In a case of spectacularly bad timing, Fox News happened to choose the day before the Zimmerman verdict was handed down to publish an op-ed proclaiming “the White American Male” to be the most oppressed creature on Planet Earth. In a piece entitled “Men — The New Second Class Citizens,” professional antifeminist Suzanne Venker declared that
From boyhood through adulthood, the White American Male must fight his way through a litany of taunts, assumptions and grievances about his very existence. His oppression is unlike anything American women have faced.
What is revealing about this quote, besides its complete disconnection from reality, is that Venker makes no other references to race in the rest of her piece, which runs through a number of tiresome and oh-so-familiar MRA talking points about the alleged oppression of men.
Venker complains about schools being biased towards girls, from grade schools that force students to sit still to colleges with their infernal Title IX. She whines about “sit coms and commercials that portray dad as an idiot.”
Quoting antifeminist psychologist Helen Smith, a friend of and sometime contributor to A Voice for Men, she suggests that women can get their boyfriends or husbands locked up on a whim just by claiming abuse.
I’m surprised she didn’t talk about the evils of “friend zoning.”
But when Venker refers to “men” in all of these complaints, she is evidently thinking only of white men — why else would she switch so seamlessly from talking about the alleged oppression of “men” to proclaiming “the White American Male” the ultimate victim?
There’s really no other word for this than, well, racist.
The day after Fox published Venker’s nonsense, we were of course reminded (as if any of us really needed to be reminded) of the very real oppression faced by “the Black American Male.”
Trayvon Martin didn’t die because he happened to see a show featuring a bumbling sitcom dad. He died because George Zimmerman saw a young black man in a hoodie walking home from the store and assumed, apparently because Martin was young and black and wearing a hoodie, that he was up to something sinister.
Trayvon Martin didn’t die because he was male; he died because he was a black male. His killer walked free not because his victim was male, but because his victim was a black male.
Suzanne Venker did us all a favor by revealing the unconscious racism underlying so many Men’s Rights complaints. The Men’s Rights movement is not only a movement that is overwhelmingly made up of white men; it’s a movement that’s almost exclusively about white men, and their largely imaginary oppressions, as well. We might as well call it the White Men’s Rights Movement.
RE: Argenti
One of the unfinished MS Paint doodles on my computer is Specialist Grey accidentally getting one of Christian Grey’s phone calls. It never got finished, but I was entertained anyway.
I’m having a hard time picturing Grey answering the phone in the first place.
RE: Argenti
He can. He has some social scripts in his head to fall back on; it’s mostly when he’s obligated to actually speak original content that he goes to pieces.
@Argenti: Oh! I didn’t realize that! That’s pretty fun 🙂 I had only picked up on the “silver” bit… but then, I never did much of anything touching on Latin, so I’ll excuse myself for not being omniscient, haha.
Zardoz is up there with Barbarella and The Falls. One of the greatest pieces of art of the 20th century.
dustydeste — Aertheri is misspelt anyways, but like I said the other day, I can’t say æther, and can say it with the typo’ed R so it stuck.
LBT — makes sense.
It’s still too hot. Wtf happened to my weather forecast’s thunderstorm?
Waterboys show was great. Makes me wish I was a little older so I could have seen The Who. Am still sort of floating. I had a couple of whistles with me, and jammed along on a couple of tunes. No one complained, so I guess I didn’t suck.
Aw, so I misread floating as tipsy and you won’t be joining me?
Guys, I broke out the whiskey. I kinda doubt I’ll manage to get funny drunk before I pass out (I thought my sleeping pill would do the trick, it didn’t, so I can’t exactly get too hammered)
I shall not make is error tomorrow night, but for now…*passes around the whiskey*
Katz — it falls under the “don’t drive…” category, but no, I don’t intend to get hammered.
And there’s a beetle…3rd tonigt
And I lost it!
No, the goal here is not to give a shit when one inevitably crashes into my head. As that seems to be a trend lately. (Come on beetles, you want to play in my plants, fine, but my head is not a plant!)
And I caught it!
That puts today’s count at two June bugs and a click beetle.
Well, reading all your too-hot-to-breathe complaints I’m almost envious. I just checked our local weather report. The temperature is 9C but the _apparent_ temperature is 4C. Who said Adelaide was hot.
And we have to go out. Daughter’s dog-sitting arrangements fell through, so we have to go and entertain her frenzied, frenetic pug. He’s as mad as a box of frogs when you first arrive. If you manage to deal with that (take him outside for a dash-about-and-tangle-yourself-in-your-own-feet stuff and all the weeing and pooing that goes on) he’ll settle down after, oh, I dunno, 4 or 5 hours. Of course, the cat disdains all this doggie hysteria. He just sets himself up somewhere the dog can’t reach, like the top of the piano, and sneeeers.
@Argenti
We finally got rain just a lil while ago, so I’m sure it’s gonna roll your way soon
That would be awesome. It’s absurdly hot. Of course, my pair of whiskey shots is settling in nicely and I’m thinking it’s nearly bedtime.
I’ve been sucked into 50 Shades of Bears featuring Specialist Cullen though. (LBT’s MST of 50 Shades of
fucked upGrey)@ Historophilia
You know I’ve lived in both countries (and a few others), right? Please don’t assume that nobody who lives in the US knows what the culture is like in the UK.
@Argenti
I know, believe me I know. It’s been ridiculous all week. It was actually 39C in the evening, and then that blissful rain hit. Now it’s like 24 😀
It’s been in the 70s to low 80s here, and relatively warm at night, with a bit of breeze.
(Smug. Though I wouldn’t mind it a bit hotter.)
Ah, well, weather. Left 27C in Queensland for 7C in Melbourne.
I’d rather the 7C at this time of year. Hot weather in winter is WRONG.
Still. Too. Hot. >.<
Someone please send cooler weather. Thank you.
@Argenti, I would if I could, but it would come with severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings, apparently.
Oh no! Stay safe with those tornado warnings!
It’s cooler here now, but it did come with a massive storm that caused an outrageous amount of damage. I didn’t have power until 4 this morning…
You know how the pool’s water feels so cold you have to wrestle with the question of going in slowly, or all at once?
We went to the local pool today and the water was warmer than the air.
My babies laid back in their inflatable floats and just drifted off to sleep.
Then we got ’em home and they woke up. I tried to explain to them that they’d got it all backwards, but would they listen?