in and get the last word on an inactive one.
Coward and hypocrite, what a surprise.