Has the Men’s Rights subreddit found its Walter Mitty? Yesterday, a fellow by the name of Mrwhibbley won himself nearly 200 upvotes from the assembled Men’s Rightsers with a tale of terrible misandry at his local Panera Bread.
I am sitting at panera bread. I got here at 6am, when no one was here. After ordering, I took the only comfy chairs next to a nice fire place and started reading. Halfway through my meal two women came up and asked me to move because they wanted to sit where I was sitting.
Ok, but before you say that this didn’t happen, consider this: Only a few minutes ago a woman demanded my seat, and when I didn’t get up to give it to her she simply sat right on top of me. And by woman I mean cat.
I told them I would be done in about 10 minutes and they could have it them. The older woman (only about 35) said “a real man would be a gentleman and offer his seat to a lady”
That is exactly how those “older ladies” of 35 talk these days.
I replied politely that I understand her outdated view that feels women are weak and require special treatment, but that I believed that women are strong and independent and should be treated as equals.
That’s right. Mrwhibbley has installed a Reddit-comment-to-speech generator in his mouth, and can conveniently turn it on when he wants to recite a Men’s Rightsy talking point.
Immediately, another table about 10 feet from me filled with women (4 women over 70 years old) started chuckling. I initially assumed they were laughing at them women, but then one of them said “what ever happened to chivalry? In my day, a real man would have jumped up….and pulled out the chair for the lady. That man is an ass!”
Ah, yes, because all women, across all generations, are united in their goal of making men give up their nice comfy chairs by the fireplace at Panera Bread.
It was obvious that she said it loud enough for me to hear. I politely replied “In your day, you just got the right to vote, and were not treated as equals. Aren’t you glad you aren’t still in your day?”
Oh, snap!
Well, Mrwhibbley sure showed those old hens what’s for!
By the way, women in their 70s would have been born in the late 30s or early 40s.
Naturally. the assembled Men’s Rightsers applauded Mrwhibbley’s great heroism in standing up to the gynocracy.
But this isn’t the first time that MrWhibbley has had this sort of heroic confrontation with evil, privilege-demanding females, as one of the few skeptical Men’s Rightsers in the crowd pointed out. Only a month ago, he had a surprisingly similar showdown an an ice cream parlor with some teenage girls:
This is a rant. After a long day at work (6am until 3:30) without a break, I was tired and craving an ice cream. I walked in about a minute before a group of 6 girls about 16-18 years old. I ordered my ice cream and paid, and took it.
No misandric misandering so far.
while they ordered theirs, one of the girls commented loud enough for me to hear that a real man would have let a lady go first.
Oh no she didn’t!
Seriously. This didn’t happen.
I ignored them. Two other girls made other comments about my car and my clothes not being fashionable. Again I ignored them. A couple more goggles and comments under their breath that I didn’t hear. After 15 minutes I finished my ice cream and got up to leave. They said “bye loser!”
Imaginary teenage girls can be so cruel!
I decided the high road wasn’t working and said “You are not ladies, and you are to fat to be eating ice cream. Next time try a salad.” Felt good. They were insecure bullies in a pack and deserved to be spanked.
Naturally, the Men’s Rightsers congratulated him for his deft handling of these little misanderers.
So am I being too hasty in assuming that these little stories are fiction? I mean, strange encounters do happen.
Heck, a couple of months ago I was walking back from the grocery store at 1 or 2 AM (I keep odd hours) and a group of gay guys drove up in a convertible, stopped the car, and asked me what I was carrying in my bags. I awkwardly mumbled something about “a lot of different things.” This was apparently not witty enough for them. One of the guys repeated “a lot of different things” with a note of disappointment in his voice, and they drove off.
A few moments later, I realized I should have said “condoms and cat food — I’m having a party!” The first two parts of that would have even been true.
The difference between my story — which actually happened — and MrWhibbley’s — which almost certainly didn’t — is that mine is just a weird thing that happened, and which proves absolutely nothing.
