Warren Farrell’s The Myth of Male Power, published twenty years ago, defined much of the agenda for what’s become the contemporary Men’s Rights movement. If you hear a Men’s Rights activist prattle on about “male disposability”or “death professions” or complain about draft registration (even though the draft itself has been dead for decades), you’ve got Farrell to thank, or blame.
So when Farrell decided to release a new ebook edition of his most famous book, it was perhaps not all that surprising that he decided to turn to the folks at A Voice for Men, probably the most influential Men’s Rights site around, for advice on a picture to use for a new cover.
But what was surprising was the pictures he asked the AVFMers to choose from, three sexually charged, and slightly NSFW, pics highlighting what Farrell evidently sees as the key female challenges to male power: their vaginas, tits and ass.
I’m not speaking metaphorically: one of the pictures shows a nude woman’s pelvic area, her vulva both highlighted and hidden by what is essentially a merkin made of moss; a second picture shows the ass of a young, topless woman in her underpants slaving over a hot stove, and the third shows a famous picture of Marilyn Monroe, also topless.
AVFM’s Paul Elam explained the, er, logic of these images:
Imagine the juxtaposition of the title, “Myth of Male Power” over one of these images. The cover alone will challenge the idea of male power in men and women alike on a gut level.
By “on a gut level” he apparently means “in men’s pants.”
You sort of have to see them to see how utterly tacky they are; here’s the one of the butt, which either Farrell or Elam helpfully captioned “Where’s the power?”
You can find the others on AVFM here; if you don’t want to give them the pageviews, you can find them here.
You couldn’t really ask for better symbols of the essential misogyny of the Men’s Rights movement today — or of its obsession with blaming women (and women’s sexuality in particular) for the restrictions on male power that so chafe the hides of MRAs. Farrell, in the past, generally avoided demonizing female sexuality quite so obviously and directly, but these days he’s apparently been spending too much time amongst the A Voice for Menners.
Farrell’s choices for potential covers also tell us a good deal about him as well; in the past he’s essentially been able to hide his crackpot pseudoscholarship behind a certain veneer or respectability — releasing his books through major publishing houses, touting his PhD — but here he seems to be falling to his natural level, amongst the self-publishers of crappy e-books with stock-photo covers.
While some AVFMers had other suggestions — perhaps a picture of the Wicked Witch? — most seemed to think that the pictures were perfect for his book. Tom Golden — along with most of the voters in the poll — preferred Marilyn and her tits:
Others were more taken with the ass pic. Alek wrote:
And Elam, while voting for the moss-encrusted vulva himself, was apparently also quite, er, affected by dat ass. (Those with especially sensitive stomachs may wish to skip the following quote, as it contains an unsolicited update from his boner.)
So there you have it: Two of the most influential figures in the Men’s Rights movement — indeed, arguably the two most influential figures — actually believe that men are oppressed by women’s butts.
Indeed, Elam is apparently so overwhelmed by the sight of an attractive ass that he considers it a literal threat to his life.
Adding to the creepiness factor here: Farrell is 70 years old, making him literally old enough to be grandfather of the model in her underpants. Elam is in his late 50s.
Now, the weird tackiness of the images Farrell chose for his book cover did not go entirely unnoticed at AVFM. There were critics — including, amazingly, AVFM’s own John Hembling, who was a little baffled by the idea of using a sexualized picture of a woman on the cover of Farrell’s book about men, and asked if Farrell was possibly trolling them.
One MRA blogger, Kevin Wayne, posted a link to his blog, where he excoriated all three choices as “Budweiser Ad rejects” and begged Farrell to try something else:
This is just going to backfire. Don’t we have enough issues of being branded as a bunch of no-necks wanting to take women back to the 1950’s?
Elam, while gentle in his handling of Hembling’s criticism, threw a fit over Wayne’s post, banning him from AVFM and bashing him — on AVFM and on Wayne’s own site — as a do-nothing newcomer to Men’s Rights who was too “borderline retarded” to understand the profound deeper meaning behind Farrell’s T&A pics.
Farrell himself seems to have been a a bit more willing to listen to the critics. Indeed, he’s asked AVFM’s readers to submit some more pictures to choose from. There will be a runoff between the winner of the first AVFM poll (Marilyn and her tits) several of the new pics.
So far there hasn’t exactly been a flood of submissions. They’ve included a painting of Diogenes, a painting of Lilith, a photo of a homeless man, and this:
Yeah, that’ll work great.
Ladies, gentlemen, everyone! The reasonable wing of the Men’s Rights Movement!
Tom Golden’s comment is illustrative. Do all MRAs fear female sexuality that much? Could that be the whole basis of their “movement”?
