When you look at the above picture — a group portrait of the Congressional freshman class of 2013 — what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Maybe something along the lines of “there sure are a lot of white dudes in that picture!”
Not if you’re “Emmanuel Goldstein” over at Roosh V’s Return of Kings blog. No, he looked at that same picture and thought: American women sure are a bunch of worthless attention whores!
Why? Because some of the women in the picture have the temerity to wear … bright colors!
[N]ot one man appears in bright red, blue, pink or yellow. For the men, it gets about as radical as a light grey suit … The women, on the other hand, have never met a gauche shade of neon they wouldn’t wear. Why are American women so hell bent on attention whoring, precisely in the places where they say they want to be taken seriously? Why do women ‘fight for equality’ by swapping outfits with Bozo the Clown? Why are old white women so desperate to show us their wrinkly cleavage?
I’m not exactly sure how you’re defining “cleavage” here, EG, but I’m not really seeing a lot of it in this picture. Well, none, really. None cleavage. I see one outfit, possibly two, that might under some circumstances reveal a small amount of cleavage.
Not that it really matters, as EG’s outrage is purely for show.
He quotes the late paleo-con Lawrence Auster, who also professed to be similarly outraged by women and their terrible breast-baring clothes.
The way many women dress today, with half their breasts exposed, is an expression of total disrespect for men. Men are left with three possible responses. To grab the woman, which is illegal; to ogle the woman, which is socially unacceptable; or to affect not to notice the woman at all, which is emasculating. A culture that normalizes such female behavior—i.e. not only not noticing or objecting to it, but prohibiting any objection to it—is extremely sick.
Really? Men suffer because sometimes they see cleavage and they’re not allowed to grope or drool? Oh, you poor, poor fellows! Should I prepare the fainting couch?
EG then turns to Laura Woods, the self-proclaimed Thinking Housewife, who once declared
revealing dress in professional settings [to be] a last-ditch effort by women to salvage their femininity. They are living daily lives of masculine aggression and drive. They are pressured to destroy their inherent selflessness and desire to serve. They make their breasts appear overblown, near-to-bursting balloons as a way of diverting attention from what they have become.
Near-to-bursting balloons? Apparently Woods has been watching too much office-themed porn.
Naturally, EG agrees wholeheartedly with Woods:
Hers may be the most potent explanation yet. I have surmised as much about the ubiquity of the color hot pink, as a microcosm of this drive, and it’s popularity as a marketing tool to women. It is an impossibly ugly, tacky hue, yet women love it. These women are not feminine in any meaningful way, yet they think that having a vagina is something to be proud of. Wearing hot pink is akin to liking an anti-Kony group on Facebook to feel like you’re doing your part to fight genocide.
Wait, what?
Wearing hot pink is akin to liking an anti-Kony group on Facebook to feel like you’re doing your part to fight genocide.
I’m tempted to stop here, because there’s no way he can get any dumber than this.
But then I remember that I forgot to mention the one man who EG sees as the “male analog to the women I describe.” That is, the male analog to those whorish congresswomen and their oh-so-revealing pantsuits. His name, EG tells us, is
Buzz Bissinger, a GQ contributor who later checked into rehab for a shopping addiction. … Oh, it turns out he’s had some homosexual encounters as well. I’d love to see a straight man test the bounds of ‘equality,’ and dress like these buffoons, and still keep his job.
Damn those bisexual men and their bisexual style privilege! Straight men truly are the mostest oppressed of the most oppressed!
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of Mr. Bissinger, the male analog, evidently taken while he was on the job:
As you may have noticed, he’s not exactly the “male analog” to the pantsuited congresswomen above, given that in the middle picture there he seems to be wearing NOTHING BUT HIS UNDERPANTS AND SOME WRISTBANDS.
You don’t see that a lot in the Congressional Women’s Caucus.
That was a cool reply she gave, Ally. 🙂
Rogan, on a happier note, hope you and Mac had the best anniversary!
*delurks*
Trotskyism – the belief that pegasi should move above ground at a faster than a walk, slower than a gallop
*relurks*
@Auggziliary: I know, it’s like almost every attempt to combat toxic body ideals in mainstream media (I think explicit feminist bloggers as well as the so called fatosphere is way better, but mainstream media and many mainstream popular feminists suck at this) do this by holding up a different toxic ideal instead.
Just one word: ties. http://i.imgur.com/zFOqhKQ.png
LapDragon – hi, have you had your Official Welcome Package yet?
LapDragon is a cool nym. Makes me think of a kitteh who gets fierce if zie doesn’t get sufficient lap time.
I’ve updated and alphabetized the MRA guide to -isms. You are all hilarious and awesome.
Love it, SittieKitty! 😀
More about trans* stuff…
I was thinking today that feminists should be very pro-trans* since they show that the sex of a person doesn’t really affect their thought processes or behavior that much.
The differences in the sexes is pretty much just hormones. MRAs(and actually a lot of society even) act like males and females are two completely different species. Trans* people are evidence that suggests that the sex of a person is just hormones. I’m talking about the hormones trans* people take, btw, not just the mental part. I don’t mean to say that hormones affect gender, just that they practically change the sex.
Idk if that makes sense, im tired and I’m typing on an iPad, which I find difficult for some reason.
RE: Ally
It is great when that happens. Luckily, my main source of gender-urgh was solved by surgery. I can get called ma’am forever by strangers, and it’ll annoy me, but not cause me the screaming face-clawing that bodily dissonance did.
