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Pledge Drive: Fluffy Cat Rolling In Money Edition!

catmakeitrain
Making it rain

Welcome to the First Quarter Man Boobz Pledge Drive 2014: Fluffy Cat Rolling In Money Edition!

To repeat my simple pitch from my previous pledge drives: If you enjoy this blog, and can afford it, please click on the “donate” button below and send a few bucks my way. Or, if you’d prefer, a lot of bucks. You don’t need a PayPal account to donate; you can use a credit card, and there are other options as well. If you’re outside the US, PayPal should be able to handle your weird foreign money.

I appreciate any and all contributions. Of course, if you’re broke and can’t swing a contribution now, I understand. Really.

Your donations — and other forms of support –keep this blog going, by keeping me going. (Yes, the money goes to me. And my cats.)

Enormous thanls to everyone who donated during the last pledge drive. (I know I didn’t get back to everyone personally, and I apologize.) Thanks as well to those who’ve donated since the last pledge drive, and extra special thanks to those who’ve made a point of donating on a regular basis.

Man Boobz has now received more than 13 million page views since its inception on Blogger in 2010. Even more impressive: you all have posted close to 400,000 comments. The community that’s grown up around this blog is, as always, amazing to me. I couldn’t do it without you.

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opheliamonarch
10 years ago

Just to clarify after pooing that up, I emailed David about kitt/GT, not MEZ. Gah! Sorry again.

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
10 years ago

@wordsp1nner: I LOL’d at the video. Three of our ragdolls are seal points as well. While ragdolls are closest to my heart, I do love your persian as well.

wordsp1nner
wordsp1nner
10 years ago

No, those aren’t my cats 🙂 They just play like mine. I haven’t got a good video of mine playing yet–they run around too much. (I love it when they start playing while cuddling with me and end up playing on my lap 🙂 🙂 🙂 )

I have a longhair dilute torbie and a short-haired brown tabby with white–both strays. See my icon 🙂

cupisnique
cupisnique
10 years ago

Yeah I wasn’t aware OH was a troll. I don’t remember their comments but I do remember not being annoyed, so I’m fairly certain they aren’t (?)

grumpycatisagirl
10 years ago

MEZ’s sarcastic comment totally cracked me up.

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
10 years ago

@wordsp1nner, oh, was confused. Your cat photo is lovely too. I was also looking at the bedroom and thinking “wordsp1nner has a much tidier bedroom than me, where does she find time???”

Ally S
10 years ago

@cupisnique

@ Ally That’s an excellent point, one I sometimes forget about when someone mentions biological differences in sexes. I get too focused on the fact that even if there were significant differences it doesn’t actually prove anything. Biology doesn’t determine everything, it’s different for everyone. What these asshats fail to realize is that people experience things individually and there’s a lot of room for nuance. The world would be a really weird place if we simply acted on our basic “needs” or “instincts”. I think it’s safe to say that despite being animals we have a complex understanding of the self and our own individuality that goes way beyond biology.

Objections to biological determinism can extend even farther beyond the arguments you outlined. The dominant discourse of human biology is cis-centric. A discourse that made no connection between sex and gender would avoid things such as labeling certain chromosomes, hormones, etc. female or male. For instance, in current biology discourse, we always refer to the penis as male and the vagina as female, but in an alternative biology discourse, we could instead refer to them only in non-gendered ways that specify their reproductive function.

I mean, sex is as much of a social construct as gender is. And I mean that not in the sense that biology never matters ever, but in the sense that we understand and interpret biology within discursive structures. Human bodies already exist – it’s just that we use particular discourses to make sense of them. Once the discursive limitations of science are acknowledged, we can have a meaningful discussion of sex differences, although even the term “sex differences” implies a clear male-female sex dichotomy, which I contend is merely part of a dominant cis-centric discourse. A more relevant term would be “gender differences”, because that’s what actually matters.

(Sorry if none of that made sense; I’ve been reading some post-structuralist philosophy these days and the texts I have often describe things in very wordy and confusing ways…)

grumpycatisagirl
10 years ago

For MEZ. Hope it makes you feel better and more non-erased.

http://mugsofpugs.tumblr.com/post/36246907965/show-me-the-money-submitted-by-capepugslife

And with that, good night all.

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
10 years ago

I’m a firm believer in that there are very few truly stupid people in the world* and that the difficulties people have are due to the teaching method not matching the learning style of the person. I’ve handheld undergraduates through statistics and watched while they changed from “noooooooo, not stats, I have to pass, but I don’t understand it” to “oh, that’s what it’s all about”.

The issues (at university) are:
– students having teaching classes palmed off onto them who don’t have any teaching pedogogy
– too many students in classes, so struggling students can’t get someone to help them unless they pay for private tutoring themselves
– too much maths being given without contextualising the problem that the maths is going to solve, and why that particular approach is being made
– making students learn by rote, so it’s boring, boring, boring (like the way I had to learn enzyme pathways, which I forgot pretty much after the final exam, but spent hours ahead of those exams sketching out each pathway to try to remember it).

