Misogynists hate, hate, hate it when women get tattoos. They just can’t all agree on why. The standard misogynist line on tattoos for women is that they are all, essentially, “tramp stamps” – a way of broadcasting that the woman displaying them is a slut, a skank, a whore. You know the drill.
But the “alternative right” racist/sexist/homophobe who goes by the handle agnostic has a rather different take. In a post on his blog Face to Face, he argues that women with tattoos are actually trying to broadcast their Puritan prudery.
Tattoos, you see, are just plain ugly, and help to accessorize a dreary look designed to repel men.
Notice how those girls dress in drab, dark monochrome colors, wear no girly jewelry, and sport flat hair rather than Big Hair. Their sassy, sarcastic, even nasty attitude echos their off-putting look.
Fundamentally, they are part of the larger trend toward drab dressing, and its signal of reluctance to get loose. Their personalities are more anti-social, so they express the neo-Pilgrim style in a more antagonistic fashion than the less abrasive girls in their generation, but they’re both variations on the same theme.
The tattoo-bearers are likely to be man-haters as well.
They are also part of the larger trend among women toward fear of or hatred toward men. …
In such a climate, women will alter their appearance and demeanor in order to deflate rather than excite the male libido. They act like prey trying to give warning signals to potential predators. The tattoo chicks are only the extreme version of this widespread trend. Girls sure don’t look or act as cute and flirty as they used to in the boy-crazy Eighties, when they thought of guys not as predators but as conspecifics who they wanted to court with engaging mating displays.
“Conspecifics” simply means “members of the same species.” Agnostic loves to drop that sciency lingo in order to make his prejudices seem smart.
Anyway, he continues by arguing that tattoos are especially offensive to pickup artistes and other “assertive” dudes.
Off-putting style also serves to filter out the more assertive and independent males, who would rather spend time on a girl who looks cute, rather than settle for one who’s all marked up or not willing to show anything at all. … By inking themselves up, girls ensure that only the guys who are willing to get walked over and slapped in the face will approach them. Why go through the long hassle of having your new boyfriend fixed when you can advertise that only the neutered need apply in the first place?
Ah, but this last bit is perhaps more revealing than agnostic means it to be. Tattoos are an affront to misogynists because they’re seen as too assertive, too masculine – a challenge to traditional femininity, and to men who prefer traditionally feminine women.
Tattoos on women make misogynistic men angry because on some fundamental level these men don’t think women have the right to decorate their bodies in a way that displeases men –or at least their kind of men. It’s the same kind of creepy, possessive anger that many misogynistic men show towards women who cut their hair short. It’s as if these men on some level believe women’s bodies belong to them, and not to the women themselves.
And that’s pretty unattractive.
@seraph
Oh, of course there some miserable FeMRAs — their discovery was a revelation to me way back when.
But I’ve also encountered numerous men who pretend to be women on social media, all the better (i.e., more convincingly, in their minds) to spew their misogynist rhetoric.
What points to a man, IMO, is the level of incoherent misogynist rage culminating in a revenge fantasy / threat: “You will pay.” FeMRA (those that I’ve seen) are usually content expressing their disparagement without explicit threats.
Also the full-blown victimhood complex with male self-identification at its core:
“your education and opportunity and rights have resulted in millions of children raised without *fathers*, the total destruction of the family, the rise of GIANT ASS government to give all those wymyns a place to work (doing utterly useless shit)”
“You have cost us our lives.”
Us = men, of the MRA ilk.
Then the total contempt for any kind of women’s work (that “totally useless shit”) and coexistent excessive idealization of motherhood (aww, those chubby little arms…), suggesting a person who has rather no clue about what’s really involved in raising children. And, to top it off, a mushy paean to husbandhood,
My semi-informed guess is that Andie is a white middle-(very, very middle)-aged fella. But of course I could be wrong. It’s been known to happen. 😉
Whatever Andie is, though, patchouli candles for the win!
Goodness.
So, are mrms reasonable while feminists have “overshot” their goals?
How you can overshoot the goal of being a human with full rights, I’m not sure.
RE: J.J
My husband is like a walking billboard for Ill-Advised Tattoos. He was a drunk teenager and decided it would be just GENIUS to get himself tattooed with two hearts with an arrow through them, in honor of his high school girlfriend at the time.
The tattoo artist wasn’t legit and botched the job, the girl dumped him before ever seeing it, and poor hubby has been saddled with it ever since. He says that he just thanks Jesus that he managed to have enough sense not to get the girl’s name tattooed in it.
