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.
@kittehserf
THIS! I have so many humorous and fuct up convos with MRAs about women’s preferences. Is it wrong that I literally lol at them when they complain about that women like bad boys nonsense? I think not. The entitlement in these guys is beyond scary.
What still gets me about society, in general, is that most hetero men call the people they like to date girls but if we call them boys or even guys or even dudes oooo watch out! MISANDRY! That might be OT but there is some precious irony in them ranting on and on about dating “real” women, wanting to have sex with “real” women blahblahblah but then still calling them girls.
Also “scrotosphere,” HA!
Need more tattoos.
It’s funny because I have few tattoos past my upper arms because there is so much social benefit in being able to pass one’s self off as conventional looking. I’m thinking professionally. Regarding these toads though I would consider the social disadvantage of being tattooed a good thing. I don’t want these turds being drawn to me.
::sporfle::
Correct! Laughing in their faces is a Good Thing. An MRA never wants to know that it’s not what type of man (when there is such a thing as a “type”) any given woman likes – it’s that she doesn’t like him.
That whole “girls” thing pisses me off, too. I’m fifty and I’d still get called that by male customers at work. How old does one have to be before one’s an adult? Oh, right, one never is. I’m glad to be old enough to be invisible to dudebros, though.
I’d say the main reason a lot of men (even non-hetero men) do that is to help reinforce a power dynamic in their favor – so that they feel safer from the treat of women “challenging” their masculinity. (She’s “just a girl”, after all.)
@enhancedvibes
“Dont know where this quote came from”
It’s from the Scented Candles Manifesto by “Andie,” referenced in the comment by seraph, above. You must read it.
“… 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.”
Yup. It’s just pure rage at women not submitting to men’s will and desires.
“It’s sad that the way we teach masculinity still does not prepare men to be better partners to the liberated woman.”
I think that’s because the existence of the liberated woman in this country is still considered an aberration and one that would (or should) go the way of the mammoth — or such is the hope of the conservative wing and MRA. European men, for example, are more advanced in this respect, since they’ve dealt with women’s genuine independence far longer and without the toxic ethos of hypermasculinity, which pervades the American culture, interfering in the process.
WeCookedTheMammoth — brilliant.
I may just have to put aside my wariness needles and get myself a tattoo. 😀
@Emma
Um, wha???
One great big honkin’ “citation needed” for that European men assertion.
so like.. If im understanding this right, this guy thinks tattoos are a.. filtering process that makes the girl seem less attractive?
Guh. MRA hurt my brain. seriously. so many assumptions that are incorrect go into this horrible concoction.
1.He assumes Woman only dress up to either repel or attract men. (not other woman, and not for their own sense of fashion.)
2.He assumes all guys are into the same things, so of course no guys are attracted to the tattoos.(!?!) I mean seriously, Its like this guy assumes that attraction for men is some kind of single unchangeable sliding scale, and differences of opinion only indicate ‘lower’ standards, which, to be fair, does sound like a PUA mentality right there, what with their number systems and stuff.
3.he assumes that somehow, dressing a certain way in hopes of only attracting a certain kind of guy is somehow.. wrong? I guess? Agency is Misandry?
4. He assumes the 80s was boy crazy..? I mean, I guess it might have been, but you’d think that modern ideas of female agency lend themselves better to.. Engaging in mating displays? whatever he means by that. Unless he is talking about all the dancing that mostly occurred in movies anyway.
Re: European men
I’m originally from Europe, born and bred. First-hand experience.
Manospherians? cause this guy might not be a MRA, but I get used to saying that as shorthand for the whole lot.
For those worried about pain; my upper back tattoo felt like a bee sting. Not really pleasant, but the pain wasn’t that serious either.
@emma
yeah, that’s not a citation…
@marinaliteyears
Idk, I’ve seen it a lot too, so it doesn’t seem weird.
(sorry if that wasn’t a question, my tone’s been off recently ^-^)
The plural of anecdote is not data. Try again.
Ah, it was mostly a correction of my post, though I was questioning which word to use, so thanks!
As the ultra logical manospherians know, movies are the same reality and count as a scientific citation. Therefore, these clips from Teen Witch are proof that 80’s girls were like so totally boy crazy!
@Marie
But this is:
http://www.thelocal.se/20090804/21098
@weirwoodtreehugger
That is exactly the kind of stuff I was talking about. heh. wow, I forgot that movie even existed, which is a bit funny, considering how much it amuses me.
@emma
wow.
1) sweden isn’t all of europe.
2) a study of 12 whole countries. Much scientific very source so wow.
3) and this might just be my reading comprehension fail (my attention span actually is shot atm) but I cannot for my life find the link to the actual study.
A scientific example of 80’s males
emma: that doesn’t exactly bolster your point. Hypermasculinity is not a uniquely American thing, there’s lots of flavors the world over.
@hellkell
http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/parent-leave-report1.pdf
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/10/31/why-scandinavian-women-make-the-rest-of-the-world-jealous/
Marie: there wasn’t a link to it.