*MRAs fit into the stupid category.

cupisnique
cupisnique
10 years ago

@ Ally nope, it made sense! It was very well articulated. Gosh, are you really only 18? You write so much better than students in anthropology courses writing about gender. I don’t research this particular area (I am actually an archaeologist that studies ceramics) so you are much more versed in this than I am, but I am aware of some of the fundamentals such as biology being a social construct, and I completely agree that our understanding is so completely based on a male-female sex dichotomy.

Don’t worry I am a PhD student I can handle some jargon 😉

MEZ
MEZ
10 years ago

Ug, just watched GT youtube vid. Let me sum up the main point.

1. Men are demonstratively stronger than women.
2. Evolution + Natural Selection favor the “fittest” for the environment. If a trait exists, it’s because it’s the “fittest” trait, no other reason for the traits existence could possibly exist.
3. Clearly, women had it good, and were hanging around popping bon-bons, because if they had it bad, then they would have evolved to be physically strong as well.
4. A bunch of “we hunted the mammoth” goes here. Oh and, women weren’t oppressed by the lack of vote/property rights/etc, because there was no women’s movement before 200 years ago (teehehehehehe), and if women felt oppressed before that we would have complained about it before the industrial revolution made our lives all comfy.

Why are men physically stronger than women? Probably for the same reason that male cardinals are “come eat me red” while the females are “camouflaged brown”. Bright pigment in cardinals, and markers of high testosterone in humans, both show a male in prime health that would produce successful young. Unless of course cardinals are now misandry. 9_9

pecunium
10 years ago

Sorry to have been away. I was running an area at Arisia (i.e. I was supplying a 3,600 person convention with food for four+ days, it ate a week, straight up) there has also been some drama about one of the people who was at the con.

But I had a good time. I’m not typing at my best right now, because I cut my left index finger making supper.

Had my annual physical, I’m not dead.

Other than that, I have work, which means I’m not likely to be tackling the issues of the day (well, ok the whining of the Manosphere) until at least sunday,

cupisnique
cupisnique
10 years ago

@ auggz

That is very true and really just kind of drives home the point that biology (and our Western idea of biology) can’t be the “Truth” when clearly different groups make sense of the same anatomy in different and unique ways. There’s lots of cultures with multiple genders (although you wouldn’t know that if you read undergraduate papers).

cupisnique
cupisnique
10 years ago

@Mez
Isn’t interesting that because strength = male that therefore strength was THE factor that “evolution” selected for? Yet, we know that the “gatherers” were the ones to have supplied the bulk of the diet hmmm….. maybe strength wasn’t as important as memory, knowledge, intellect, stamina, whatever else required knowing where the plants were located on the landscape, what time of year they were available, and how far they would need to travel?

(Not that I believe in one over the other because evolutionary explanations require a lot more evidence than that simplistic line of thought)

On the fourth point, that’s just a rather silly understanding of world history which ignores thousands of years prior to anything we would consider “Western society”. Cultures have and continue to have different understandings of gender, again just because that’s how it is/was in modern North America doesn’t mean it’s the way it is “naturally”.

Ally S
10 years ago

@cupisnique

@ Ally nope, it made sense! It was very well articulated. Gosh, are you really only 18? You write so much better than students in anthropology courses writing about gender. I don’t research this particular area (I am actually an archaeologist that studies ceramics) so you are much more versed in this than I am, but I am aware of some of the fundamentals such as biology being a social construct, and I completely agree that our understanding is so completely based on a male-female sex dichotomy.

Don’t worry I am a PhD student I can handle some jargon 😉

Thanks. =) I’m 19 now. My writing has been largely influenced by 1) being raised in a homeschooling household that made me sheltered and very nerdy 2) being forced* to study for the SAT, which has a terrible essay section 3) having an unusual preoccupation with linguistics 4) learning to write abstracts of philosophy papers (a highly valuable skill my philosophy teacher taught me) and 5) being helped by a very sweet and helpful English composition teacher from community college. There might be some other influences I’m forgetting, but it’s impossible for anyone to think of every single possible influence on their writing.

I generally don’t think highly of my writing, but I’m trying to get better at it every day in small ways. I’m kind of at the point where I look at something I wrote about a week ago and say “Omg, this is the worst thing ever I’m so pretentious how can I even bear to live with this writing.” That’s mainly because I have a very negative view of myself in general, but I digress.

As for anthropology, really I think that’s the field from which one can construct the most decisive blows to evo psych nonsense. There are so many societies that have lacked all the traditional aspects of patriarchy that it’s nonsensical to assume that all aspects of patriarchy are rooted in biology. Some books I highly recommend on the subject are Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine, Myths of Male Dominance by Eleanor Leacock, and Vaulting Ambition by Philip Kitcher. Sorry if you folks have already heard of those titles, but I know the first one is awesome and I’ve heard great things about the other two.