The guys in the car had obviously just left one of the gay bars in the neighborhood and saw me with grocery bags, and must have thought this was sort of amusing given how late it was. So they decided to say something to me. This turned out to be more awkward than hilarious, as real life often is.
The story doesn’t reinforce any weird gay stereotypes — oh those gay guys, they’re always asking about groceries! — and doesn’t make me look like some sort of master wit with a perfect comeback, because I didn’t have one.
In MrWhibbley’s stories, by contrast, the women seem to have come straight from Men’s Rights Central Casting; they are misogynistic caricatures. And of course he always has the perfect comeback — or at least what passes for perfect on the Men’s Rights subreddit.
Another day, another battle with imaginary evil women. That’s the Men’s Rights movement in a nutshell.
The AgainstMensRights folks have been all over this one.
That was a long time ago Kittehs! Just used it as an illustration. I’m good, same old. About to go to bed but I thought I’d say hi, I keep drifting behind with comments and thinking I should keep up but then ending up two months behind! Hope you and Mr K are well, as well as les chats x
“…and sadly, I see that you are one annoying turd.”
*squees at the teapot hamster*
Sooooo, I have cute news! I got back from pecunium’s, walk into my room with my mother behind me, she sees the 55g and goes “those eggs weren’t there yesterday”. Thus solving the debate over when to move the biggest of the first batch of babies to the big tank — I managed to catch three before the cloud of powdered food I’d stirred up got too foggy to chase cories in. So I have three half inch cories in with my gorgeous girls (and one busy boy!), call it 20 fry from the second batch (they’re getting big enough to catch, though still small though that my airline tube tank “vacuuming” caused a couple to go down a water slide!) and about 50 eggs.
I may need to separate the boys and girls, this is a lot of fish even for my sparsely populated tanks! (Anyone in the New England region want some cories in a few months?)
Also, I have two baby African violets that pecunium apparently doesn’t want. I’m checking now on if they can be shipped, not that I’d risk it when it’s so cold here.
The answer is yes, I can ship them within the states. Anybody outside the US wants to make an inquiry, you’ll have to check your side of customs. And I have 4″ pots out the wazoo, so I can always make more cuttings once it warms up and I can have my terrarium back! (It’s currently holding damn near all my plants, the rest are either silly hardy, or against the back of the 55g and its toasty 78° water)
thenat – yeah, we’re all good, apart from being all ready to collapse with this filthy heat. It’s hit nearly 46C in parts of Melbourne today.
Aw, even more baby fishies! Sounds like it will indeed be time to separate the little boy fishies and girl fishies soon.
Hope I don’t ruin my feminist cred here, but I don’t exactly disbelieve Mr. MRA’s story. I’ve learned from experience that there is an abundance of women who are mean-spirited, entitled, and spoiled, and that the likelihood of encountering such women is directly proportional to the fanciness/expensiveness of the area/restaurant one is in. Luckily my local Panera bread is overrun by college students with disposable income to burn, but I’ve had enough negative experiences elsewhere to know that this type of women exists and is common enough that it’s possible to encounter them fairly regularly.
Of course, it’s not feminism that causes this type of behavior but internalized misogyny. Tell women that they’re delicate little flowers that need men to do things for them enough times and they’ll come to believe it, and then come to demand and expect it. Of course MRAs want their cake and to eat it too; they want the cred of “hunting the mammoth” but they don’t want any of the sacrifice. Too bad for them that the world will never work that way.
The solution is to teach women to be independent of spirit and mind before we even teach them the practicalities of how to do things. I tell my daughter that it is a badge of honor if a guy calls her a “bitch” when she’s trying to do something for herself, and it stems from the guys insecurities and has nothing to do with her.
*ugh multiple grammar fails. That’s what I get for typing and posting quickly. :/
“I hunted the mammoth for you — now get me a sammitch, you useless wummun!”
Oh, the cognitive dissonance…it burns.