So for some reason the fellas on the Men’s Rights subreddit are discussing an article by Australian newspaper columnist Clementine Ford in which she expresses her desire to see more dongs on television.
As she notes, there are plenty of boobs on display on HBO shows like Game of Thrones, yet “rarely are we treated to the visual smorgasbord of a well stocked meat platter. ” Ford is sick of it. “So bring on the parade of wangs, willies and woodies!” she demands. “I’m fond of a wand and I’m not ashamed to say it.”
I’m not terribly familiar with the writings of Clementine Ford, but evidently she’s not big on subtlety.
Anyway, the fellas in the Men’s Rights subreddit aren’t having any of it. Nuh uh. They ain’t buying it, ladies! You may write columns about how you want more wang on TV. You may talk about it with your friends. You may have gigantic collections of peen pics hidden away on your hard drive.
But the MRAs of Reddit know better. It’s all some devious feminist ploy, as Steampunk_Moustache helpfully explains.
Huh. That took an odd twist at the end there.
But it’s our old friend Giegerwasright who provides the real answer, in the form of a wall-o-mansplainin’ so giant that I had to shrink the text to even screencap it.
Huh.
So why exactly are women pretending to be interested in seeing more penises on television? So they can point at them and laugh?
Women are such an enigma, especially if you just assume that nothing they ever say is true and that it’s all part of some weird plot to screw with men’s heads.
(H/t to r/againstmensrights for pointing me to geigerwasright’s lovely comment.)
Gaiman’s female characters are usually good. Even when they are sometimes in stock roles they usually handle those roles in a more realistic manner than most.
Same here re: Dune. I managed to get through the first book after two tries, read the second book and quit. What mostly bothered me was that the religion of the Fremen seemed like it was central to the plot, but after two books I still couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be. Except that it had something to do with the sand worms. I think.
And again, not SF, but is anyone here familiar with the Modesty Blaise comic strips?
RE: Kittehserf
Even the way he wrote about Imbri being in season in Night Mare was very rapey. Hello, mares do NOT automatically submit to any stallion that happens to be around.
AAAAAAH I THOUGHT I’D REPRESSED THAT OH GOD WHY
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
LBT — that makes it SLIGHTLY less disturbing then I guess. At least this isn’t being given to kids with no idea that it isn’t remotely appropriate.
markb – I used to read Modesty Blaise when she was in the papers back in the 70s! 🙂
Cool! Would you agree that she is way ahead of her time, as far as gender politics go? (Disclaimer: I am not trying to present myself as some kind of super-feminist man. I just like my badass female characters to be real badasses, as I think do many male geeks. Much as I like “The Avengers”, I think Emma Peel spent more time being trussed up and having to be rescued by Mr. Steed than she did fighting bad guys.)
RE: Argenti
LBT — that makes it SLIGHTLY less disturbing then I guess. At least this isn’t being given to kids with no idea that it isn’t remotely appropriate.
Yeah, well, fear not, he had PLENTY of creepy child-molesting rape stuff in his books for young people do. (As an ex-Xanth fan, I could tell you, but we’d be here all night.)
markb – alas, I don’t really remember well enough to say! I was only in my early teens at most when reading the strip, and not in the least aware of such things.
I loved Emma Peel when I was younger still, but that was because 1) hair and 2) jumpsuit.
Regarding Ian (M) Banks:
In the Culture (the main civilization Banks wrote SF in) basically everyone lives as man and woman (and both or sexless at all), changing gender (and sex) several times during life. People not having lived all genders (what Dvärghundspossen referred to) usually aren’t born in the Culture but joined later on, and having only lived as one gender (male in this case) is indeed seen as odd and eccentric.
The race titianblue described is shown early on as something desired and glorified by the protagonist of the book (basically a stand-in for all the people glorifying more “down-to-earth” cultures, who aren’t so coddled like us (you all know the typical right-wing bullshit about our nanny-society I’m sure)). Only later on he finds out about these abhorrent practices of this society and disgusting/brutal it is behind the facade.
I find it unfortunate that Ian M. Banks gets dismissed so easily here, because he has written some really great books featuring a very progressive society in a very positive light (even if it has its dark corners and blemishes, but how else would there be any conflict?)