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Phyllis Schlafly channels the manosphere with a column about female "hypergamy."

The world's most eligible bachelor?
The world’s most eligible bachelor?

Professional antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly – perhaps best known for her fervent opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment – seems to have been channeling the manosphere in a column she published yesterday on the issue of “paycheck fairness.” Turns out she thinks such fairness is actually a bad idea, because ladies love marrying rich guys more than they love earning money.

According to Schlafly, equal pay messes with the fundamental female desire for “hypergamy” – that favorite manosphere buzzword – and undermines marriage:

[H]ypergamy … means that women typically choose a mate (husband or boyfriend) who earns more than she does. Men don’t have the same preference for a higher-earning mate.

While women prefer to HAVE a higher-earning partner, men generally prefer to BE the higher-earning partner in a relationship. This simple but profound difference between the sexes has powerful consequences for the so-called pay gap.

Suppose the pay gap between men and women were magically eliminated. If that happened, simple arithmetic suggests that half of women would be unable to find what they regard as a suitable mate.

Indeed, Schlafly argues, women love marrying men who earn more than them so much that when the pay gap is eliminated some of them just won’t marry at all. Which is apparently the end of the world, or something.

The pay gap between men and women is not all bad because it helps to promote and sustain marriages. …

In two segments of our population, the pay gap has virtually ceased to exist. In the African-American community and in the millennial generation (ages 18 to 32), women earn about the same as men, if not more.

It just so happens that those are the two segments of our population in which the rate of marriage has fallen the most. Fifty years ago, about 80 percent of Americans were married by age 30; today, less than 50 percent are.

So it’s not enough that most people end up getting married; civilization will crumble if more than half of them don’t marry before the age of 30!

And so, she suggests, if American women knew what was good for them they would be begging for employers pay them even less, relative to men.

The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap.

Hmm. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that Schlafly – a best-selling author and popular speaker on the right – didn’t send back any of her royalties or speaking fees so that she would feel more like a woman and her late husband would feel like more of a man, and I doubt she’s doing so now, as a widow. She’s also been unmarried for more than twenty years. Coincidence?

NOTE TO MEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS: When you find yourself agreeing with Phyllis Schlafly on pretty much anything (beyond, say, the existence of gravity, the need for human beings to breathe air, and other widely accepted beliefs of this sort), this is an indication that perhaps your movement isn’t the progressive, egalitarian movement that you like to pretend that it is, and that in fact it is sort of the opposite.

That said, I should also note that Schlafly’s notion of “hypergamy,” while sexist and silly, is decidedly less obnoxious than the version peddled by PUAs and websites like A Voice for Men — congrats, Men’s Human Rights Activists, you’re actually worse than Phyllis Schlafly!

She just uses the term to indicate a desire to marry up. For many manospherians, by contrast, “hypergamy” doesn’t just mean marrying up; it means that women are fickle, unfaithful monsters who love nothing better than cuckolding beta males in order to jump into bed with whatever alpha male wanders into their field of vision. (I’m guessing Schlafly hasn’t actually been going through the archives at AVFM or Chateau Heartiste looking for column ideas.) While many MRAs love to complain about hypergamy, many of them also seem to think that it’s unfair that “beta” males with good jobs aren’t automatically entitled to hot wives.

In case anyone is wondering, the actual definition of the word “hypergamy” involves none of that. According to Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, the word means “marriage to a person of a social status higher than one’s own; orig., esp. in India, the custom of allowing a woman to marry only into her own or a higher social group.”

That’s it. It refers to the fact of marrying up, not to the desire to marry up, much less to the alleged desire of all twentysomething women to ride the Alpha Asshole Cock Carousel. The manosphere’s new and not-so-improved definition came from a white nationalist named F. Roger Devlin.

ANOTHER NOTE: Big thanks to the people who emailed me about this story. If you ever see something you think would make for a good Man Boobz post, send me an email at futrelle [at] manboobz.com. I get a lot of ideas from tips!

 

 

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sparky
sparky
10 years ago

I feel sorry for Pinky. You gotta figure, this is probably the most attention ze’s got in awhile.

And from us “lame adults” too.

Oh, BTW, Pinky, using “lame” as an insult is ableist.

weirwoodtreehugger
10 years ago

Oh, Pinky. You have lost every argument and now are resorting to name calling. I second Katz’s desire to see your paper. Something tells me that if you turn in a misogynistic screed about mean old internet feminists you’ll get an F. #redink

katz
10 years ago

Last word of advice, kid: Don’t use hashtags in your paper. It’s not something that those who wish to have their work taken seriously use.

That is the sort of pedantry that (if the teacher is female) will scar a poor male student and make him bad at English for the rest of his life.

kittehserf
10 years ago

Hey Pinky, so tell us – what is it about the idea of feminism that actually frightens you? Not that it’s much use asking, since 1) you just jump around rather than answer anything and 2) you’ve shown you really haven’t a clue what feminism is about anyway.

