Roosh Valizadeh has made a career, such as it is, of teaching guys how to talk to women the Rooshy way. And not just how to talk to drunk women in clubs, where you’re lucky if they can even hear your clever negs over all the noise.
In his book Day Bang he sets forth his brilliant strategy for speaking to women in the daytime: start babbling to them about random crap like those slightly dotty elderly people who come up to you sometimes babbling about random crap.
No, really. You’re supposed to “open” with an “Elderly Opener” and segue seamlessly into “Elderly Chat,” taking your cues from the people who are the best at talking forever about nothing at all. “This is something old people excel at,” he writes.
They can have a one-hour chat stemming from an ice cream flavor because their life experience is so deep that they can seamlessly and casually connect it to a dozen other topics.
During the day I want you to think of yourself as a wandering, slightly confused old man who needs to gain information or knowledge. In my sock example, I played up that I was a style retard, incapable of buying a five-dollar pair of socks, when in reality I’m totally capable of making that decision.
And then – shazam! – you’re in like Flynn! Apparently women just melt for men who can’t figure out how to buy socks.
But it turns out that when there’s no possibility that the conversation will end with a bang, Roosh is far less interested in talking to women. Or at least in them talking back.
So much so that he’s not only banned women from commenting on his Return of Kings blog but, as of earlier this week, he’s also banning men who merely reply to women who happen to sneak past his anti-woman defenses and get in a comment or two before they’re banned. (He’s also banned “homos.” His term, not mine.)
Roosh’s announcement generated a good deal of discussion on RoK, mostly from supportive dudes glad that girls and talkers-to-girls are being thrown out of Roosh’s manly clubhouse.
Well, heck, that just means more women for me to talk to.
Excuse me, ladies, but I’m having trouble figuring out how these socks work. Do I put the delicious Pistachio ice cream in them before I put them on, or after?
Note: I really don’t want to give Roosh any traffc, but if you must, the link to his post is hidden somewhere in my post above. Thanks to MARK MINTER for alerting me to Roosh’s new policy.
Hi Samantha, welcome! I wasn’t reading you as a sock or troll either, and I’m pretty suspicious with this stuff. Also I like using commas and am parenthesis happy.
D’you use Firefox? There’s a great add-on for making formatting easy – italics, bold, blockquotes, adding links and so on. If you go to this Firefox page you can download it. (I used it to make that link.)
No credit to me for knowing this, jefrir told us about it. I’m just on-site a lot and preach it to all and sundry. 😛
Random comment about add-ons – has anyone else downloaded a script blocking program? When I did I was even more annoyed with Google than I already had been, because holy crap, their crap is everywhere.
No, I haven’t.
David,
If you don’t want to direct trafffic to Roosh’s site (and I understand why you don’t) try using the do not link tag. See http://skeptools.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/do-not-link-donotlink-ethically-criticize-seo-nofollow/ for more details.
Great blog BTW, I’ve been lurking for a while, and only de-lurked to give you this link info.
I don’t think he’s actually trying to silence women (or men who deign to speak to them) there. It’s a symbolic move; a form of intimidation. As with so many things they do, it’s not about voices or safe spaces or other claimed goals: it’s about power.
I wonder, though: does his ban include transwomen? He probably thinks transwomen are “actually men”. Which means: if he bans them, he acknowledges that they’re really women; if not, then women get to speak there. No matter how he reacts to them – or doesn’t react – he’s forced to concede one or the other. Even if only to himself.
I’m confused by the suggestion that women might be sneaking onto the forums using male names. If banning them is great because women are illogical animals and contribute nothing to the discussion, shouldn’t they be easy to spot even behind a male pseudonym?
Samantha: Go back and look first at fibinachi’s post at 11:23, specifically the part where he states how to use the blockquote tags (the third paragraph). Then look at your own post at 11:38, which I am assuming was done by using Copy & Paste of his text. Do you see the box that popped up that says “quoted text” inside it? That’s what happens when you use the tags (the bits in brackets).
By George, I think I’ve got it! Well, we shall see when I post this, anyway.
Thanks, gillyrosebee and freemage, for your help.
Here goes…
It would appear that I did NOT get it last time. ARGH! Well, try again…
You got it!
Sparkling cider and Milanos for your triumph!
