You may remember the embarrassing spectacle a couple of months back when Warren Farrell asked the readers of A Voice for Men to help him pick out a cover picture for a new ebook version of The Myth of Male Power, the 21-year-old crackpot bestseller that more or less provided the, er, intellectual foundation for today’s Men’s Rights movement.
It wasn’t just embarrassing because AVFM is a noxious hate site that regularly calls women c*nts and whores and helps to organize informal campaigns of harassment directed at individual women. It was also embarrassing because all three of the pictures were sexualized images focusing on specific female body parts. You can guess which three, and you’d be right: tits, ass, and vagina (the latter tastefully covered in a merkin made of moss).
Well, Farrell ended up rejecting all of these images in favor of … a different picture of a woman’s butt. Yep, the screenshot above features the actual cover of the recently released ebook version of The Myth of Male Power. (You can see it in its full sized-glory over on Amazon.)
The implicit message of the cover couldn’t be clearer: men may seem to run the world, but women can control and exploit them through the power of their sexuality. Male power is undercut by … butt power.
Am I reading too much into a cover image? Farrell doesn’t really believe this nonsense, does he?
Well, in the introduction to the ebook, Farrell writes:
In case you’re wondering, “genetic celebrity” is Farrell’s term of art for any attractive woman.
But golly, you say, the fact that a dude feels “powerless” because he can’t have sex with every woman with a nice butt that happens to wander across his field of vision doesn’t actually mean that men are powerless or that male power is a myth. Well, Farrell has an answer to this as well. And by “answer” I mean, well, whatever this is:
Got that? I’m not sure there’s anything there to get; it’s nothing more than hand-waving to distract attention from the nonsensical nature of his previous statements. In case any Men’s Rights activist ever brings Warren Farrell up as an example of a respectable, “academic” MRA, you may wish to point out that almost nothing Farrell writes ever actually makes any fucking sense.
In the book itself, Farrell repeatedly suggested that male power can be undone almost completely by the sexual power of women. In one oft-quoted passage, he wrote about the effect that a “secretary’s miniskirt power, cleavage power and flirtation power” allegedly has on their male bosses. (Myth of Male Power, p. 21)
While that statement has earned a certain notoriety for its sheer ridiculousness, Farrell went further elsewhere in the book, essentially arguing that men are as addicted to female “beauty” as drug addicts are to the drug of their choice — and as helpless.
“Sexually, of course, the sexes aren’t equal,” Farrell wrote. “[M]any men feel ‘under the influence the moment they see a beautiful woman.” (p. 320, emphasis in original.)
This sort of temporary “intoxication,” Farrell argued, leads men into shackling themselves to these temporarily sexy tyrants for the rest of their lives — thus agreeing to support them (he suggested implicitly) even after they get old and ugly. (p. 85.)
In Farrell’s original book, this “argument,” such as it is, was merely one of many that he thought undercut the alleged “myth of male power.” Now, with the butt on the cover, he’s put it front and center. Or, more precisely, rear and center.
Warren Farrell, you’re an ass, man.
Oh, awkward segue here, I just wanted to show off the cover to the new edition of my classic book, The Myth of Human Power.
It will soon be available for one million dollars in cash in unmarked bills, upon delivery of which I will sit down and write it for you. It will probably be pretty short and not very convincing.
@weirwoodtreehugger not all men profit from big oil, agro, or big finance. As for universal healthcare care, I would like to remind you that America is a collective of 50 states who were specifically designed to argue with each other in commity. Even if the country agreed through general elections on a single payer plan, 20 or so different states would not participate bankrupting the 30 states that do. Ultimately a single payer system in the U.S. is doomed from the start.
Commercially? So super models then? I assume you mean conventionally, but that was hilarious
Wow, good job at getting it totally backwards.
Wow, budmin. I just…the stupid. Wow.
“Commercially hot models” makes it sound like the women being discussed are the best-selling new car on the lot. Yep, if you want sympathy from women that’s definitely the way you want to frame things. Pity me, people who I consistently dehumanize.
Also, it’s committee. Not that correct spelling would help you seem more educated given the crap you’re writing.
“Anals of human existence” — 😆
And exactly how do you propose to do this? You’re sitting around on the Internet talking to a bunch of women. If you want to go your own way, just GO. Quietly. And don’t bother anyone else along the way.
@weirwoodtreehugger I’m not talking away anthing from women and their lived experiences I’m just binging up somebof my own.
..pluse I’m on my phone so mistakes happen. I’m only human.
