So FeMRA videoblogger Karen “GirlWritesWhat” Straughan flapped her gums for nearly two hours the other night and sounds came out. This time she wasn’t sitting at her kitchen table blabbing to a webcam about female “hypoagency” and regurgitating misremembered factoids about bonobos but was speaking to an audience of mostly white dudes at Ryerson University in Toronto Canada.
I haven’t watched her performance — which is of course online as well — because life is short, and frankly I’d rather endure this for ten hours than subject myself to the tedious GWW for nearly two.
But I did take a look at a thread on the Men’s Rights subreddit started by a dude who hoped he and his fellow MRAs could have “a proper discussion about the talk, pros and cons, without descending into a circlejerk or a downvote party.” That’s right: he actually wanted GWW’s biggest fanboys to discuss her ideas (such as they are) on their merits.
This did not go over very well with the regulars, who jumped up to defend their favorite damsel in distress. ManUpManDown argued against the very notion of criticizing GWW, on the grounds of 1) her being supercool and 2) giving talks is hard:
Huh. But by NOT offering any criticism, aren’t you in fact treating her not as a writer or activist or, god forbid, a thinker, but precisely as a mascot?
Still, a few brave MRAs did bring up substantive critiques of her talk. For example, both 2095conash and memetherapy noted that she probably said “Right?” too often. Bluecharge, while proud of her performance, noted with brutal honesty that her “way of wrapping up points by saying ‘so there you go’ was a bit trite.”
So there you go.
Oh, I forgot to mention one dumb criticism some dumb guy made. GWW apparently suggested that if all the men in the world took three days off it would take three years to recover from the disaster that would ensue.
Essemd implied that this was a bit alarmist, arguing that if you gradually replaced men in the workforce with women — over the course of many years — it wouldn’t be the end of the world, because women could do these “men’s jobs” too. “[S]aying either gender is required because this and this job is mainly occupied by men or women is just false,” Essemd concluded.
Luckily there were a few real MRAs around to teach this fella a thing or two. Like Rikevo, who offered the powerful rebuttal that women can’t do shit:
Right?
And xNOM had a little list:
So there you go.
NOTE: I actually had that loop of “What is Love” on during most of the writing of this post. Hey, it’s a catchy song.
Well, Bryan, why don’t you link us to some of those less-extreme, more representative moderate MRAs?
But then, you think GWW’s talk was “accurate” and “enlightening.” In which she said this:
Yeah. Somehow, I don’t think feminism is doomed.
RE: Bryan
Feminism is doomed because the tipping point has been crossed. Enough men are awake now to wake the rest. Instead of hopeless, I now feel relief and even peaceful.
You do realize the MRM isn’t Jesus, right?
“Feminism is doomed”
Whatever keeps you from pissing your bed in terror every night, Bryan.
But, we are coming for your ice cream.
Oh yes, it will be ours.
Muhahahahaha!
Bryan: it took you three months to come up with that response? Somebody here is doomed, it ain’t us.
“I haven’t watched her performance ”
Yet you wrote an article about it?
Fuzzywzhe, you would know what this article was about if you’d read it.
Again, as the others have written the comment, did you you even try reading or listening to her before writing your shit-stain-on-the-wall article ?
No, you did not.
Did you even try reading the post and thread before writing your shit-stain-on-the-wall comment?
No, you did not. And it STILL took you five months!
This has been your regularly scheduled monthly hit-and-run necro of this thread.
I watched an hour-long video by GWW before. I don’t think she’s worth paying attention to.
I personally think GWW is a feminist in disguise. Notice the absurdity of things she says. She also purposely skews facts. I think she wants people to question her. I can see her playing a big role in bringing down the MRA.
Well, that’s the weirdest conspiracy theory in a while. I would say I want some of whatever you’re smoking, but I need my brain.
I dunno if I want a drug that creates conspiracy theories, sounds like a bad trip.
@Ally: an hour? You have loads more patience than me.
Shouldn’t hour-long MRA videos be banned by the Geneva Conventions as a form of torture?
They’ll just take us to Guantanamo Bay instead, which apparently is jurisdiction-free. 🙁
When someone starts a piece by saying someone “flapped her gums for nearly 2 hours”, then I think someone is being disengenious. It’s one thing to disagree with someone’s point of view. But attacking another human being in the first sentence of your piece really does nothing but demonstrate a lack of intellect on the David Futrelle’s part. Having to resort to ad hominems right off the bat, speaks volumes about David, not Karen Straughan.
I might take your concern trolling a little more seriously if you actually knew what “ad hominem” meant. Hint: it’s not the same as an insult.
Reading this has been ten minutes of life straight down the toilet. Still, one has to keep an open mind, and read opinions from the other side, on the off chance that they have a reasonable point to make… this one obviously didn’t. Oh well.
Don’t listen to her. You might learn something.
I’m sure she appreciates you whiteknighting her.
Yes, because what she has to say is so original, accurate, and illuminating.
If Paul kicked her out of the clubhouse, you’d be singing a different tune.
I clicked a link to your site, thinking to give it a try. I’ll give you this: Your inability to reason clearly or even argue a point is noteworthy. Three paragraphs of personal attacks, then picking up on one genteel exchange as though that was somehow evidence of something is a waste of everyone’s time.
.
It’s back to Rhetoric 101 for you. Take something Karen Straughan, for example, actually says, quote it in context, link to it so that we know you’re not engaging in distortion, then tell us why you believe she’s wrong. That’s how you get started in the business of meaningfully disputing someone’s work.
.
Otherwise you just sound, as here, foolish. Cheers.
By the way, thanks for the wealth of links in the right hand menu. As someone fairly new to the men’s rights movement I hadn’t heard of at least half those sites. Very generous of you to spread the word like this.
Hi Jack, good of you to pop in white knighting for GWW. Did you look at the topic of the post, which isn’t actually about GWW, but is about MRAs white knighting her from criticism?
Did you notice this isn’t a newspaper but a site designed to mock misogyny?
Oh and this bit: “I clicked a link to your site, thinking to give it a try” doesn’t gel with this bit: “As someone fairly new to the men’s rights movement”
I read that as you are a MRA. There are other tells, like necroing an old thread.
Please fuck off now.
… Methinks, Jack, you missed the entire point of the article by about 9 miles …
Feel free to hit the road, Jack. No need to come back here for more.