Men’s Rightsers and Pickup Artists alike are obsessed with the dilemma of the so-called “Nice Guy” who can’t get laid. MRAs see his plight as a symptom of a gynocratic society in which fickle, asshole-loving women are the gatekeepers of sex; PUAs see it as a sign that beta males need to learn how to imitate the vaguely aloof swagger of the natural alpha male.
And both MRAs and PUAs completely miss the point.
To see just how badly they do, let’s take a look at a recent post from the sadly influential PUA shitbag Heartiste, who uses an alleged Facebook screencap of uncertain provenance as a springboard for a diatribe against the “desperate male,” that is, the “desperate, clingy ünterbeta male” who pursues a woman, often in a weirdly apologetic, even abject way, long after she’s made it clear she has no interest in him.
But Heartiste’s example, as you’ll quickly notice, isn’t exactly a textbook case of so-called “friendzoning.” (I’ve blotted out the dude’s face; Heartiste didn’t bother.)
Be warned: it’s a teensy bit long.
Yeah, so I’m thinking that the problem isn’t so much that the dude here is “too beta” as that he’s “a creepy stalker with no sense of boundaries and the obsessive persistence of a serial killer.” It’s not even clear why he’s developed this fixation on her. He says nothing to suggest he knows anything about her other than that she’s a “pretty lady,” and she doesn’t remember ever even meeting him.
Heartiste, naturally, takes him to task not for his creepery but for violating “just about every Poon Commandment” — that is, Heartiste’s set of “alpha male” rules for getting, well, “poon.”
He also notes the fellow’s repeated promises to not “take advantage” of her if she comes over to his place. Generally speaking, when someone casually promises not to rape you on your first date, and presents this as if it’s somehow a generous gesture on their part, it’s pretty much the opposite of reassuring, as it sort of suggests that they were at least considering it as a possibility.
But Heartiste sees it as an example of excessive chivalry:
Any man who thinks promising a woman that he “won’t take advantage of her” is the way to her heart is a power tool. Chivalry works in the abstract (specifically that abstract where unicorns are a possibility); in practice it’s an abysmal failure. A woman, if asked, will always say she wants a man “who respects her need to take it slow”, but in reality, where her words meet the unstoppable force of her tingles, a chivalrous gentleman’s pose is the equivalent of downselling: “Sure, this smartphone looks fast and functional, but it actually has parts made from Fisher Price toys. Try this cheapskate badboy clamshell over here instead.”
No, dude, the problem isn’t that this guy is being too “nice.” The problem is that he’s creeping out a random woman because he refuses to accept that she’s not interested in him.
The trouble with a lot of so-called “Nice Guys” isn’t that they don’t understand when a woman has rejected them — our creepy Romeo in the screenshots here was aware that he was probably “bothering” her only a few messages in. It’s that they refuse to accept these clear if implicit “no’s” as real” no’s.” Because, on some level, no matter how lonely and desperate and “ünterbeta” they may feel, they still feel entitled to sex with a “pretty lady.”
I rather doubt that many “Nice Guys” show up for work at companies that have interviewed them and hired someone else. The solution isn’t for these guys to learn “game”; it’s for them to learn to respect a “pretty lady’s” no as they would anyone else’s.
Dudely feels are the only feels that matter, you know.
Silencing – it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Not even Sriracha can make that crap taste better.
Not germane to the main topic, but just because this is annoying me, yes, Psychotic Girl, I can testify that one (at least) serial killer was very, very persistant. And annoying. (See my post from a few days ago about the grave that was made for me and which, obviously, he didn’t have success in putting dead me into.) Again, I know this is a minor detail among the main topic, and it’s just my experience, but ohhhhhhh yeah, annoyingly persistant he was.
Now back to the main topic…
@ Rahu
That must have been absolutely terrifying.
That’s horrifying, Rahu. I hope he’s rotting in a cell right now.
oh, and Argenti Aertheri – may I offer you some hay and sugar cubes for your growing herd? (trivia note – in WWI, the Allied forces sent more tons of hay to the front, than they did tons of bullets.)
Fuck, I missed that too.
Bullshit and bullshit again. You’re defendingmen who think women owe them sex. You’re making every goddamned excuse under the sun for them on the pretext that it’s somehow ableist not to say “Oh but the poor dude could be on the spectrum, you should be nice to him, you should give him a chaaance, he hasn’t raped or murdered anybody yet.”
Yet.
Yet.
The word that gives it all away.
And of course when women don’t get away, when we don’t act on our fears, or can’t, and we suffer for it – whose fault is it? Not the dude’s, oh no. We should have known better. We should have seen what he was like. We should, we should, we should.
Fuck that noise.
@CassandraSays – after I got past the “seriously,. this man is going to waste ALL my recess time???” and realized what was going on, yeah, “absolutely terrifying” is quite a good description.
@hellkell – thank you very, very much for that sentiment, but actually, he’s dead. He was executed for a girl that he took shortly after I got away.
It strikes me as pretty damn ableist to look at a man acting like a jerk and go “oh, he must be autistic”.
Shit, Rahu, that’s … I haven’t the words.
Seriously, Rahu, hugs if you want them, and if not maybe we can provide kittens instead?
Also, Rahu, I hope what I wrote just above wasn’t triggering. I’m really sorry if it was. I hadn’t read your comment when I hit post.
*adds hay and sugar cubes to zir stock* thanks Rahu! I was wondering when someone would offer my herd some sugar cubes, my aunt works for a, uh, family that used to be well known in the horse racing world (the “kids”, who are my parents’ age, have no interest in such things, and as such there aren’t so many horses there anymore) — used to get to feed the horses sugar cubes as a kid, and they all loved me for it.
Oats! Have you any oats for them?
@kittehserf – thanks, but no worries about the post. Sometimes things trigger and sometimes they don’t and there’s no way to know what will do what – and your post didn’t trigger at all. 🙂
@CassandraSays – thanks! kitties and puppies are always appreciated!! 🙂 🙂
@Argenti Aertheri – yeah, I was wondering about the lack of hay and sugar cubes for a while, and your recent addition made me decide it was time to remedy the situation.
I’m glad, Rahu!
One dose of Shorty and Kodi coming up …
http://youtu.be/M8uWG2icAbk
I’m still loving the tigers who snuggle with monks.
http://www.amymartinphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Tiger3.jpg
Also, the evolution of cat dance:
http://youtu.be/DC76VwKtz4M
(I can never get enough of these two. Shorty looks SO much like Mr Hadji.)
This video of cats dancing is very offensive to Scots/Irish people because of music, which sounds sort of generically Celtic. For shame!
(Sorry, thought this was Shakesville for a moment.)
thanks, kittehserf and CassandraSays!!
Has anyone seen this? A friend sent it to me with the subject line “Accounting is BORING”
Now I want to see Shorty dancing in a kilt.
Sleepy duckling is gorgeous!
Aw, it’s so fluffy.