I‘ve got a nice long review essay on Michael Kimmel’s new book Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era up at the American Prospect. Check it out!
Categories
Check out my review of Michael Kimmel’s Angry White Men on The American Prospect
Did we really need the word “androchratic”?
Not sick. Horrible, hate-filled, desperate, ignorant, bigoted, entitled, maybe even self-deluding. But please don’t confuse MRAs with people with mental health issues. It is ableist, gives MRAs a let-off and insults those of us with mental health issues.
And Price had the gall in the past to call feminists supremacist: http://www.the-spearhead.com/2010/02/16/ny-times-finally-admitting-theres-a-problem/
I left that link and the crucial quote in his current article, let’s see how this goes.
I’m still attempting to eliminate ablist language from my own speech. Would “warped” be an acceptable alternative to the usual mental-illness terms used as epithets?
****
Honestly, I think David’s original piece here is more “critique” than “review”, which is actually good; I find critiques to be more useful for a continuing conversation.
Yup, there are MRAs in India. Or, as we prefer to call them, RAPE GANGS ON BUSES.
@titianblue
Now that I think about, I realize you’re right. It is incorrect and unfair indeed to associate these scums with people with mental health issues, I’ve had some in my own family, so yes, you are truly right about that. I will try to do my best not to repeat it in the future.
Re: non-ablist words to express how bizarre, terrible, etc. people can be: Is “addled” appropriate? And yeah, how about “twisted”? Or “deranged”? Any thoughts/suggestions welcome.
@Gia, thanks and that’s all anyone can ask.
Not “deranged”, @Bina, that has definitely has mental health implications. Not sure how anyone else feels about the others?
@freemage A “critique” rather than a “review” sums it up nicely.
I find the best strategy is to describe the action and not the person. When people start trying to do fine a whole person off of their actions, people tend to make some leaps and missteps.
When I studied for real estate licensure, the same idea came up. You get into discriminatory practices by talking about the people you expect to live in a property instead of just talking about the property.
MRAs pull some assholish stuff and I am not asking people to pull punches. Tone trolling FTL. I just think directing our anger at the actions helps avoid using ablist, sexist, and other unnecessary words which demean people by comparing them to what MRAs do.
I’ve been trying to eliminate ableist language from my vocabulary. It really opens your eyes when you realize how many words there are in the English language that equate mental illness with something bad! Can you say, “blind spot!”
I’ve found “stupid,” “willfully ignorant,” “asshole,” and “wrong” to be good ways to describe MRAs. And of course, all the permutations of “shit.”
What about, “off base” or “out of left field?” Those are both baseball analogies, IIRC.
And the review was good, it sounds like an interesting book even if it didn’t get the MRM quite right.
*Leaping in uninvited*
Youse guys have really changed the way I thought about language. One of my best friends really dislikes the word b*tch so I’ve really tried hard to stop (its super hard guys) also ‘gay’. I’m basically a terrible person.
The mental health words are harder. I suppose because I have a lot of exposure to mental health of all varieties, to call something ‘insane’ is somehow removed. It’s partly ‘well of course I don’t mean it like that’ and partly because there don’t seem to be enough words for when someone is behaving very ‘other’. Also, if there is someone having a manic episode I wouldn’t think, woah, that person’s acting insane! That would be the last thing I’d think.
@Sparky
When I was a child I asked my dad why my stepmum didn’t like me. He said it wasn’t that she didn’t like me, but that I was a bit ‘left field’.
Doesn’t left field just mean a bit different? Not being an entire d*ckhead?
Oh dear…
I’ve never heard “out of left field” or just “left field” as meaning an arsehole either, daintydougal. It’s defined as meaning odd, strange, eccentric, or wrt the arts, radical or experimental.
yeah- for me ‘left field’ means being odd, different- not in a bad way though. ‘off base’ means being completely wrong- mras can be off base- although it’s more like they’re off the fucking field.
daintdougal said:
Me too! Yet another fringe benefit of manboobz. 🙂
And I wasn’t sure about “left field.” I think I’ll avoid it. There are so many other words and phrases to describe MRAs wrongness. 🙂
Phew, thats ok then! My stepmum bought me nigtmare before christmas on vhs one christmas (I was utterly thrilled) but she made the point that I wasn’t allowed to watch it in her house. I guess ‘left field’ means different things to different people!
What about delusional?
Wilfully delusional, perhaps? There’s nothing in their disgusting ideas that can’t be corrected, but they don’t want to see women as human.
Is “inane” appropriate, or is that too close to “insane”?
No, it’s quite different, and inane is the kindest thing one can say about a lot of their ideas.
I love the synonyms that come up for it:
inane
ɪˈneɪn/
adjective
adjective: inane
1.
lacking sense or meaning; silly.
“don’t badger people with inane questions”
synonyms: silly, foolish, stupid, fatuous, idiotic, absurd, ridiculous, ludicrous, laughable, risible, imbecilic, moronic, cretinous, unintelligent, witless, asinine, pointless, senseless, frivolous, nonsensical, brainless, mindless, thoughtless, vacuous, vapid, empty-headed …
The MRM in a nutshell!
Yeah, ‘inane’ is an excellent option, and often the first one I jump to if I’m revising a post I just typed.
Inane is too tame. Like a clown telling pointless jokes. Probably not like that at all.
Willfully ignorant is good kittehserf. You could pretty much put willfully in front of any insult and it would describe them quite well.
Except you didn’t say willfully ignorant, you said willfully delusional!
Talk about freudian slip!
RE: Chie Satonaka
Rogan has a history of misogyny.
I double-taked, then lulzed.
RE: Alice
Hey, I found orion kinda entertaining. He declared himself my gay porn muse! (He wasn’t.)
RE: daintydougal
What about delusional?
Nah, I wouldn’t. I’ve met folks who others would consider deluded and somehow, they manage not to be assholes to everyone around them. A delusion itself isn’t the problem, it’s how someone interacts with it. (After all, that guy who’s positive the government is watching his every move may just live a life of quiet fear, never harming a soul around him.)
Stupid MRA’s making it impossible to use language to describe them! As if they weren’t bad enough!
I suppose just liars sums them up quite well.
But then the person who lives a life of quiet fear with their delusions is just as delusional as the person who kills 8 people due to their delusions. As you said it’s the actions that accompany the condition. Being delusional in and of itself isn’t bad. Calling a bad delusional person delusional doesn’t necessarily reflect on all the non bad delusional people?