REALLY???
Thanks, everyone. 🙂
Why, yes I do and I will check out the link. Thanks! And thanks for the welcome.
It’s almost as if he has a creeping suspicion that women might make actual compelling points.
Nope. This is my first time.
Second welcome package coming up! 🙂
Balarick! You must have swooped in when I was not watching!
How utterly kewl is THAT!
Hi!
Hello Samantha’s son! Nice to meet you and thanks for answering my question. 🙂
Oh, and do check out the welcome package. Good information and totally hilarious.
It is amazing what passes for thought and logic amongst the mra-challenged.
“Thanks to MARK MINTER for alerting me to Roosh’s new policy.”
Whoa, wait, I’m so confused. I’ve been a regular reader of manboobz since I came across it last summer, so the name Mark Minter definitely stood out. Is Mr. Minter an ally now after having been excommunicated by the “manosphere”?
I don’t believe in censorship or shunning people with whom you don’t agree, so I don’t have an issue with Mark Minter being on this site. I’m just genuinely surprised to see his name as appear as a positive contribution.
“mra-challenged”
::snicker::
🙂
Sarita, no Mark Minter isn’t an ally. But he did come here and make a comment about Roosh’s new policy, so I did actually learn about it from him. It was sort of an ironic shoutout.
kittehserf said:
Thank you. I’d actually seen it when you linked to it for my mother, but I appreciate the thought nonetheless. It is quite amusing.
grumpycatisagirl said:
No problem, and likewise.
I don’t know what to say in regard to introductions. I consider myself an atheist in the very literal sense of the word — that is, I’m not a philosophical materialist who rejects “paranormal” phenomena or whatever, but nor to I believe every claim of psychic power, or whatever, that comes along. I’m a feminist — which is what led me here, via Hannibalthevictor13 on YouTube, although he doesn’t consider himself a feminist per se. I get around on YouTube and other social media, usually taking an ardently liberal (socially democratic) stance on most issues and calling people out on their BS (including but not limited to misogyny). It pains me to no end that a “movement” that is acting under the name of the part of the species to which I belong — men — is to patently regressive, destructive, and just plain frakkin’ hateful.
Any questions, feel free to ask.
I mostly just want to thank Samantha for raising a feminist son at this point.
Sorry, I meant “..is *so* patently regressive….”
Can’t edit posts. :^(
(Or can I?)
cassandrakitty said:
I’m sure she appreciates that, and so do I (both her influence and your comment). I did go through a rather sexist phase in my teenage years — more than 10 years ago now — despite her efforts, but an experience with a certain green thing that’s legal in Washington and Colorado snapped me out of it, literally sending me in a 180-degree turn away from that mentality. A very enlightening Sociology of Gender class in college also kept me in a more feminist mindset as well, as the lectures about the hegemonic messages of gender (including how women are suppose to be “sexy but not sexually assertive” whereas men are supposed to be willing and able to have sex at the drop of a hat; women are supposed to cry when they’re stressed, while men are supposed to become aggressive and violent; and so on, and so on) made a ridiculous amount of sense — not to mention a trip the class made to the theater building where we watched an interpretive dance routine that demonstrated in quite a picturesque manner just how much damage patriarchy does to men as well as women — or any “higher class” group as well as the “lower class” group in any kyriarchical social structure, whether it be gender-based, race-based, and so forth.
While I’m not usually one for interpretive dance, or any dancing at all, it did actually leave quite an impression on me. It became clear to me just how much energy is expended (and wasted) by an upper class keeping the lower class down, and how — in order to “justify” the oppression — the upper class has to reject in itself all of the characteristics that it attributes to the lower class; ergo, men can’t be “weak” or “sensitive” or “emotional” or “in need of protection” (especially the protection by a woman!) because those are “women’s characteristics.” It’s ironic, though, that in repressing “sensitivity,” men often become even *more* easily offended by things, and — at least in my experience — it seems to me that, despite most men’s contentions that they’re “logical” and “not emotionally driven,” men’s actions tend to reflect at least as much emotion in their motivation as women’s actions.
And now I’m rambling.
/ramble
::snaps fingers, lightbulb moment:: So that’s why various asshats have sullied the good name of the fedora! They think wearing a hat they can drop will get them Teh Secks.
/frivolity