So I’ve been skimming through the mass of comments that the Daily Beast piece on the Men’s Rightsers now has trailing in its wake. So far I think this is my favorite exchange.
Yep, that’s DriverSuz — aka Suzanne McCarley, “Senior Editor” of A Voice for Men.
And yep, that’s Angry Harry, the fellow that many MRAs call “the father of the men’s rights movement.”
Some critics of this blog complain whenever I quote some crackpot commenter rather than one of the “big names” in the Men’s Rights movement. Sometimes, it turns out, the crackpot commenters ARE the “big names” in the Men’s Rights movement.
Such deep compassion these MRAs have
If Angela is new she should get this! http://artistryforfeminismandkittens.wordpress.com/the-official-man-boobz-complimentary-welcome-package/
I honestly hate the word bitch unless it applies to a female canine. I’ve been called it too many times for me to want to reclaim it, I just want it to die.
Along with this “breeding program”.
Yanno, if sheep could cook and clean the MRAs of history would have had them in the house doing the dishes. Srsly, it was common practice to hitch the wife to the cart or the plow and use her for a beast of burden. Why? Because men spent years convincing themselves that women were not human, so it was perfectly fine to treat them like farm animals who just happened to have opposable thumbs and rudimentary intelligence.
Also too and besides the MRAs of the religious right were arguing in the effing 20th century that women were subhuman and did not deserve the rights reserved for man.
@Angela Gibbons,
I was also raised Mormon, and even though our ward was liberal-ish by Mormon standards, I was told that it was absolutely vital for me to get married – not just to be considered a real adult, but to get into heaven, because the way it works in Mormonism is, the men get taken to heaven first, and then if they’re married they call their wives to them. So unmarried women are SOL, I guess.
Fuck ’em all, I say.
@Dvärghundspossen
If the “girls’ LEGO” you’re referring to is the Friends line, you can mix the pieces with “regular” LEGO and it will be compatible. The figures are designed way different, but the rest is all…inter-buildable, I guess.
@Marie Thanks, I guess you could call me new here, even though I’ve been reading manboobz for over a month now. Just decided recently to add my voice, is all. 🙂
I probably wouldn’t be here, as I prefer the positive messages I get from feminism over listening to the vitriol from the manosphere. But I live in a community where my feminist views are constantly questioned and challenged, and so I’ve found it’s important to know what others are saying and how best to counter them.
This seems like a safe place to find out. Thank you so much, David Futrelle for going through the sewers so I don’t have to (at least not as much.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcnK53rLQQk
@Dvárghundspossen OMG KITTIES! 😀
How do they get away with reasoning this anyways? In Afghanistan women are in many cases treated like chattel and cattle, once she dies from too many pregnancies the man goes out and gets a new one. In many ways animal are treated better because they need them to survive.
@Dvarg, “fitted” is the typical English word used to describe women’s clothing that follows the body’s curves. 🙂
@Angela, thanks for that perspective. I’m lucky enough to have been raised by a couple of feminists, but I’m a Christian so I’ve seen a lot of internalized misogyny through my spiritual communities (I’ve passed through a lot of anti-feminist ones–quickly, but spent time there nonetheless). I really appreciate the firsthand account of it. Welcome to Manboobz if you’re new (but I am like 99% sure I’ve seen you commenting around here before, but now other people not knowing you has me questioning my memory which is notoriously unreliable), and definitely welcome to the feminist club. 😉
And I see yet again my comment is made semi-redundant by my inability to hit refresh before typing a reply… 😉
@dvarghundspossen
ugh that is fucked up 🙁 Babies don’t even have curves.
@karalora
wow that is extremely fucked up. 🙁 That’d make even the church I ditched for sexist/homophobic reasons look like a feminist paradise…
@ Dvarg
Yeah, I don’t remember “sexy” clothes even being offered as an option for little girls when I was a kid. Cute, sure, but not designed to simulate curves that won’t exist until after puberty, and not as obviously gendered in general. When we bought pants they were just pants, you know? They weren’t meant to give the impression that we had a butt that should be considered “sexy”, they were just meant to cover it and keep it warm.
Gendered toys as the only option on offer just depresses me. I liked Lego as a kid, dammit, and I’d have been pissed as hell to receive the “let’s build a hair salon” version, especially if it didn’t work with my other Lego.
Part of it is that kids’ clothing used to be more current from adult clothing and now it’s much more similar. So a lot of why we see “sexy” toddler clothes is that they’re just shrink down women’s clothes.
Random, but did anyone else’s mum ever dress them in outfits matching hers? My mum was totally into that for a while, but I always got a version of the outfit that had been carefully de-sexified.
(Cute flat knee boots with knee-length skirt rather than high-heeled knee boots with miniskirt, for example, but basically the same skirt in terms of shape and fabric.)
baileyrenee – Suzanne will never be happy, and we know why!
banditbeach:
Seconded. I’d never try using it of myself, it’s too much like buying into the misogyny of it. Same as the idea of “reclaiming” c**t – yes, six hundred years ago it might not (might not) have been the hate-laden word it is now, but I don’t think it can be reclaimed. Be nice if it could lose its power, but it hasn’t yet, and, whether this is consistent or not, I’m not going to be one of those trying to use it.
If any group talked about, say, minorities the way the MRAs routinely talk about women, it would be viewed as unconscionable hate speech. The MRA is the sexist equivalent of the KKK.
My mother dressed all three of her daughters as well as herself in matching shirtwaist dresses, and I’ve got the family photos to prove it. It was quite the fad back in the sixties.
My sister and I didn’t have outfits matching Mum’s, but we did have matching dresses – royal blue corduroy popovers with red front zips. Mine had a sort of pleated frill round the hem, which I thought was totes superior to my sister’s straight dress. 🙂
My mother never dressed us like here, but now I kind of wish she had. I was looking through old family photos, and she was pretty adorable.
Here she is at Easter, probably 1970-ish, with me and my older sister. Sorry about the poor image quality; it’s a still taken from an old Super 8 that we digitized.
I still blame my love of shoes on the fact that I was constantly told that yes, I could have cool boots with heels and other assorted awesomeness, but not until I grew up.
I love your mum’s outfit, cloudiah!
cloudah – Your mother’s pretty! 🙂
Cloudiah, looks like we have a Welcome Package Alert on aisle three, for Angela Gibbons.
Welcome, Angela! 🙂
Oh, and Cloudiah, I agree with kittehserf and Alice, your mum is lovely and had awesome fashion sense!