The gentlemen bloggers of the Manosphere — particularly those obsessed with pickup artistry, a.k.a. “game” — like to pretend that they’re part of some sort of reactionary intellectual renaissance. Indeed, some have even convinced themselves that they’re part of a new “dark enlightenment.”
These intellectual pretensions are undercut rather thoroughly by the often puerile content of their blogs, in particular the bloggers’ obsession with cheap insults of the “yeah, well, you’re a fattie who can’t get laid” variety. Indeed, sometimes this seems to be their only real response to their many critics.
Some of these “dark enlightenment” intellectuals have discovered that crude, cheap, offensive insults garner more attention from the wider world than their sad attempts at serious philosophy. Witness some of Matt Forney’s dumb, attention-seeking provocations aimed at “fat girls” and female self-esteem.
Now “game” guru Roosh Valizadeh has decided to gin up some pageviews by launching a week-long assault on fatties, which began on Monday. In a post on his Return of Kings blog announcing the start of “Fat Shaming Week,” Roosh argues, with the utmost insincerity, that this is a public-minded intervention designed to make the world a better place:
We at ROK fully understand that the reason women are so against fat shaming is because it works. Mocking someone for lazy and slothful behavior is one of the best ways to motivate them to change and appear more pleasing before our presence. If a fat woman goes to the bar with attitude, thinking she’s a great catch, but several men check her for that arrogance by calling her a grenade launcher, do you think she’ll feel comfortable the next day for her scheduled cupcake and ice cream binge?
Even setting aside the fact of Roosh’s extreme assholery, this is simply not true. Fat shaming doesn’t work. In fact, as a recent study by Angelina Sutin at the Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee found, it can actually lead to weight gain. Looking at data from more than 6000 participants in the nationally representative longitudinal Health and Retirement Study, Sutin found that
Participants who experienced weight discrimination were approximately 2.5 times more likely to become obese by follow-up … and participants who were obese at baseline were three times more likely to remain obese at follow up … than those who had not experienced such discrimination. These effects held when controlling for demographic factors (age, sex, ethnicity, education) … .
She concludes:
The present research demonstrates that, in addition to poorer mental health outcomes, weight discrimination has implications for obesity. Rather than motivating individuals to lose weight, weight discrimination increases risk for obesity.
In other words, fat shaming makes people feel like shit, and it causes them to gain weight, not lose it. This is obvious to anyone who thinks about the subject for more than a few seconds: after all, we live in a society in which fat shaming is ubiquitous, and rates of obesity continue to rise.
But of course Roosh isn’t really interested in making anyone’s life better except his own. Indeed, it’s fairly clear that what’s really motivating his little campaign is a desire for revenge on the women who have turned him down over the years. He more or less comes out and says it:
Hurting people’s feelings is the quickest way to get them to change, as any man who has been rejected by women can tell you (we can get laid today only because we’ve adapted to being shamed and punished for our appearance and beta male behavior over the course of many years).
Huh. Does Roosh really want to create a world full of bitter, angry women who are essentially female equivalents of him, using and manipulating men for their own pleasure without remorse?
Well, no. I’m sure he didn’t think it through that far. He just wanted an excuse to post a bunch of crap making fun of fat women.
So what sort of public spirited content did Roosh offer his readers during Fat Shaming Week?
A post urging men to take unflattering pictures of fat women without their permission — and post them on Twitter in order to shame them.
A post, evidently inspired by Matt Forney’s “Why Fat Girls Don’t Deserve to Be Loved,” titled “5 Reasons Fat Girls Don’t Deserve Love.” In it, semiliterate dating coach Christian McQueen explains, among other things, that “fat girls” smell (because “[i]t’s impossible to be that fucking fat and be able to wash your ass properly”), are bad at sex (because he cannot find their vaginas “unless I roll you around in flower [sic] and look for the wet spot”), and eat too much. He concludes:
Your fatness is the human version of a dead hippo, a beached whale, or to put it more bluntly, a human size cupcake: spongy on the outside, round and full of crap.
Really? Where exactly are you buying your cupcakes, dude, because normally cupcakes are delicious.
Another “humorous” post compares “fatties” with wild animals and suggests ways to kill them if you’re the victim of a “fatty attack.” Douglas writes:
Fatties tend to have poor hygiene habits so physical contact can be unsanitary. Their physiology provides many unique difficulties to overcome. Their thick skull is an effective counter to blows to the head. Their bulk is a good defense against projectile weapons. While big game cartridges such as .300 Winchester magnum and .338 Lapua can put a fatty down, a man would have a difficult time explaining to a grand jury why he was packing such a weapon outside of Africa.
“Emmanuel Goldstein” contributes “5 Ways To Bully Fat Sluts On A Date,” full of hilarious suggestions like “Go Bike-Riding Together” (because fatties can’t ride bikes!), “Go For A Hike Together,” (because fatties hate to walk!) and “Go Ice Skating Together” (because she’ll fall through the ice!).