..Is he under the impression that we actually want to talk to him?
Argh, the MRA mutant ellipses! I have officially been reading this blog for too long.
“I’m only ridiculous.” FTFY
budmin: why do you think we want you share your experience with us? Do you really think you’re that special?
budmin, by denying that male privilege exists you are taking away from women’s experiences with misogyny. Experiencing misogyny is not equivalent to not getting as much sex with “commercially” attractive women as you would like.
The idea that the reason Farrell’s book exists is just to share men’s experiences with the world, rather than to influence the political debate and undermine feminism, may be the most disingenuous thing I’ve seen on this blog so far.
Oh, if only misogyny WERE a simple matter of not getting laid by all the hot dudes I’ve ever lusted after. That would be the equivalent to what WF is saying. But clearly, we’re facing much worse than just not getting laid. We’re also not getting paid, not getting respected, not getting the jobs we’re more than qualified for (while less qualified men DO get them), and of course, we’re getting sexually assaulted at greater rates than the dudes. Tell me again how your sad boner is totally equal to that, if not greater than. 🙄
what use is having your gender predominantly represented in government when they don’t represents your interest
Are you kidding? Try telling that to Lily Ledbetter, Marissa Alexander, Tamesha Means, the Steubenville and Maryville rape victims, the female plaintiffs in the Walmart vs. Dukes case, the millions of women struggling to keep their families afloat on inadequate, poorly enforced child support who get driven into welfare and AFDC each year.
Go on. Look them right in the eye and tell them how the political and judicial system are biased towards women.
If American government is bending over backwards to hand everything to women on a silver platter, then why does our family leave lag behind that of other industrialized nations?
Why did the Equal Rights Amendment fail in the late 1970s?
Why are we still second-class citizens under the U.S. constitution?
If women had any actual power, things would look a lot different than the way the MRM thinks they would. Don’t pay us 70 cents on the dollar and then tell us we have magic kryptonite butts with secret powers.
During the time of my life when getting laid by lots of hot guys was a priority for me (ie, when I was young and not married yet), I was in fact able to do so on a regular basis. Funny how that didn’t erase the pay gap, decrease the rate at which women are raped, or make it any easier for me to get an abortion if I need one.
“It’s not about sex or pussy or friend zones and whatnot. It’s about validation. Men are in search of validation from a commercially attractive women. That’s our undoing and something that I’d love to see disappear from the anals of human existence. #MGTOW.”
This always just kills me. It is men’s undoing that they want validation? Their UNDOING??? Here’s the thing, PEOPLE can be manipulated, used, duped, double crossed, 2 timed, you name it, by someone they fall for, are attracted to, etc. this is neither a public health issue nor is it just a male experience. It is not even more of a male experience. Most people learn as life goes on that you cannot seek validation from others. Is is a recipe for unhealthy relationships and emotionally exhausting your partner. Also, it is not the the validators fault that the validatee want validation from them. How the fuck is it my fault that a man wants validation from me? It is not my responsibility to make u validated or feel guilty because it’s your “undoing” to need it.
@cassandrakitty how could sharing our views not influence debate. Would it be better if we just remained silent?
“Commercially attractive”
Yup. That says it all right there. You know, I’ve always been astounded how so many men felt they’re owed beautiful women like it’s some sacrosanct birthright. In fact, it’s astounding to me why so many men felt they’re owed anything, let alone a woman.
So you seek validation from a commercially attractive woman. So if some “average” looking woman would desire your company (fuck knows why), she wouldn’t be good enough?
You see? The moment you need to add an adjective before “women” is the exact moment you reveal the inherent inequality of your argument.
Yep. That’s why Medicare and Medicaid never got off the ground, or Social Security…
Oh wait.
I’ve met plenty of women who chase validation from men, too. It’s a people thing, not a man thing.
What most of those women don’t do is write books about how their need for validation means that men are oppressing them with their super hot abs.
If men seek validation (from “commercially attractive” women or anyone), they have a lot of fucking growing up to do. Because a mature individual of any gender knows that validation by others is not where it’s at. That’s a shallow, unsatisfactory ego boost, at best, when it does happen. It doesn’t make any difference to your character, your identity, or any other of life’s bottom lines. It’s just “wow, some hot chick didn’t totally ignore me!” It’s pathetic.
Bina:
“But clearly, we’re facing much worse than just not getting laid. We’re also not getting paid”
That’s a great counter slogan: you’re not getting laid, but we’re or getting paid!