He hates it. I admit I find it a bit endearing.
@weirdwoodtreehugger
Made the mistake of reading that story about the man who raped his wife while sleeping on Yahoo. Dunno why, but there is a high level of sexism, racism and rabid conservatism among people who comment on Yahoo articles. For this story both men and women were claiming not to believe the wife bc she claimed she believed it was going on for three years and why didnt she leave! when the article clearly reported she wanted her kids have a father (some internalized sexism there, “I must put up with rapist husband bc I should do my duty to my kids) and the husband admitted to drugging and raping her! SO many comments on the yahoo thread claiming husbands cant rape their wives. Sometimes I wonder why I read the comments there when it only serves to confirm my belief that sexism is deeply engrained in American culture.
@JJ
Word! This comment reminds me of numerous debates I’ve had with MRAs who actually believe that a woman who dresses sexy or dresses up wants sex and/or to be hit on, a date, fill in the blank. These dudes are incapable of understanding the difference between wanting to feel sexy/attractive and wanting to actually have sex. A mentality which contributes greatly to rape culture. What I find so hilarious, depressing and sad all at the same time is that these dudes think they are the logical ones. *sigh*
Haven’t read the thread yet, but on the OP:
So in this nincompoop’s language, a man who’s “assertive and independent” is only interested in … women who conform to a very narrow stereotype of appearance and behaviour.
LOL!
However, if having a tattoo puts misogynist losers off, fine. Must tell Mum that’s why she got her tattoo, too.
Yahoo is a cesspool.
@sereph: PIATOR – A desire for inappropriately young women, or even girls, seems to be part and parcel of the whole MRA gig.
Yeah – I’m just commenting on the obtuseness of this idiot. Of course the teenage girls of your remembered youth are going to be acting differently towards you than the teenaged girls of today – today, you’re no longer a god-like teenager yourself, but a pot-bellied codger with thinning hair and ear-whiskers.
I’m curious about the feminism overshooting its goals things too. Dafuq?
This site is excellent. I wanted to show you guys and gals something I found in the comments section of a Return of Kings article. I think this perfectly summarizes the walking contradiction that is the “manosphere”:
“Martin
17 hours ago
ROK Rules:
1. Women who do not give up the pussy on the first date are teasing, prudish, “entitled princess” cunts who deserve the worst treatment possible.
2. Women who DO give up the pussy on the first date are cock-carousel-riding, pump-and-dump filthy whores who deserve the worst treatment possible.
3. Women who do not “come back for seconds” after a sexual encounter are flakey, ditzy, ungrateful bitches who deserve the worst treatment possible.
4. Women who DO continue coming back for seconds (and thirds) after a sexual encounter are cock-craving nympho sluts and “bitch slaves” who deserve the worst treatment possible.
5. Women who work outside the home and have a higher education are uppity, stuck-up feminazi cunts whose aim is to destroy traditional gender roles and family structure, and they deserve the worst treatment possible.
6. Women who stay home to raise children, cook, and clean, and who have no education beyond a high school diploma are lazy, parasitic, gold-digging Ameriskanks whose sole aim is to live off of a man’s hard-earned money, and they deserve the worst treatment possible.
7. Women who do not wear makeup, high heels, long hair, or short skirts, are purposely trying to look ugly, manly and unfeminine and deserve the worst treatment possible.
8. Women who wear makeup, high heels, long hair, and short skirts are immodest skank whores who use their sexuality as power over men and then cry rape, and they deserve the worst treatment possible.
9. Women who lift weights, box, attend university, serve in the Armed Forces, or compete in a male-dominated business sector are only kidding themselves, as they will never be as physically strong or intelligent as a man and they are incapable of rational thought, and those women deserve the worst treatment possible.
10. Women who work in a female -dominated sector and who take aerobics are weak, wimpy sheep with a “herd mentality” who deserve the worst treatment possible.
Please feel free to add any I’ve missed.”
Did someone call for a Welcome Package?
@wecookedthemammoth
Hi and welcome 😀 I love your name.
@Marie:
Thanks. 🙂
I’ve never been able to commit to an image I’d want on my body permanently either. But if you dragged me into a tattoo parlor at gunpoint, I’d be okay with the woman riding the alpha cock carousel; she’s awesome!
Wecookedthemammoth: …I like you already.
@emma
Dont know where this quote came from but whenever I see comments like this all I think is oh another dude who hasnt responded well to women gaining agency over their own lives (essentially the premise of Hanna Rosin’s book The End of Men and The Rise of Women in re employment). It’s like they dont even understand what their opinions really convey.