There are several more “fat shaming week” posts up; they’re equally puerile.
Roosh and his pals have also taken their campaign to Twitter, posting such gems as these, using the hashtag #fatshamingweek.:
#FatShamingWeek selfish cunts. Children from fat mothers probability wise, are dumber, fatter, more prone to depression. Wipe de sperm off.
— Francis Begbie (@BegbieBegbie) October 8, 2013
https://twitter.com/Beppo_Venerdi/status/387635431283515392
https://twitter.com/JacquesJournal/status/387844928052543488
https://twitter.com/RealCMcQueen/status/388494710580326400
https://twitter.com/Feisty_Woman/status/388458961705250816
https://twitter.com/EsotericTrad/status/388331081344487425
Even Tom Leykis, the semi-popular radio misogynist, has gotten into the act:
#FatShamingWeek what a great idea! If your girl looks like a human Cinnabon or a Butterball, make her feel like shit! http://t.co/cjbLvvNKeB
— Tom Leykis (@tomleykis) October 11, 2013
Happily, the hashtag has been pretty much taken over by feminists and fat acceptance activists and other people countering the douchebaggery of Roosh et al.
And the only real media coverage the campaign has gotten — from Buzzfeed and The Daily Dot — has focused on the sheer douchebaggery of the fat shamers.
So it seems that the main effect of Fat Shaming Week has actually been to advance the cause of Fat Acceptance, not to undermine it.
Brilliant, dudes. Just brilliant.
Hi Mike, Thanks for stopping by to play “Am I an asshat?”
The verdict: You are indeed a Grade A asshat. Congratulations!
Yeah, Cassandra, that’s something we’ve discussed a lot… obviously people aren’t required to find any kind of body type attractive. But actually giving reports from one’s boner on the internet can often be problematic. Especially when people think they’re being oh-so-radical by reporting a boner that doesn’t strictly follow the absolutely most mainstream ideal there is. Like that guy here who reported that his boner prefers Christina Hendricks to really thin celebs, in a tone that suggested that he had better taste than those who like thin and non-curvy women. Some women are like that with their preference for skinny guys.
Preferring geeky men to jocks? Also not evil. If the complaint is that geeky and jock aren’t mutually exclusive and that these are stupid stereotypes then I’m right with you, but if the complain is “I go to feminist blogs and a lot of the women don’t seem to be most interested in men like me” then I hate to break it to you, but they’re allowed to feel that way.
@Auva: Thanks. I guess I did right in labelling it mature, then.
“Sorry, I’m not adept enough to provide a link.”
You have options!
You can just copy it from the address bar, ugly, but works. If it’s silly long and you don’t dare tempt code, use bit.ly or similar. The code is fairly simple, and, to link to the comment I’m quoting, goes like this —
<a href=”http://manboobz.com/2013/10/11/oops-roosh-vs-fatshamingweek-rallies-fat-acceptance-activists-makes-fat-shamers-look-like-the-dicks-they-are/comment-page-2/#comment-360872″>it’s a link!</a>
Copying and pasting that won’t work though, fucking WP fucks with the quote marks so you’ll have to retype those to copy it, but that’s the general form and it produces this — it’s a link!
I find the whole idea that you can be super-radical just by having whatever sexual preferences you happen to have and that you therefore deserve cookies really silly. I mean, it’s not like you actually chose those preferences in most cases. It’s like wanting cookies for preferring sorbet to ice cream.
THIS.
Some bisexual people are also like “oh, I totes deserve cookies for being bisexual, unlike all you homos and heteros I don’t care about what gender people are, I care about people’s personalities instead!”. That’s stupid on so many levels. Not in the least because bisexual=/=only caring about personalities. I’m bi, but clearly gender matters to me, since what attracts me in men is pretty different from what attracts me in women (I can’t say anything about genderqueers because I only know one people afk whom I know to be genderqueer, and I’m not attracted to zir, so I really don’t know about that group).
Sorry, grammar fail – one PERSON, not one PEOPLE, obvs.
Somewhat related via two different avenues – I’ve sometimes encountered people steeped in the idea that dieting = super awesome self controlled, disciplined person who’ve attempted to give me cookies (well, diet cookies I guess) because of the fact that I dislike the taste and texture of animal fat and will cut it off whatever I’m served to avoid eating it, or avoid ordering the more fatty version of something (yes to maguro and no to toro, for example). I always find that wierd and uncomfortable not just because I don’t like participating in the whole diet talk thing, but also because my dislike for animal fat isn’t a virtuous choice, it’s just a preference. I’m not avoiding the animal fat out of any sort of desire to lose weight or health reason, I just don’t like it. Being praised for a preference like it’s a conscious choice feels weird.
@ Dvarg
I feel the same way about “sapiosexual”. Every time people describe themselves that way I feel like they’re about to give themselves a shoulder cramp by patting themselves so vigorously on the back.
@Argenti: Thanks for the link tips!
