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!
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Check out my review of Michael Kimmel’s Angry White Men on The American Prospect
RE: daintydougal
Yeah, but how many MRAs are actually medical-grade delusional, honestly? I dunno that I want to play with that kind of stuff.
No, I know you’re right. I guess words are just used far too loosely. Another thing I’ve found from creepily lurking here are gender words. If I say ladies and gentleman I always now qualify it, like, and everyone in between, but then there are those who aren’t necessarily in between…then I get in a knot.
STUPID LANGUAGE
“our age’s most prominent discontents: the men’s rights movement.”
Lol c’mon, even you can’t possibly believe that. Compare the money and industry given to the civil rights “social justice” crowd, then look at MRAs, it’s not even close. See if you exaggerate that much, it’s hard to take the rest of your essay seriously.
Also, it is in the interest of the nation to privilege males of the majority ethnic/racial group, even if it fosters inequality. They’re the power base of your society – the most nationalistic and vigilante people and usually the first to react to competitive threats. In fact, declining societies are often marked by excessive concern for women and minorities instead of outward projection of power and influence. Sounds alot like America, yes?
Also double linked
Oh and I also have to add, there is very little in the MRA crowd that would count as “hate” outside of Western countries. Maybe a little in the PUA crowd, but it’s still not that bad. Hardly “white hot rage” unless you live in really SWPL areas.
I think the only requirement for something like the men’s rights movement to exist is for it to have momentum. We know from Fox News and their ilk that grievances need not be based on reality, it’s perfectly possible to engineer a world made out of lies where you simply pile up disingenuous arguments, selective reading of news and made up statistics with the final goal of having a construction designed to attract people of a certain psychological profile that are vulnerable to feelings of disenfranchisement and general paranoia. Once enough people are trapped in this world view it basically becomes self-sustainable, because they are too emotionally invested and there might be many people with financial interests as well. And even when the societal changes that are speculated to have sparked the movement disappear, this will not matter for a long time because of inertia.
And well, there don’t even need to be actual grievances, as opposed to imagined ones, it’s for a large part about force of arguments. That’s why the men’s rights movement largely consists of people that like to argue things on the internet, because that’s the group that is the most exposed to these sort of arguments. You only need a vulnerable subsection to lure to the men’s rights movement.
What about using pluralized language for gender neutral? They, them, their
I use ‘they’ all the time. It has the added bonus of allowing me to be both gender AND number neutral, which is handy for my plural friends who may not want to get outed.
I’ve started using “dear gentlefolk” for that one, daintydougal. Seems to cover the overall intent, and has the advantage of actually being shorter, rather than adding an extra clause, which causes a lot of mental resistance.
On ‘delusional’: Yes, it should be avoided, but I admit, “believes things that are obviously completely wrongheaded, no matter how often confronted by the evidence to the contrary” just lacks a good single-word option.
RE: Freemage
Wrongheaded? Dense? Impervious to facts?
“Oh and I also have to add, there is very little in the MRA crowd that would count as “hate” outside of Western countries. ”
Just because child brides and martial rape are still legal in some countries doesn’t make it okay or acceptable for people to want to return to that. FFS.
Freemage, LBT — denser than a black hole.
*marital
Fucking spelling
LBT,
Dense is equivalent to retarded in my neck of the woods. I wouldn’t use that word.
Oops, I wondered if that would get me moderated,
LBT,
Dense is equivalent to r*tarded in my neck of the woods. I wouldn’t use that word.
I just have to say that bodycrimes’ take on this is brilliant, if you haven’t yet read it.
http://bodycrimes.wordpress.com/
Oop. Thanks, daintydougal! Lesson learned. <.<
Unfortunately it does, and it’s the go-to word of Asshat Atheists too. I’ve been called delusional by chucklefucks like that, to which I can only say I think my delusion’s made me a whole lot happier than their “reality,”.
Wilfully-anything is definitely workable for these creeps. Wilfully obtuse, wilfully ignorant …
freemage – I like gentlefolks. I also like Mr K’s choice, “persons.” He tends to use that instead of “people,” not sure why.
Of the suggestions offered, I like “Impervious to facts”–there’s that deliberate willfulness that needs to be stressed.
Best insult I’ve heard, that wasn’t one of pecunium’s vocab lessons? Houseplant.
Hey, houseplants are good! Kitties like chewing ’em, they’re decorative and soothing and generally nice to have around. Can’t say any of that about MRAs (though I bet if a big enough kitty got hold of ’em, they’d get chewed).
Now the question is whether kitty thinks MRAs taste yummy. I’m not inclined to torment kitties with MRA for dinner.
@Argenti
pecunium would probably use ‘mango’ instead. 🙂
nah. I hope the kitty just bats the mra around for a while. I’d hate to think of the tummy aches the kitty could get if it actually chewed on the mra
That is perfect. And almost all the synonyms, too…
Is “blockheaded” ablist? I have a math block, so I’m on the fence with that one. Or does it connote more the wooden kind of block, as I think it does? MRAssholes are a bunch of real Pinocchios, without the latter’s basic attempts at goodness. Too bad their noses don’t grow…
I’m thinking of lions, tigers, jaguars … I think their tummies would be tough enough to deal with even such poor food as an MRA would be.