For a certain subset of horrible men, there are few things more infuriating than the fact that women they find undesirable can turn down men for sex. For this upsets their primitive sense of justice: such women should be so grateful for any male attention, these men think, that turning down even the most boorish of men shouldn’t even be an option for them.
Consider the reactions of some of the regulars on date-rapey pickup guru Roosh V’s forum to the story of Josh and Mary on the dating site Plenty of Fish. One fine December evening, you see, Josh decided to try a little “direct game” on Mary.
That’s what the fellas on Roosh’s forum call it, anyway. The rest of us would call it sexual harassment.
Josh started off by asking Mary if she “wanted to be fuck buddies.” She said “nope,” and the conversation went downhill from there, with Josh sending a series of increasingly explicit comments to Mary, despite getting nothing but negative replies from her.
After eight messages from Josh, with the last one suggesting he would pay her $50 to “come over right now and swallow my load,” Mary turned the tables, noting that she’d been able to deduce his real identity from his PoF profile, and asking him if he wanted her to send screenshots of the chat to his mother and grandmother. He begged her not to.
As you may have already figured out, from the fact that we’re talking about this story in public, Mary did indeed pass along the screenshots, and posted them online.
Poetic justice? Not to the fellas on Roosh’s forum. Because, you see, Mary is … a fat chick.
While dismissing Josh as a “chode” with “atrocious game,” Scorpion saved most of his anger for the harassed woman:
Look how much she relishes not only shooting him down, but damaging his reputation with his own family. She’s positively intoxicated with her power. Simply spitting bad direct game is enough to unleash her vindictive fury.
“Bad direct game.” I’m pretty sure even Clarence Thomas would consider what Josh did sexual harassment.
At any point, she could have pressed a single button and blocked the man from communicating with her, but she didn’t. She didn’t because she enjoys the feeling of power she gets from receiving attention from guys like this and then brutally shooting them down. It makes her feel much hotter and more desirable than she actually is in real life. She’s not there to meet men; she’s there to virtually castrate them for her own amusement.
I’m guessing here, but I’m pretty sure that nowhere in Mary’s profile did she encourage the men of PoF to send her explicit sexual propositions out of the blue. And I’m pretty sure she didn’t hold a gun to Josh’s head and force him to send a half-dozen sexually explicit harassing messages to a woman he didn’t know.
Athlone McGinnis also relies heavily on euphemism when describing Josh’s appalling behavior:
I don’t think its primarily the revenge she’s after, its the validation. She is enjoying the power she has over this guy and wielding it brutally because it shows she can maintain standards despite her weight and the doubtless numerous confidence issues that stem from it. In blowing up this guy for being too direct in his evaluation of her sexuality, she affirms the value of her own sexuality.
Oh, so he was just being “direct in his evaluation of her sexuality.”
In short: “I am wanted, but I have standards and can choose. I have so much agency despite my weight that I can go as far as to punish those who approach me in a way I do not like rather than simply blocking them. I’m teaching them a lesson, because I’m valuable enough to provide such lessons.
So apparently in Mr. McGinnis’ world women who are fat aren’t supposed to have agency? They’re not supposed to be able to choose? They’re supposed to drop their panties to any guy who offers to be their fuck buddy or tells them to “suck my dick?”
Also, I’m a victim bravely standing up against online bullying/harassment-look at me!”
Yeah, actually, she is. Get used to it, guys, because you’re going to see a lot more of this in the future.
This isn’t just a laughing matter for her. She needs to be able to do this in order to feel worthwhile. She has to be able to show that even she is able to maintain standards and doesn’t have to settle for just any old guy asking for any old sexual favor simply because she resembles a beached manatee.
And it’s not a laughing matter for you either, is it? You’re actually angry that a woman said no to a sexual harasser — because you don’t find her attractive. And because Josh — from his picture, a conventionally attractive, non-fat fellow — did.
Mr. McGinnis, may a fat person sit on your dreams, and crush them.
I really don’t understand some people. Or existential distress, apparently.
Time is a cube?
Rubbish
Time is a tangled skein of wool. Played with by a cat. (That’s Louis’s description and I’d take his frivolous explanation over anything this jackass said any day.)
Say … is blogherpestroll really the AI? Is that the torment it has in mind? That’s even more evil than anything these plonkers could imagine.
timey-wimey
There, go in first!
“got”
Omg, GUYS. I just had a terrifying thought.
If I am a woman, which I am, and I find out about the basilisk, which I have… does that make me less funny than women who do NOT know about the basilisk?
