So we’ve been talking a lot about the MRA response to the Adria Richards firing over the past few days, but (like a lot of the regulars here, I suspect) I’ve had one lingering question in my mind: what does eminent MRA philosopher Cooter Bee think about all of this? Well I am pleased to report that Mr. Bee has finally weighed in on the subject in a comment over on The Spearhead.
Always a model of thoughtfulness and restraint, Mr. Bee suggests that the best way to deal with the problem of women in technology – rightfully a man’s place – is for men in tech to go on a giant man strike until civilization starts to crumble:
Tech makes female jobs possible. Feminism couldn’t manage without tech. Would it be possible to attack tech and bring it down?
Not talking attack as in military operation but perhaps key males within the industry could be recruited and persuaded not to produce. After all, does anybody really think that any of the current fruits of civilization come from the female mind? Agitate against HB1 visa’s to further weaken it. Eventually, government and other powder puff industries won’t able to replace their dilapidated equipment. Where will the make-work female jobs go when there are no computers? The police state? How effective can it be with pencil, paper and shoe leather alone?
Other Spearheaders have equally enlightened and enlightening thoughts on the matter. Richard attacks women for both getting jobs in technology and for (allegedly) preferring doctors and lawyers over tech geeks.
Women are deadly to hire. Women really have no place in tech. Harsh? Perhaps.
But imagine if all the man-hours (perhaps billions worth) that has gone into soothing (the ultimately un-soothable) grrrrls’ feelings rather than genuine productivity.
And for all the women who hate the sexist men in tech, what about the sexist discrimination by women against tech men vs. say lawyers or doctors?
I’m not quite sure how not liking sexist men in tech counts as sexist discrimination, but I have to admit that I am baffled by some of the more sophisticated forms of MRA logic.
Another commenter who goes by the name David F – and whom I should point out is NOT ME NO WHY DOES HE CALL HIMSELF THAT UGH UGH IT MAKES ME EMBARRASSED FOR ALL DAVIDS WHOSE LAST NAMES START WITH AN F WAIT WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT SORRY THIS SENTENCE HAS GOTTEN AWAY FROM ME. Anyway, David F Who is Not Me repeats and elaborates upon an argument first made by Daflory over on A Voice for Men, which makes me think that they are in fact the same person and that David F’s last name is Flory (not Futrelle I repeat NOT Futrelle):
No one ever told Adria Richards that she was at best only an tolerated guest in the world of tech, and she could either play by male rules and contribute, or get lost. Hopefully other feminists in tech will get a similar message.
This and the Anita Sarkeesian affair suggests that hatred for feminism runs very deep in the tech world, and that a great many men and boys are willing and able to protect their domain against hostile intruders. The white-knight tech articles have made themselves ridiculous from the flood of hostile comments they generate. I think it is only a matter of time before some tech sites throw feminism under the bus. It’s not as if they really need women for anything, and if tech writers come to accept that they won’t get sex by pandering to women, what else do they have to lose?
Opus – who I am pretty sure is not actually the penguin from Bloom County – wonders why useless women go to conferences in the first place, and comes up with this explanation:
I can only conclude that women attend conferences for the purpose of being outraged and to shame any unsuspecting male. Is it any wonder men seek to work in female-free environments if at all possible.
Former Man Boobz Troll of the Year NWOslave steps up with some observations that may bring back fond memories of his many contributions to the discourse here at Man Boobz:
Western women, at least in the social media circles, seem to be hell bent on proving women have the mental and emotional fortitude of a four year old girl. Adria Richards and the media backlash is clear proof that women are incapable of functioning more than an arms length from the safety of the nest.
Joeb, meanwhile, offers these cogent thoughts:
The 800 LBs feminist beast in the room is; This women (Adria Richards) is not there to conform to Company norms and a real life work scenario .
She wants to work on her own terms . Off course those terms are the void of all physical and mentally tiring duty’s like actual work .
Its like this , Iv seen Feminist tech write blogs about tech Jobs not because they where technicians , They write blogs because they failed out of the technician Jobs . ( there opinion is useless )
Women want the administration duty’s of the Job but , The power structure changes when you have well trained men doing the work .
You can’t have a women with a BA from POO dunk business college telling a male scientist from MTI how to do his JOB .
Its another feminist leach on the privet sector . Get to many of these leaches and it sucks the life from the Corp.
After reading all these very thoughtful comments from the Spearhead men — and I didn’t even include the openly racist ones or the ones that used the c-word — I’m not sure how anyone could doubt male superiority, in tech and in everything else.