Does the idea that women and girls are every bit as human as you are scare you? Or the idea that yes, men do actually get a shit-ton of privilege relative to women? Or the idea that being a man makes you neither better than women, nor worse?

Or is it simply that you don’t have the right to fuck any girl who takes your fancy?

weirwoodtreehugger
10 years ago

I wonder which of our comments will be cited as irrational? I’m not sure what’s irrational about refuting poorly thought out arguments. It’s really too bad that we probably won’t get to his red ink covered paper. At least the teacher might use this as an opportunity to call his parents in and urge them to get Pinky counseling.

kittehserf
10 years ago

It’d be even funnier if the teacher (assuming there is a teacher, or that there’ll ever be a paper) came to read here, and then gave the boy wonder a smack with a clue-by-four.

Ally S
10 years ago

LOL. Been doing the holiday thing with friends and family. I check back and these lame adults are still talking about me. #getalife.

Going to sort this experience with other interactions on the net with feminists to include on research paper on how irrational modern feminists are. Thanks for help!

Be sure to cite your sources properly so that people can look at the comments of this article and see proof of your dishonesty and goalpost-shifting.

contrapangloss
10 years ago

D’aaaaaaaw…. The new Pierre comic a ‘la Fibinachi is adorable! Unfortunately, I also now have that theme song stuck in my head.

What are we going to do today…

pecunium
10 years ago

Pinky: LOL. Been doing the holiday thing with friends and family. I check back and these lame* adults are still talking about me. #getalife.

Snert. Sonny, if you think I/we don’t have lives, you’re dumber than previous evidence suggests. Accusing those who take a few minutes to refute you (with arguments not only valid but supported), with being socially inept, because they did so; when the sole apparent purpose of the person to whom they are responding is to count coup against them, means the “life” of the person counting coup is so much less than theirs that such a coup is a moral and material victory.

Which is sad. Since we know what attainments we have, and you don’t; perforce we can actually measure the real merit of your claim against our lives. All in all, the odds are strong that, when weighed in the balance, we are ahead (and probably were when we were fifteen too.

*I say this as an adult whom the VA has certified to be lame as a result of bodily damage resulting from combat related issues. If you were referring to other people, who are not so afflicted you were being a different sort of ablist asshole, i.e. the sort who uses disabilities as a way to bemean those who are not disabled.

Viscaria
Viscaria
10 years ago

What I Did Over My Easter Break, by Pinky S. Highschool Student

Over my Easter break I found a list of MRA talking points on the Internet. I was going to fact-check them, but then my mom told me to take out the garbage. Women are always distracting men by telling them to do things, like taking out the trash or going to war. Anyway, after I took out the garbage I found this really old thread on a site that mocks the MRA, so I decided to share some of my talking points there. People responded to me, but none of them renounced feminism. It was very irrational! They said a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t have time to read. I shared another talking point. They still didn’t renounce feminism! They kept saying other things! I tried over and over with talking point after talking point, but they refused to admit that they have been wrong all along. This proves that feminists are irrational. Fin.

katz
10 years ago

Can we keep this one? He’s clearly harmless, and he’s been amusing so far.

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
10 years ago

Only if you promise to take him for a walk every day and that you won’t forget to feed him.

Ally S
10 years ago

And never, ever feed him after midnight.

contrapangloss
10 years ago

Oh, and alternate dry and wet food while he’s still young. That way, he won’t have as much trouble adjusting when he’s older!

Also, we’ll have to get some spray bottles, to discourage eating loafers, clawing furniture, and eating electrical cords. And ableism. We’ll need to start correcting that bad habit right off the bat. It’s worse that bad house-training.

contrapangloss
10 years ago

Oh, and we have lots of military, current and vets. Lots. No kidding.

contrapangloss
10 years ago

Wrong thread on that last comment! Whoops. Goes over on the memes page, after the potlatch convo. Sorry, all!

katz
10 years ago

Mentioning vets actually seemed on-topic for this thread…

kittehserf
10 years ago

Well, okay, but you know if he makes a mess on the floor you’ll have to clean it up.

kittehserf
10 years ago

Speaking of vets, has he a certificate of vaccination? You know what it’s like buying a pet from a troll-shop.

Retha
Retha
10 years ago

Women want richer men, so pay women less? That makes about as much sense as “Men want prettier women, so go disfigure men.”

Viscaria
Viscaria
10 years ago

Retha, that is absolutely perfect. Have you commented here before, or are you a newcomer?

Retha
Retha
10 years ago

My second. The other was on the “video footage of Man going his own way” thread.

Viscaria
Viscaria
10 years ago

Well, welcome, if nobody has welcomed you yet!

mildlymagnificent
10 years ago

Thank you pecunium!

That is one talented, thoughtful young lady. I’ve bookmarked that. It’s a keeper.