Well, so far this is my favorite response to Jaclyn Friedman’s American Prospect piece on the Men’s Rightsers and that woman-hating problem of theirs. Because what better way to refute charges of misogyny than by declaring derisively that you “can usually spot whether or not a woman wrote a piece by the first few sentences?”
Let’s let rjworks13 explain just why Friedman lacks the intellectual heft to be taken seriously by serious men with credentials — sorry, CREDENTIALS — like him:
Oh boy.
I have to say that very favorite sentence of all in this wondrous bit of HeManWomanHatersplaining is this one, if it can even be called a sentence:
CREDENTIALS: I’m a long-time trained technical and creative writer from male-based military training and put to use over 20 years.
Oy. I can only assume from the evidence of this, er, sentence, that as a technical writer his job is to make sure that instruction manuals are as unreadable as possible. And that his “creative” writing most likely consists of many volumes of self-published Gorean porn.
If you want to compare Jaclyn Friedman’s CREDENTIALS with his, you can always go to her Wikipedia entry. I looked around a bit for rjworks13’s Wikipedia entry, but he doesn’t seem to have one.
rjworks13 was evidently so proud of this bit of writing of his that he deleted it. Luckily, I grabbed a screenshot beforehand. ABS: Always Be Screenshotting.
PS What’s “indifference propaganda?”
FWIW, I paid for a wordpress.org site for my blog this year. It cost me $240 for 3 years hosting (at $5 a month) plus domain name registration and the service that hides your name and address when you lookup domain registration info. I had to pay for all 3 years up front to get the $5/month deal. (I’m with bluehost).
I helped a friend set up a site on wordpress.com a couple of years ago and it was only $17 a year, payable 1 year at a time, plus the $10 to hide her info.
Of course, if no one minds “wordpress” in the URL, it’s free on *.com.
I can’t code php or anything, but I can do lots of other techy and semi-techy blog stuff, so I could share some duties with Argenti. if this gets underway.
Ophelia – I can write some satire/parody pieces if you’d like? Also, a scientific debunking of things if so desired (I’ve used science to debunk anti-choice bullshit, see my blog).
We’ve had some historians on site who’d do that much better than I, but they don’t seem to be around much now. 🙁
Truth be told, I don’t really want to do writing for a project. I do little enough of my own at the moment, and I’ve always hated working to order on anything, writing, drawing, whatever.
Sorry Kitteh, I didn’t mean to pressure you.
I actually thought about putting up some titles and letting people contribute if they felt like it.
I am not a writer, I have absolutely no clue, I just thought it would be a bit of fun.
I really wouldn’t want to be involved in something that took itself too seriously.
Also thanks serrana, thanks Alice.
Night everyone.
No, no pressure, I just thought I’d better say straight off I’m not likely to contribute. 🙂
Totally with you on keeping it fun.
Niters!
‘Night Ophelia!
And yeah, given the cost of hosting if no one already has server space to spare, the free .com version is fine by me. Not going to make this cost money just so I can play with PHP!
It’d make more sense to start a brand new shiny blog than work off yours though Ophelia. If we’re going .com, y’all agree on a title and a subtitle if you want one, and I’ll get things set up tomorrow? (No rush, just a title so I have something to play with the theme on, I need to distraction frm my SSI hearing!)
Anybody want to email David and ask permission? I’m calling it a night shortly and haven’t gotten the brain cells to figure out how to explain this little project.
I would love to contribute to the magazine if possible. I’d be particularly interested in stuff like criticizing terrible MRA understanding of victimization surveys and statistics in general. Sounds like great fun to me. =D
@Athywren
As someone who has “male pieces”, I sure don’t count myself as a man. Please consider what you’re implying there (assuming that “male pieces” refer to “male” sex characteristics).
I’d be more inclined to contribute to such a thing the more separation it has from Manboobz itself, not because I have anything against Manboobz (obviously) but because, if the feeling is that there’s a niche for a better feminist zine, then I’d rather just make a better feminist zine rather than a Manboobz spin-off zine. But no doubt I would contribute in any case.
The son-in-law in question was played by Anthony Booth, Tony Blair’s future father-in-law, who for several years was the British equivalent of Neil Bush, Billy Carter or Roger Clinton. Since his political views were well to the left of Blair’s, you can probably imagine how well they got on – and how eagerly the British media lapped up anything that Booth said.