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Cloudiah, that is a good point. It’s kind of like how you actually should call in when you’re sick because one person calling in to recover wastes less money and productivity than if they came in and got everyone else in the office sick, you know? Men really should quit going to work with broken and severed limbs and just go to the hospital already.
@AK
I laughed way too much XD I probably should be going to bed, so everything may be ammusing me more than normal.
And I finally found butthead’s comment:
I know this is a smallish thing to nitpick, given the material of it, but butthurt, use males + females, or men+ women.
MEN and females: because only MEN are real people. Bitches.
Ermahgerd, just imagining all the backup that would occur if the hymen prevented the flow of menstrual fluid. I am so glad imperforate hymens are only present in around 0.001% of biologically female individuals.
@marinerachel
I think that’s why he did it. I’m just nitpicky again XD
Though I’m not sure why we are capitalizing MEN. Is it because they are big important MEN who go walking around with a limb falling off? Strong manly manly MEN. Sorry, I got distracted.
Also, I feel all uninformed. What’s an imperforate hymen?
Is butthurt on moderation? Or has he been lurking because he’s too embarrassed to reply –since learning that the menstration cycle is not a Sexual Transmitted Infection?
Well, if you’re lurking, dude, please feel free to give all the citations you can that prove women call off sick more then men. Also, if you’re too embarrassed to reply…well, you should be, that was a totally stupid thing to post — unless you’re a toddler.
When the hymen is imperforate. 😛
It means there’s no opening in the hymen at all so menstrual flow can’t occur, which results in infection. Minor surgery is required to enable menstrual flow. Something similar is required for women who have been infibulated particularly horrifically (though that’s obviously bigger surgery as it involves scar tissue and the labia being imperforate, not just the hymen and is sometimes required just so a girl can pass urine. Opening an imperforate hymen is small potatoes comparatively. BUT both are about enabling flow. I was going to make a Dune reference but that’s not funny.)
And YES, of COURSE, we’re capitalising MEN because they’re re big, strong, super awesome, very important, going-to-work-with-a-limb-falling-off, manly, FUCK YEAH! MEN.
/me cues the Orgazmo theme song “Now you’re a MAN”
@marinerachel
Well, thanks for info 🙂 I just hadn’t heard it before.
All these men (sorry, MEN) walking around with limbs falling off sounds like they’re Ents with a bad case of Dutch elm disease or summat.
They moan and groan about how feminism and women are destroying civilization, and so they come up with a brilliant plan to counter it: destroy civilization.
@_@
According to what I read on some atheist/skeptic/rationalist forum, females (see: FEMINISTS) are most likely to chop off penises (and dine on them), which everyone finds HILARIOUS because SHARON OSBORNE and MISANDRY but these MEN are so manly and important and super awesome that they fought off their ladyattackers and went to work.
I’m so over the organised skeptic movement.
I am flat hunting (for a move to a job I haven’t yet gotten. No, I don’t have my hopes up AT ALL.) and so far I’m only short listing places which have pets. I need a kitty.
MEN go to work with …bits… falling off, and Buttz thinks women have the STIs? :p
Just ran across this
http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2013/03/negging/
Are we designating sexes to work now or why is it that”Tech makes female jobs possible”?
Does that mean this mysterious Tech is definitely male and shouldn’t it be TECH then?
I Also love how Richards single-handedly proved that I don’t function.
@ nerdypants
Thanks for translating. I was having a hard time deciphering this little treasure to humanity.
Do Re / raegus: If Adria Richards had actually called for the man to be fired for his joke, then yes, I’d agree that this would have been an overreaction. But she didn’t. All she did was tweet about the fact he’d made an immature sex joke right behind her, and implied that she was tired of that kind of locker room atmosphere at tech conferences. She didn’t call for anything to happen to him, she was just expressing frustration. (The conference organizers apparently checked in with her and apologized, and she was content with that.)
The man’s company then decided to fire him. And that, I agree, was a blatant overreaction. (At least if it was truly over just the joke, and not because of lots of other valid stuff, with perhaps the joke being the final straw. But even then, using the joke as the reason for dismissal would have been poor judgment IMHO.) What’s more, Adria Richards also agrees! If I am informed correctly, she expressed shock that the guy was fired and said that he should not have been.
And then, of course, she herself got fired. For daring to express frustration in a tweet, which was followed by events that she had not intended, had no control over, and could not have realistically expected to happen as a result of her tweet. And that wasn’t so much an overreaction as a simply wrong and messed up action.
Neurite – it was over other matters as well. The company explicitly said so. And yes, she did express regret that he’d been fired. But she and her whole company were abused and threatened; they were blackmailed into firing her.
