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alpha males creepy emotional abuse evil sexy ladies evil short-haired women gaslighting grandiosity imaginary oppression men who should not ever be with women ever misogyny MRA PUA

Note to clueless misogynistic dating coaches: Vogue magazine does not run handjob how-to's as cover stories

Note: The real world is not a romance comic.
Note: The real world is not a romance comic.

The We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive continues! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.) Thanks! And thanks again to all who’ve already donated.

 

After all of the depressing stuff from recent days, here’s something a little lighter: A heartwarming story of misogynist gullibility, and yet another reminder that the evil feminazi double standards that the manospherians think they’re fighting exist only in their own fevered imaginations.

So last night, as a result of a rather nasty contretemps in the comments here, I was going through some old comments, and I discovered that one recently banned troll has a little blog of his own. Curious, I went and checked it out, and discovered that the obnoxious fellow, one “Ronnie Libra,” fancies himself a “dating coach.” And he’d just posted a rant defending pickup artists from accusations of being the creepy, manipulative predators that we know a lot of them are.

Here was his defense:

Pickup Artists are widely considered people who use tactics and techniques to try and “manipulate” members of the opposite sex into bed.  Predatory, manipulative, rape culture, creepy…

Where else have we seen that before?

Popular Women’s Magazines perhaps?

As proof of this matriarchal manipulation, he posted the covers of three women’s magazines, adorned with pictures of sexy celebs and covered with headlines promising women guidance on how best to enslave men with their sexy sexiness.

But let’s look at some of these Mainstream Articles in these Popular women’s magazines.

Article Titles like:

Get Men to do your bidding without being a Nag

Get in his head and in his bed!

Christina Hendricks:  How she chased her man and got him!

How to disappear without a trace.

The Sex position that will Put a Ring on your Finger.

Football and poker will improve your relationship.  Find out how!

And a whole host of ways to manipulate men through sex.

It took me literally 3 minutes to pull of 3 random women’s magazine covers without even skimming for what the content of the covers would be. …

Am I complaining?  Am I saying there’s something wrong with all of this?  NOPE!  As a matter of fact, I am very far from the hypocritical crowd out there spouting out how men learning tactics and techniques or even just improving their lives inside and out is somehow creepy, misogynistic, women hating, rape culture.  If that were the case than women have been rapey, men hating, creepsters since before I was born.

No.  Men and women trying to become more attractive to the opposite sex is AWESOME! … Women and Men are playing the same game, and the fact is, the WOMEN have been making the rules for a long time. …

[T]his double standard that what is great for women to do is evil for men to do just needs to be put to rest.

There’s just one teensy problem with Ronnie’s argument: two of the three magazine covers that Ronnie used to prove his point were obvious, ridiculous fakes. Here they are:

if_men_wrote_womens_magazines_00womens-magazines-instyle

 

Yep. Apparently Ronnie thinks that Vogue runs cover stories on “The Lost Art of the Handjob,” and that InStyle is obsessed with telling women not to cut their hair because guys like women’s hair long.

You may notice that in addition to being festooned with headlines that sound like they were written not by sneaky sexually manipulative women but rather by a committee of horny dudes, these covers also feature a url on them: coolmaterial.com.

Using the sophisticated internet research technique of typing this url into my browser and, upon reaching the site in question, typing the words “women’s magazines” into the search box, I discovered that these covers were taken from a couple of “humor” features imagining what women’s magazines would look like … if they were written by men.

The basic joke behind them all: how can we convince these silly women to bend over backwards and forwards to please men sexually, while making them think they’re empowering themselves? Hell, there’s even a freaking sandwich joke on that fake InStyle cover.

And seriously, Ronnie, the NAME OF THE IMAGE FILE for the ScarJo cover, the image you posted on your blog and that I’ve reposted here, is if_men_wrote_womens_magazines_00.jpg. How did that not tip you off?

It’s true that women’s magazines do offer sex tips– shocking, I know — and, heck, I even found a handjob how-to in Vogue’s downmarket rival Glamour. But how is that in any way comparable to the manipulative and pedatory techniques favored by so many PUAs? Offering advice on how to please your partner in bed is about as innocuous as providing recipes for delicious food that people will enjoy eating. It’s nothing like the creepy gaslighting and routine boundary-violation regularly recommended by PUAs. Dread Game, anyone?

It’s also true that a couple of the headlines that Ronnie quotes are taken from the one real cover he posted, that of the May 2012 issue of the UK edition of Cosmopolitan. But tellingly, one of these quotes is actually a misquote. Cosmo wasn’t offering sneaky women advice on “how to disappear without a trace” – presumably with a briefcase full of pilfered cash and a vial of some poor man’s sperm. The actual headline?

Cosmo investigates: How can a woman disappear without a trace?