The weirdest thing is the praising of thin women who eat a lot. Since I’m thin and eat a lot I’ve gotten tons of that throughout my life. It’s like you’re the very best kind of woman, because you’re thin (=beautiful) but you eat a lot (=not shallow and vain). But seriously, that’s just a matter of genes or something. Way to praise someone for their genes.
Or giving praise to someone for looking good without make-up. I usually wear panda-paint, but occasionally go without make-up because I didn’t have time to put it on in the morning or just didn’t feel like it. If someone says that I’m beautiful without make-up it just makes me uncomfortable. Okay, you’re critiquing my preferred style, but there’s also suppose to be a compliment here? For what exactly? For being born with a certain facial structure?
“@Auva:”
Somehow I knew people would read my name like that, but I wrote it in Greek anyway.
I feel the same way about “sapiosexual”. Every time people describe themselves that way I feel like they’re about to give themselves a shoulder cramp by patting themselves so vigorously on the back. Exactly! THAT’S the problem! A person who wasn’t patting zirself on the back would instead say something like “I feel more comfortable dating someone who’s also highly educated, because I simply feel like I have more in common with such people” or something along these lines, not label zirself “sapiosexual”.
I read a blogpost once who went to great lengths trying to explain why it’s okay to say that you’re hetero/homo but wrong to say that you’re sapiosexual, and landed in gender being self-ascribed but intelligence being ascribed to you by others… but that totally misses the point. Some people who are hetero/homo are only attracted to people who very much looks like a certain gender to others, and that’s okay too. The problem is the one you pointed out.
Sorry, the first paragraph was supposed to blockquote Cassandra, I just missed doing that.
I feel the same way about “you look so young for your age”. Like, what, people my age are supposed to look terrible? What if I did look my age, what would you be thinking then? Are you walking around being all judgy-pants about women who happen to look like whatever you think 40 looks like? In any case, it’s a stupid thing to praise me for in a way that suggests that I had anything to do with it.
Oh, the pride in looking young has been a hard one to shake for me… I’ve really worked on not feeling complimented when the cashier asks for my ID in the liquor store. Because as you say, it’s a tremendously silly thing to compliment people for, and a silly thing to take pride in.
@Auva; I don’t really know how to make the first letter properly on my keyboard, so I wrote an A instead. It’s a little like people call me Dvarg.
@Dvärghundspossen:
It’s okay, I brought it on myself. It’s just a fancy way of writing Luna.
To be clear, it’s not as if I react to compliments in general by going “you gave me a compliment – how dare you!”. It’s when people act like the thing that’s being complimented is something that you achieved via hard work/innate virtue that I kind of raise my eyebrows. Also I do tend to think about the implications for people who don’t have whatever quality is being praised and wonder if the person praising it thinks they’ve done something wrong in not having that quality, especially if they’ve framed the comment in a way that suggests that not having the quality in question would be something to be ashamed of.
I think it’s about attainability: There’s an idea (and this probably creeps into all cultures) that the most unattainable things have the most status, so if trait X is desirable, then having trait X without doing the things usually (assumed to be) required to get X is better. Thus instantly mastering a skill without even trying is considered more boss than working at it hard for a really long time, natural blondes are considered sexier than bleached blondes, and so on.
Easy for me.
Because everyone thinks I’m a 12-year-old boy.
Oh the age thing! Pretty much no one guesses right, to the point that when I told pecunium this he replied that I don’t look nearly 30. If anything, it annoys me because I look like I should be carded (no issue, I’m fine with showing ID)…but then people treat me like a kid and that’s doubly annoying as 1) I’m not one and 2) so what if I was? We’ve got teenagers around here who are way more mature than my 56~ year old father.
(And it’s genetics, I smoke and never bother with sunscreen cuz I don’t burn, this isn’t something I’m trying for or anything, so um, thanks for complimenting my genes? [versus my jeans, which you are welcome to compliment!])
Brooked — no problem, I’m the HTML guru around here it seems 🙂
I can actually see where she’s coming from on this. I mean, it seems like she’s gone a long, long way from that starting premise, but the initial premise is fine. I know a lot of people’s feelings are hurt when I say that rape is a bad thing – and that non-consensual sex is rape – because I speak to MRAs often enough to see it, and I honestly don’t give a flying fuck about their feelings. Feelings are hurt when I say that I’m not convinced that any gods exist too and… well, fair enough, I’m essentially telling people that I think they’re wrong about one of the most important things in their world. So I can understand that, even if it is really tedious to be called an immoral psychopath yet again. But I’m not going to lie in order to spare their feelings. So I can see where she’s coming from – if statements of truth offend people, that’s their problem. That’s not a license to be a thoughtless piece of shit who’s going out of their way to offend people, though, and a ridiculous number of people seem to think that it is.
I thought it was mansboobzerses?
You think it’s awesome that some girl has no internal sense of worth and beauty, and so has to surround herself with people she considers unattractive in order to feel beautiful? Externalising self worth is such a sad thing, how is it something worth celebrating to you?