@neurite I was referring to her actions, not the consequences of her actions (which were also blown out of proportion, both his firing and her resultant firing). From what I can understand it was basically a ‘you have a small penis’ joke, with the word dongle replacing penis. I can’t see the need to then take a picture of these people and release it to 10,000 followers, unless men are forbidden from joking about their own body parts in private conversations between themselves now. Don’t get me wrong, I understand her discomfort, I’d probably be weirded out if a woman made a joke about her period to another woman and I overheard it, but I wouldn’t then take a picture of them and talk about how they’re making disgusting jokes to 10,000 Internet people (AND tweet it to the people running the show).
I don’t know, I’m just trying to understand the outrage on both sides. I’m not blaming her for feeling uncomfortable, but it seems nobody wants to say she was overreacting. And obviously MRAs just see it as a real life manifestation of their fantasy men vs women war.
What do her actions matter now? She’s had her address and phone number posted and men threatening to rape and kill her? There is no balance in saying “she overreacted” or “she should have done differently”. Don’t you see, it wouldn’t matter WHAT she did – she exists, she’s a woman who spoke about bad behaviour from men and her life is now in danger because of that.
I seriously wonder at the thinking, the ethics, and the basic humanity of anyone who’s still fussing about what she did.
Overreacting and responding less than ideally aren’t the same thing.
And joking about your period to another friend who has periods, in public, while crude, isn’t the same as making tacky sexual remarks directed at people of the opposite sex with friends of your sex in public.
It’s fucking mind boggling how eager people are to emphasise Richards’ “overreaction” (now we know “not cool” ranks way the hell up there in list of women’s overreactions with other such gems as “guys, don’t do that”) over the fact she’s received an avalanche of goddamn rape and death threats since saying “not cool” (if you can’t understand outrage over rape and death threats, there is something very broken), which no one wants to talk about in lieu of BITCHES AIN’T SHIT.
One of these things is not like the other!
But let’s focus on what’s important: what the woman did questionable.
@Marine If I’m wrong by all means correct me, but it’s my understanding that the dude made the legitimate tech statement about forking someone’s repo and then the other dude made the sexual pun ‘are you sure your dongle is big enough’. The sexual remark was NOT directed at anyone except the man in question. So I don’t see why it’s different from a woman making a period joke or any joke about a female body part (but I’m more than open to hear why you think it is).
Saying not cool on twitter is clearly not an overreaction, hell even a rant would get a ‘fair enough’, it’s more the posting their pictures online to 10,000 people like she caught them talking about their child porn collection. The only reason I’m questioning her reaction being an overreaction is because everything that ensued afterwards is clearly an overreaction, we don’t need to wonder if rape and death threats are an overreaction because we already know they are, lol.
@kittehs I’m not saying she overreacted therefore she deserves everything she got. I’m discussing her actions only, everything that happened afterwards was blown way out of proportion and was very mean-spirited (You know, due to this being an outlet for misogynists to pour their hatred, I doubt they actually give a shit about the guys involved). Again, I’m not trying to argue in anyway that the vitriol she received is somehow justified, it isn’t, at all. Even if she had been caught on camera torturing kittens I would say rape/death threats are an overreaction. All I’m asking you is, do you really think that was bad behaviour on the part of men? There’s no wrong answer I just want your opinion.
Clearly, we don’t already know the response she’s gotten is an overreaction because sending her pictures of decapitated women and telling her to look forward to such isn’t being discussed but talking about what she could have done better and how she got what she deserved is.
These are not sensible priorities. Whether we personally believe it to be the case is irrelevant; by emphasising her role in what ensued we are giving those who are threatening and harrassing Richards or just defending her abuse and harassment a pass. They certainly believe they have our support because we’re not condemning them but we are criticizing their target. This is not the time to be nitpicking her behaviour.
For the record, I wouldn’t have gone about reporting the doodz the way she did. I understand why she did based on the explanation she gave though. More importantly, she would have caught shit no matter how she went about reporting their behaviour.
@raegus
Have you heard the phrase ‘straw that broke the camels back?’ Perhaps if you were in an environment where you were constantly being made to feel uncomfortable, and if women were constantly making comments that were unhelpful (women discussing periods is hardly the same as sexual innuendos) AND you were at an event that explicitly stated it was invested in opening the tech world to everyone and being inclusive, perhaps you might understand why she drew attention to the situation.
I hate the phrase ‘check your privilege’, but really, just try and think.
I haave a friend with severe dysmenorrhea (is severe redundant?) and she actually is bedridden for 3-5 days every month and has been since she was 11 years old. It is weird that these douchebags think all women have dysmenorrhea. When my friend was young, similar douchebags (incl. physicians) were telling her the dysmenorrhea was all in her head.