Yes, that’s right: it was an investigative report about a woman’s disappearance. I couldn’t find the piece itself on the Cosmopolitan UK website, which only puts limited stuff from its print editions online, though I found a more recent news story there about a missing woman who has been in the news a good deal in the UK. The American edition of Cosmo has also run investigative reports on missing women.

I’m not quite sure how Ronnie managed to get the headline so wrong. It’s written in big letters on the cover. Maybe he was distracted by cover girl Christina Hendricks’ cleavage? But it’s a revealing little slip nonetheless, transforming a story about a woman missing and possibly murdered into how-to guide to female deception.

More proof that these guys see just what they want to see – even if what they’re seeing is a joke, or entirely a product of their own imagination

Note to Ronnie: If you’d like to defend yourself here. I’ll unban your and let your comments through, just so long as they stay withing my comment guidelines.

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Lea
Lea
10 years ago

The idea that a man might fear being lied about in the morning (something that rarely ever happens to men) and that it is equivalent to a woman’s fears that she might be raped or even killed in an encounter with a man (something that happens fairly regularly) makes me want to vomit bees.

Stevie
Stevie
10 years ago

My apologies; I should have noted that 3 of the 35 people prosecuted for false allegations of rape were male. So, perhaps guys panicking about evil women wrongly accusing them of rape should extend their panic to evil guys wrongly accusing them of rape…

katz
10 years ago

Yeah, I was trying to be non-offensive about it, similar to a professional debate.

…In a forum that was just talking about cock scrunchies.

katz
10 years ago

I don’t know how the drinks conversation started, but I figured I’d throw in my two cents, which is that making your own soda syrup is super fun.

All you need to do is mix your preferred flavoring agent (I’ve done this with citrus peels and celery seeds, and I’m going to try vanilla and spices) with two parts sugar and one part water, heat and stir until all the sugar dissolves, then bring it to a boil, cover, turn off the heat, and let it steep for an hour.

Strain into a closable container and keep in the fridge. Whenever you want soda, just mix a couple spoonfuls of the syrup with club soda, and you can have any soda flavor you can think of, at any sweetness level you prefer. It’s awesome.

And the flavoring agent ends up candied! If you use citrus peel, you get candied citrus peel, if you use ginger, you get candied ginger, etc. (I highly recommend ginger.)

Howard Bannister
10 years ago

I have been experimenting with mixing my own fruity alcoholic beverages lately, and, whoa, sometimes you can make magic with some fresh fruit and stiff liquor, I tell you what.

And, y’know, the internet, which is full of interesting recipes. Holy crap, is it ever full of interesting recipes.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Food blogs are great, not just because yay good food, but because they seem to be mostly free of the comments being full of angry poo-flinging howler monkeys problem that most of the internet suffers from.

bunnybunny
bunnybunny
10 years ago

I have been experimenting with mixing my own fruity alcoholic beverages lately, and, whoa, sometimes you can make magic with some fresh fruit and stiff liquor, I tell you what.

And, y’know, the internet, which is full of interesting recipes. Holy crap, is it ever full of interesting recipes.

This reminds me of the time in college that I was persuaded by the internet that making “skittles vodka” was a good idea. Either my execution was completely off, or it was just not a good idea to begin with.

Howard Bannister
10 years ago

This reminds me of the time in college that I was persuaded by the internet that making “skittles vodka” was a good idea. Either my execution was completely off, or it was just not a good idea to begin with.

Oh, yeah. The other internet.

😛

bunnybunny
bunnybunny
10 years ago

“Recipes” from meme sites always seem to go south pretty quickly.

Kootiepatra
10 years ago

I just caught up on all the comments. Scrunchies are great to wear to bed, keeping the hair out of my face without giving it that awkward crease from a smaller hair-tie. And I also very much appreciate using them to wrap around a bun and hide the loose ends.

The dive bar would need a carousel, ofc.

Also, I noticed frequent mention of Hello Cthulhu with a bit of Evil Hello Kitty. Could I shamelessly contribute my own project, Ohai Uruk-hai to this mix? http://ohaiuruk-hai.tumblr.com

LBT
LBT
10 years ago

RE: Mother Roshiya

It’s probably their often-heard horror story, like date-rape drugs in our drinks are for us.

Really? Because I know folks who’ve been roofied at bars, but I’ve NEVER met someone who had someone cry rape. I actually personally know more RAPISTS than I do people who’ve been falsely accused. And none of those actual rapists ever faced any sort of trouble whatosever, unlike my poor date-raped friends. (The woman who got roofied was my roommate; she spent the night vomiting and had to be carried home by friends, who thankfully got between her and her attempted rapist.)

if a women yells rape, she’s more likely to be taken seriously than a guy who cries rape

*laughs* Oh really? In my experience, NOBODY is taken seriously when they “cry rape.” I say this as a male rape survivor.

cloudiah
10 years ago

Food blogs are great, not just because yay good food, but because they seem to be mostly free of the comments being full of angry poo-flinging howler monkeys problem that most of the internet suffers from.