I hereby renounce the basilisk in all forms.
KittehserF, YOU HAVE BEEN EDUCATED STUPID! Damn, I feel old and all too aware of all and ancient internet tradtions.
Time cube — doesn’t even manage to make sense as an aspect of a fictional universe.
And they’re rational skeptics by their standards, hence that whole bull with misery.
And no point in resisting it, AI will happen >.<
AI = AL? Yes, my brain does that too.
“I hereby renounce the basilisk in all forms.”
Well…I mean…you’d be paying Yudkowsky to save you from it’s torture so that is sorta like whoring by Tom’s definition…
*cracks up*
Seriously, I don’t even get it. This isn’t even reality-destroying. This is HYPOTHETICAL reality-destroying. Are there really folks so wound-up that THAT will really freak them out?
What the hell?
You can call me Al.
“And no point in resisting it, AI will happen >.<"
The 90% Basilisk! Oh, the horror!
Rational sceptics? Fuuuuuck. Read racist and misogynist for starters, since that's all *cough* rational *cough* sceptics (hypersceptics?) ever seem to be.
And they can play all they like with their "recreations". I'll be gone, and sorry, fellers, but your idiot boy toy can't suck my soul back for your little tortureporn scenario.
LBT – yeah, why don’t they get worked up about Morgoth or Cthulhu or summat?
“hypersceptics?”
I love that we now have a phrase for it. Seriously, the “grenade” thread was a wonder to behold. I’ve never seen so many people unwilling to stop navelgazing to actually look at their whole body in the mirror.
” I’ve never seen so many people unwilling to stop navelgazing to actually look at their whole body in the mirror.”
And that is the best description of these entitled douchecanoes.
Though I suspect their gaze is fixed a few inches below the navel.
I think Hyperseptics, would be even more accurate.
Someone on Pharyngula read it that way ‘cos of the spelling – and yeah, totally apt! 😀
Shoulda known the cheap jokes were already taken… *sigh*
LBT — you’re forgetting that these folks tend to already have their lives structured around AI and the singularity happening. The more sensible ones are bridge to a bridge folks — life expectancy will increase at a pace that means people are age will life forever, one little step at a time.
That they aren’t doing everything possible to make us (them) immortal is the most immoral thing they could do, THERE ARE STARVING CHILDREN IN AFRICA! And I’m not giving every penny I have to prevent that? (Which, of course, means AI, not like, the Gates Foundation or MSF or similar, you know, the NGOs that are actually doing practical things. Nope, go for AI because it WILL happen and that will solve everything)
Should be worried about Cthulu, what with freemage and pecunium trying to summon elder gods and all.
Have you accepted the basilisk as your personal lord and savior?
But is it a penguin whore basilisk?
Rule 0: Don’t give
the DMSkynet ideas.Also, why basilisk? It was a creature that had nothing good about it, killing with a glance and so on. Mind you, Leonardo described it as being so cruel it’d poison plants if it couldn’t find any animals, which sounds like this thing they’re imagining.
Love this bit in Wiki: “Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa wrote that the basilisk “is alwayes, and cannot but be a male, as the more proper receptacle of venome and destructive qualities.”[8]”
MISANDRY!
It really is a religion. They claim skeptical atheism but you’ve got your savior figure (AI), your heaven (post-singularity utopia), your hell (basilisk) and, in essence, your soul (the you able to be recreated in perfect replica). And, of course, dear gods the jargon!
But plenty of them seem to defend Dawkins (who’s surprised?) — religion is inherently harmful because it results in misguided beliefs. Mirrors, they need some.
(Note, before That Discussion happens — I have no issue with other people having or practicing religion, it does, however, irk me when you try convincing me that it isn’t a religion and you’re right so how can I disagree? Because you just crossed the line from your beliefs to pushing them on me and that’s not cool)
Did Yudkowsky watch far too many reruns of 2001 as a kid? It’s like he’s got a fixation on something that’s a cross between that slab thingy and HAL. Heh – just remembered, when I was a kid I thought a basilisk was that sort of thing; I had the word mixed up with obelisk.
Now an Obelisk AI I could get behind, if it mean 1) cats are returned to their overt godhead instead of the current covert situation and 2) everyone got to wear cool jewellery like the Egyptians made.
Falconer — read the link. It isn’t Skynet because, um, IT ISN’T. (No, seriously)
oWoD it’s Story Teller (ST) not DM, but no, never give zir ideas you don’t want used against you (unless you’re being used as a deus ex machina in which case CHA CHING)