One of the reasons for the decline in marriage (I think divorce rates have remained fairly constant) is because a lot of men did not take the opportunity that feminism gave us to be better partners to their female counterparts and for some men more involved fathers in their childrens’ lives. A lot of men have become more involved fathers, mind you, but we mostly see this increased involvement among millenials. I have read stories on divorce sites of men going to court and not even knowing their child’s schedule and then they wonder why the mother is given primary custody. But I digress.
It’s sad that the way we teach masculinity still does not prepare men to be better partners to the liberated woman. I say that because we all know now that women contribute half of the household’s income, most women work even if they have kids and households with a stay at home parent are still roughly 20-25% of households (so nowhere close to a majority) with married parents. And yet these douchenozzles still buy into that outdated trope that all women want to be provided for etc, apparently failing to recognize that women dont “need” them anymore for financial security so they need to bring something else to the relationship table. When I bring this up on other sites I’m sure you can imagine it didn’t go over well and yet it’s completely logical. I guess for them ignorance is bliss. That, and theyre incapable of self introspection.
@LBT
…that’s actually really cute. In a grand romantic gesture made in the folly of youth sort of way. The BF, in response to my (jokingly) asking if he wanted me to tattoo his name on my shoulders, said ‘Oh fuck no.’ Then he linked me to a joke that his asexual ex-girlfriend sent him. ‘Asexual Pirates are not interested in your booty.’ That amused me. I’m glad they’re still friends. I always appreciate when men have platonic relationships with women, especially ones they’ve dated. …is that asexual joke offensive?
*waves to WeCookedTheMammoth* That is a good first comment, indeed! They really do just hate women and therefore there is no winning. So they can all just go away and no one will miss them. On that day I will bake a cake.
I will bake a cake before that. Everyone is welcome to cake.
@tedthefed:
QFT!
Plus, if this asshole is old enough to have been through 80s fashion, he shouldn’t be chasing young women anyway.
I didn’t have any tatts when I was in my wearing-black stage twenty years ago. I have two now, not seen that much except in summer. Oddly enough I wear them with quite “feminine” clothes, like most of the women I see who have tatts.
Laughable part is that they really can function as “fuck off I’ve made my choice” signals – one’s a portrait of Mr K (not too successful, dammit) and the other is his signature. I got ’em before we were in contact, so he didn’t have any input; they’re my statement about commitment.
@fromafar2013:
Whoa! That is top-level winning misandry (and SO cool).
@ sparky
I saw what you did there.
@SuperDrops – hang on a minute. Feminism overshooting its goals? “Reasonable people?” Where is this supposed to have happened? I’d love to live there. When women are still doing the majority of agricultural work in the world and owning only a tiny percentage (something like 5% iirc) of the land; when women earn less than men for the same job and, like the editor of the NYT, get fired for mentioning they’re doing two men’s jobs and getting paid less; when only a tiny percentage of rapists ever get sent to prison; when women can be gang-raped to death and have politicians of major parties blaming them for it – then you’re got a lot of explaining to do about just how feminism has overshot its goals.
MRAs might be the extreme face of sexism and misogyny, but you know what? It’s a matter of degree, not of kind. They’re not so different from many members of the GOP or Faux News, to take one country’s examples. Even in Australia, we have MPs trying to get abortion outlawed, still.
There’s nothing reasonable about claiming feminism has overshot any goals.
And here I was all ready with a Welcome Package and cheers about doing scented candle misandry.
@LBT – hey, Rogan, Sneak, excellent tatts!
@Lids
Stop stealing my thoughts! XD I’m single-target rather than asexual, but I feel much the same (only 5’7″ is plenty tall enough for me).
@ Katz:
Thank ya much. You guys are very welcoming! I’ve been reading that vile ROK website for a while now, and it is such a cesspool of woman-hatred. Then I discovered this site, and thought: Yes, there is a God after all.
@weirwoodtreehugger
True that!
WeCookedTheMammoth – hi and welcome!
That’s a great quote. Perfectly sums up RoK and the scrotosphere in general.
enhancedvibes –
Or that, even if one is thinking about sex, it’s with someone WE fancy, not some random dude just because he’s a dude in the vicinity.
Nonsense, everyone knows that we’re horrendously mean to new people and immediately attack them for no reason. Or so I’ve been told.
@katz
How dare you forget the suffering of countless human beings who were actually asked to not use disablist slurs.
@Ally
at first I was confused cuz I thought the bold made you look like you weren’t being sarcastic :p
/ignore me.