Whenever I see an attractive woman (attractive to me, that is), I mostly just want to talk to her and see if she’s cool. No impulse to either get down on my knees, or try to force her to hers.
What a sad, sad man.
I ook at those images and wonder if those guys were so easily led by their junk that a picture of .a woman would so easily distract them.
That should be look not ook
If our bodies, even “perfect” exemplars, oppress them so much, then these guys need to start pricing desert island real estate, NOW. But really, as covers for a book? Even the Fifty Shades of Ghaaah series was far and away more tasteful than this.
They certainly haven’t reached orangutan level. 😉
Goddamnit, the moss covered genital region is actually aesthetically pleasing as a work of art.
Wait…copyright anyone? Does Farrell have permission to use any of these? Cheshire Cat has doubts.
Also, David, those are boy short underwear, not shorts.
The best way to give men the impression that women have power over men is to show men pictures in which women are objectified. Nothing shows power like being depicted as an object of sexual pleasure.
It’s ridiculous & hyperbolic. Obviously, the new cover for the Ebook is about shock value to get people to buy it. I think it’s wrong headed.
If it were up to me, I would choose a picture of arlington cemetary, or the bataan death march.
The idea is to show that men are severely harmed by gender roles too (mostly *inflicted* by men–but also encouraged & shamed by women), not that men as a group are oppressed by women as a group, and certainly not by women’s butts.
That said, even though I think this is a wrong-headed step for mra’s (and I plan to post my thoughts on avfm) I don’t see it in any worse vein than the way feminists try to paint the penis as weapon.
I haven’t seen any mis-steps from the mra camp that even compare to the hatred & vitriol displayed for men in entrenched political feminist lobbying groups.
“Where’s the Power”? Um, it’s trying to creep up Ms. Hotpants’ ass.
I love how these guys are weirdly obsessed with female “sexual power,” which is apparently… them standing around in scanty clothes. Also, in most of MY country at least, prostitution is illegal. Ergo, all that sexual power? AIN’T PAYING THE GODDAMN BILLS.
Also, does this mean gay men aren’t oppressed? Or women aren’t oppressed if they get all weak-kneed over sexy pictures? Seriously, this bullshit makes no sense whatsoever, and the idea that as a man, I’m SUPPOSED to be so out of control that the sight of a woman cooking in shorts makes me “a slave”… WTF. And I’m a fucking SUB.
Just… wtf, guys. W.T.F.
Also, I’m wondering if Marilyn’s estate can sue for misrepresentation of her image. She was anything BUT powerful over men, if memory serves…
Objectification of women is MISANDRY!
On a more serious note, are they seriously saying that all men, when they see a sexualized body part, are naturally unable to resist their urges? With the nice implication that if they could they’d get “dat ass” (maybe with the side of rape)? Wow, how little do you have to think of men that you believe that all men are as assholeish as you are?
I’m going to laugh if they try to seek permission to use those photos and they’re denied permission because the people who own those photos don’t want MRAs to use them.
Apparently, they are. And they do.
The sad part is, the supposed “power” these women hold is literally nothing more than an illusory image that “makes” some guys want to fap. I’ve yet to see a woman, however gorgeous, whose looks alone literally compelled people to sell their souls over her. Even the guys who were so lucky as to live with one of those ladies eventually had to realize that Ms. Perfect Everything has…um…BODILY FUNCTIONS. Some of them quite boner-deflating by nature.
Yup, poor ol’ Grandad Farrell is oppressed by his boner getting all twitchy at the sight of a photo – not even a person right there, a photo – of a near-naked woman.
Protip, WF: stop typing ragewank and have an actual wank. You’ll feel better.
Yeah, that sounds like something you only hear about in cheesy romance novels. Wait a second…
I love the thought of someone like the model in the pic letting rip a mighty fart, just to make these losers WILT.
(…and, moreover, a personality, wants and needs that might very well have nothing at all to do with any man’s boner.)
Good job not being deeply offensive, MRAs. David must be cherry-picking again.
The level of shittiness and cluelessness on display here honestly does surprise me. For real. Even from these people, whom I’ve known for some time are pretty shitty and clueless.
I look at that moss-merkin photo and all I can think of is how uncomfortable the model must have been. Then I wonder what the point of the photo is.
And then I note that the model is yet another thin white woman.
Haha, Fidelbogen weighted in on the issue on Wayne’s blog (sorry for the length, but it’s all good):
Nice morse code ellipses at the end for dramatic effect.
Yes, really. As you say, not so much the picture; I looked at it and thought “model cooking in her undies, big whoop”, not “ZOMG DAT ASS!!! I must have it or DIE!!!”
But then again, I’m not an MRA boner-slave, so I guess I just have no idea how inherently oppressive these things are.
My suggestion;
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Franz_von_Stuck_004.jpg