@Ally
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that male characteristics = male. It was due to a combination of thoughtlessness, tiredness, and being used to assuming a male position when speaking to those who don’t recognise non-binary identities (I don’t count myself as a man either, but I don’t yet have the patience to argue with those who do.) that I wrote, then failed to see the issue with it. I’ll try to avoid these sorts of mistakes in the future. I’m sorry if I offended you.
Athywren — btw, what pronouns do you prefer? Gonna join me in ze / zir?
I think I will. Ze’s becoming really easy to use. Plus, it puts funny sentences in my head. “Ze zaid ze zauzage zandwichez zmelled zavoury.”
…what do you mean that isn’t funny?
It’s so much quicker (at least cumulatively) and clearer than “s/he,” so much less squicky than “they,” and since I’ve started actually thinking about my me-ness, “he” really grates on me.
OH! And Mx! I really like Mx.
To be honest, I’m thinking this would be a none starter if we take it too seriously to begin with. I mean I don’t think it’s feasible over the internet.
You’d need a management team who could meet in person and it might lead to all sorts of problems in the community if articles were refused, you’d need a team that was not afraid to hurt people’s feeling.
I dunno, I was thinking, if David were to agree, of starting simple. Buying a magazine theme and just listing a bunch of loose topics that people could contribute to if they fancied it and just posting what people gave me.
I know we said there is room for another feminist magazine, and I do think it’s a possibility in the future, but initially we’d need to see if there really is an interest and enough contributors.
I don’t really want to take on Jezebel right this minute, and obviously that would be ridiculous when you have no clue what you are doing. I just thought we could have a go and see how it went.
I was thinking more along the lines of SittieKittie’s grouping together of everybody’s recipes but in magazine form and then go from there if people enjoy it.
That way there are no hurt feelings and people can read what they are interested in and leave the rest.
I’m still willing to start small and fun and work our way up. Man Boobz has a rich community and an amalgamation of their thoughts and ideas would be a blog I would enjoy reading, but I don’t think I’m up for becoming some sort of mean editor just yet.
RE: athywren
This “almost all men are ephebophiles” thing… I don’t know… is this just proof that I really have no association with the gender I was born to, or is it just offensive bollocks intended to provide support for the manipulation of sexually immature young people into sexual situations?
Offensive bollocks. I’m trans male, and hubby’s cis, and we both agree: offensive bollocks. (I actually have a specific turn-off from people who look too young, purely because they remind me of my younger brother, which causes an irrational, knee-jerk, “WHY AREN’T YOU IN SCHOOL YOUNG MAN” feeling.)
RE: Manboobzine
I admit, I think it’d be pretty cool! I dunno that I’d be deeply involved–fiction is WAY more my forte–but I wouldn’t mind doing a little article on awesome women through history! You know, a series and each one would be about one person Cleopatra, Madame Curie, Chavela Vargas, Artemesia Gentileschi, that one old doctor who faced down militants and won…
Ophelia: If you were responding to me, I didn’t mean “we must immediately be Jezebel but better,” I just meant that I’d be more inclined to contribute to something called “The Super-Awesome Feminist Zine” rather than “The Manboobz Zine.”
Wonderful Women zine? Wicked Womanly Wits?
Oh, no sorry @katz, just a general response. I wrote it before I read your comment.
You’re absolutely right, I was thinking that too.
I was thinking ‘Inclusivity’ or something like that.
“Feminist Ferret Fiction”
Disclaimer: my 12:11 comment was just a stream of consciousness, just me worrying if I did this it would disappoint. It wasn’t aimed at anything anybody said.
Also, Argenti, are you still interested in doing the theme if David agrees?
Oh, yeah, what it ends up being about is moot in regards to my doing the theme.
I had a thought earlier, it’d need a new name, cuz copyright, but we could do The Serious Side and The Lighter Side? The latter being Misogynist Trolls Say the Darnedest Things, Manboobz Mythos, etc?
If this does end up being a thing, I’d really enjoy seeing alternate viewpoints. If I see one more article about the same old shit, I’m going to gag. I know we have folks from other countries here; I’d love to hear about stuff going on in THEIR parts of the world.
I’m really worried, ’cause I can’t handle it if people expect too much. But I think it would be great if we had a crack at it, and I have a lot of time, so even though I’d like it to remain relatively fun, I would also work hard to make it good.
Should I email David d’ya think?