RE: Kittehserf
It was great! Me and Mac got attacked by a rogue train, I got sunburned in an embarrassing way, and we wrote porn. We had a grand old time.
RE: auggziliary
I don’t mean to say that hormones affect gender, just that they practically change the sex.
That’s… a very romantic way of thinking of hormones. And not really all that true. Some people’s bodies radically change on hormones. Some people’s don’t. It’s all a complicated equations of genes, age, health, time spent on hormones, which hormones they are, and random chance.
Trust me, not all of us look like Loren Cameron or… uh. What the hell was the name of that model on TV…
LBT – attacked by a rogue train? Now there’s a tale to be told! 😀
You guys had a much more adventurous anniversary than I had a birthday at Home. We just stayed in bed. 😉
Oh, but I made a sweater for Louis last night, the one I’d done a pic of yesterday evening. He was being such a tease about whether he wanted it, but gave himself away by rushing upstairs when I said it was lying on the bed. You should have seen him later when we visited his father and stepmother – Henri had been out at the kennels and was all doggy, and Louis was dancing around trying not to get hugged ‘cos he didn’t want dog hair all over himself. I told Henri the sweater hadn’t had its first layer of cat hair yet, he demanded to know if I was implyin’ his dogs were inferior, and I said no, but we have to live with the results if our snooty kitties didn’t get in first!
LBT, I guess that’s true, but the point is that the sex of a person isn’t really going to directly effect other aspects of their lives. The sex of a person seems to be pretty much hormone based*. It’s not like males and females have totally different brain wiring or whatever.
Sorry I wasn’t clear… Im tired as hell so I’m probably leaving out important… Um, things.
*The effects of hormones aren’t reversible sometimes… like puberty. However that doesn’t mean that its any less hormonal.
Kittehserf –
I had not gotten an Official Welcome Package yet, but I will gladly accept one. I think when I commented before, it was before the OWP was available.
Aha, glad I caught up, then. 🙂
This reminds me of the “scandal” of Michelle Obamas arms. OH MY GAWD, YOU CAN SEE HER MUSCLES.
“RE: Ally
It is great when that happens. Luckily, my main source of gender-urgh was solved by surgery. I can get called ma’am forever by strangers, and it’ll annoy me, but not cause me the screaming face-clawing that bodily dissonance did.”
I can relate. I only get somewhat bothered when people casually misgender me (while I’m in guy mode, at least), but what really makes me feel blue is my dysphoria.
Also, I apologize for saying “Sometimes surprises happen” as though that’s a universal experience. I know you have implied that such things have happened to you, but I said that while automatically assuming that you’ve experienced that.
RE: Ally S
Don’t worry about it. Many people, many colors. And I know some folks get social dysphoria REALLY bad. Fortunately, I am not one of them.
What do you call the reverse? As in, being giddy when not ID’ed by your sex characteristics (er, um, the ones you were “born with”? What puberty gave you? Words are failing, brain too full of numbers)
In any, case, resigning myself to it never happening hurts less. (LBT, you saw me under winter clothing, but even then, you know wtf I mean here right? My anatomy is all in your face >.< )
As in, the opposite of dysphoria? I’m guessing euphoria, maybe?
Here is some happy trans news from last week. Court sides with girl on her gender rights
RE: Argenti
Well, keep in mind, the vessel was fucking Barbie for a long time. I still don’t get read male much here… but that’s because I’ve gone off my hormones. Had I stayed on longer, pretty sure that would’ve changed.
I…you…*jealous*
Sorry, I am both unable to form words, and not comfortable saying publicly the ones I’ve formed. So yeah, *jealous* (of the not looking like Barbie anymore part, not the being misgendered part obviously)
RE: Argenti
Sorry! I didn’t mean to be all like, “Ooh, look at me, I’ve arrived.” I just meant, you know. Maybe when you’re in a better place, you’ll get the opportunity too, y’know?
No, I get you. That jealous was the flip side of your giddiness at having “the surgery”, that’s all.
RE: Argenti
Oooh, ‘the surgery.’ Makes it sound so… IMPORTANT. *laughs* Mostly, I had truly unfortunate chest endowment, where it was large and also (increasingly as we aged) PAINFUL. I couldn’t bind, and the only thing that helped the pain was going braless. By the end, I was constantly having to juggle pain dysphoria vs. bounce dysphoria.
Every day, knowing I never have to make those judgments again, I thank the Golem of Prague for the mercy. I might be out $7000+ but SO WORTH IT.
I think it’s kind of fun when someone occasionally thinks I’m male, although it doesn’t happen often. It did happen once in a while when I was working with the elderly. One woman was staring at me for quite a while before asking “You ARE a nineteen-year-old boy, aren’t you?”. “Um, no, 35-year-old woman, but whatever”. Another explained that it’s pretty hard to tell, and you can’t even just check the chest area for signs since I hardly have any boobs.
As I said, I identify as cis since I’m okay with being female, but I still think it’s funny (rather than insulting, as most women would) that at least once in a blue moon I could pass as male.
And then there was this time when a bunch of guys were cat-calling me when they suddenly got in their heads that I was a guy, and completely freaked out over supposedly having cat-called the wrong gender. Which was pretty hilarious, since seriously guys, what do you think happens if you accidentally cat-calls at a gender you’re not attracted to?