Maybe we should use them in defense against our next influx of poo-flinging howler monkey-trolls? We can add them to the arsenal: talking about bras, etc.

Unimaginative
Unimaginative
10 years ago

Food blogs are great, not just because yay good food, but because they seem to be mostly free of the comments being full of angry poo-flinging howler monkeys problem that most of the internet suffers from.

Yeah, there’s some poo-flinging in the paleo blogs. YER DOIN IT RONGGGG! Also, a bizarrely large number of paleo-ers also seem to be MRA-type libertarians. It’s almost enough to make me abandon the concept, except that I feel so much better when I eat this way.

Marie
Marie
10 years ago

Feminist dive bar sounds awesome! 😀 I didn’t have any suggestions, but it was great to read.

@Mother Roshiya

And I can’t say completely no, only because if a women yells rape, she’s more likely to be taken seriously than a guy who cries rape, and some women aren’t above using the rape card to blackmail guys into doing what they want.

Spoiler space: if you use the words ‘cries rape’ seriously in a sentence, there is a 100% chance you’re a terrible human being.

@falconer

AWw, your kids are so cute! :3 And they’re walking now!

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Yeah, I guess paleo, Atkins, and vegan blogs probably do have some shitty behavior in the comments. The only food blogs I read are the “here are some tasty recipes you could try, possibly with some background info about where the recipes come from” ones, so the comments are mostly “tried this and it was great!” or “can you use olive oil instead of butter?
.

cloudiah
10 years ago

I missed new falconer baby photos!!!

:: scrolls up ::

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

contrapangloss
10 years ago

Kootiepatra, that is adorable! Much love for the staring into round objects one.

Buttercup Q. Skullpants
Buttercup Q. Skullpants
10 years ago

When did your divorce from this reality become final?

Once you divorce reality, it whines endlessly about child support.

weirwoodtreehugger
10 years ago

The people that push the Paleo diet are the worst! Not everyone who does the diet (I don’t mean you Unimaginative), just the people who push it. I was told by someone once that my body is weak and sick because I don’t digest red meat well and I am an addict because I am disinclined to give up cheese and alcohol.

Plus there’s the whole fact that it’s based in pseudo science. Different hunter gatherers had different diets depending on where they lived. The crops and animals we eat now are vastly different than what they ate. It isn’t true that our gut flora is the same as Paleolithic people. Digestive systems do change over time to accommodate diets. That’s why the first people to eat dairy (northern Europeans) are best at digesting it. Japanese people can digest seaweed better than everyone else. Also, there are still hunter gatherer tribes around today and they actually are not in better health than us.

Why can’t we all just eat what we like and/or makes us feel best? Not everyone’s body is the same. Why do people get invested in what others eat anyway?

Not only is there an overlap between Paleo diet and MRA/libertarian people they also tend to be crossfit pushers. Ick.

Marie
Marie
10 years ago

@weirdwoodtreehugger

I was told by someone once that my body is weak and sick because I don’t digest red meat well and I am an addict because I am disinclined to give up cheese and alcohol.

um, wow O_o

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

I remember when an Atkins-loving coworker told me that carrots were unhealthy and I should stop eating them (and the rest of the Chinese stir-fry I was happily chowing down on), while consuming her super-healthy lunch of processed cheese sticks and sliced hot dogs. Hey, low carb!

Nequam
Nequam
10 years ago

Back to soda syrups a moment: I picked up a book called Homemade Soda: 200 Recipes for Making & Using Fruit Sodas … & Other Carbonated Concoctions (it has a stupidly long subtitle which I am not going to reproduce here). Some of the recipes are for brewing soda, others for making syrups… including a peanut butter cream (!!) syrup that’s surprisingly good (unless you’re allergic, of course).

Fibinachi
10 years ago

Someone mentioned Skittles Vodka?

I have been summoned!

Thats a… Nice carpet… I’m just… Gonna lie down here… Sleep it off

Ally S
10 years ago

Just curious, what exactly is the definition of a PUA (Pick Up Artist)? Is it ANYONE who attempts to help young men who have trouble connecting romantically with women? Or only those steeped in misogynistic language or who use techniques like negging?

The latter. No one here is criticizing PUAs for trying to help out young men. They’re criticizing PUAs because PUAs want to train young men to be entitled, misogynistic shitstains with an inclination to sexually abuse women.

Is it possible to write a book or curriculum to help romantically challenged men that won’t be viewed as misogynistic pick up “artistry” by feminists?

Yes.

weirwoodtreehugger
10 years ago

I’ve also seen people on the internet claim that fruit is unhealthy because the fructose in it is just as unhealthy as processed sugars in junk food. It’s just baffling.

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