I wish I could share with you folks my philosophy teacher’s mini lecture on the flaws of evo psych (apparently the online portal from I used to be able to access it is buggy now). I was elated when I came to class and she was like “Today, I’m going to talk about the philosophy of science. I’ll focus on evolutionary psychology, and I’m going to explain why it sucks and is only really used to support sexism.” How many philosophy teachers do that?

*I understand that most families pressure children to study, but the studying schedule imposed on me was abusive and I mostly studied because I didn’t want to be seen as a failure. Unfortunately, I never got a score higher than 1780/2400, and I was aiming for the cream-of-the-crop universities.

kittehserf
10 years ago

Ally, just adding (and I know I’ve said it before) that your writing is fine. You explain things very clearly and cogently, and I’m always impressed by just how much stuff you know. Jerkbrain should sit down and let Rest Of Brain do stuff, cos it’s smart and skilled.

melody
10 years ago

I get paid on the 9th of Febuary. I can totally donate a couple bucks then!

katz
10 years ago

If a trait exists, it’s because it’s the “fittest” trait, no other reason for the traits existence could possibly exist.

Elodie Under Glass is facepalming right about now.

cloudiah
10 years ago

Hi everyone. David, I’ll donate soon. (My mom died on Sunday, and I’m in a terrible state of mind but I’m sure I will soon want to mock misogynists again.) (2013 was all about “Fuck cancer” and 2013-2014 is about “Fuck strokes.”)

katz
10 years ago

Cloudiah: So sorry to hear about that. All the hugs.

kittehserf
10 years ago

Oh gods, cloudiah, I am so sorry!

ALL THE HUGS

Ally S
10 years ago

cloudiah, I’m so sorry. That is awful news. =[ Hugs if you want them.

cloudiah
10 years ago

Hugs are very welcome. You’re all wonderful, and anyone who has extra cash should toss some in David’s direction, and also to the Resources listed in the sidebar.

Kiwi girl
Kiwi girl
10 years ago

@cloudiah: sorry to hear that. Take care and be mentally kind to yourself. 🙂

MEZ
MEZ
10 years ago

@cupisnique The argument wasn’t just for “strength=providing” but for “strength=protecting” as well. Basically the argument was that if women lived dangerous lives and “needed” to protect ourselves, we would have evolved the strength to do so. Never mind that evolution doesn’t work that way. Evolution is mindless, it favors what produces the most successful replications of genes, which is not NECESSARILY whatever is the “best” or the “fittest”. “Survival of the fittest” is the old understanding of evolution, now it’s all about the selfish gene. These asshats spend enough time defending Richard Dawkins; I wish they would spend some time reading his books on biology.

The very basic reason why men are stronger than women is because men have more testosterone, and testosterone promotes muscle building and thick bones. If women increased the amount of testosterone in our bodies, it would raise havoc with our cycles, we would never get pregnant, and we would become IMMEDIATE genetic dead ends. No amount of “danger” in our environment could ever get us to evolve to be stronger than men. It’s the same with all of our great ape cousins; the males are stronger than the females. (And more violent, to boot).

Incidentally, since great apes are so much stronger than humans, is that evidence that great apes have evolved to provide for and protect humans? Sounds like a question for Mr. Owl.

@auggziliary Birds are almost as a rule selfish. What do you expect when you bring a feathered dinosaur into your home? 😉 I have three little parakeets of my own, and they squawk angrily every time they see a robin outdoors. How dare another bird exist anywhere ever?

I like cardinals as well, and I think it’s awesome that feminists now get to have cardinals as familiars. HAIL TO THE GYNOCRACY!!!!!! WE WILL BRING DOWN THE MEN BY SHITTING ON THEIR CARS!!!!! THEIR POORLY BUILT KIT CARS BUILT POORLY ON A FORD FOCUS FRAME!!!! MISANDRY!!!!!!!!

@Ally S Oh I was DEAD SERIOUS11111. ;);););) Even though grumpycatisagirl CLAIMS to have found me a picture of pugs in money, that doesn’t change the fact that she is a dirty lying catist and that all of the stories of pugs rolling in money have been erased. A MILLION pictures of pugs rolling in money will not disprove me. So I hope you guys do report me to DAVID FUTRELL. I have a million burning questions for DAVID FUTRELL in my mind that I will not tell him about and will use his lack of rebuttal to my unstated questions as proof that he is terrible!!!!! He didn’t refute drinking orange juice this morning!!!! That means he beats puppies!!!!! With exercise equipment from the 80s!!!!! He only clips his toenails on Tuesdays!!!! Buns of Steel!!!!!

That is all.